Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
This week Research.com, a prominent academic platform, published its 2022 Edition of the Ranking of Top 1000 Scientists in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities. Professor Edwin van Teijlingen, in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH), is listed as number 234 in United Kingdom ranking as well as number 1238 in the Social Sciences and Humanities world ranking.
Congratulations to Dr. Rachel Arnold in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the publication today of her paper ‘Why use Appreciative Inquiry? Lessons learned during COVID-19 in a UK maternity service‘ [1]. This methodological paper is co-authored with Dr. Clare Gordon who holds a has joint clinical academic post at UCLan and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, with a focus on developing clinically focused stroke research, education and improvement. 
Clare is also a former BU Ph.D. student. Further co-authors from CMMPH are Professors Sue Way and Edwin van Teijlingen. The final co-author, Dr. Preeti Mahato, finished her post in CMMPH two days ago to start her Lectureship in Global Health at Royal Holloway (part of the University of London).
The paper highlights that selecting the most appropriate research method is an important decision in any study. It affects the type of study questions that can be answered. In addition, the research method will have an impact on the participants – how much of their time it takes, whether the questions seem important to them and whether there is any benefit in taking part. This is especially important when conducting research with staff in health services. This article is a reflection on the process of using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in a study that explored staff well-being in a UK maternity unit. The authors discuss our experience of using AI,the strengths and limitations of this approach, and conclude with points to consider if you are thinking about using AI. Although a study team was actively involved in decisions, this paper is largely based on reflections by dr. Arnold, the researcher conducting the field work in the maternity services.
Reference:
This month CMMPH has two new research papers focusing on COVID-19. The first one published in World Medical & Health Policy reports on a quantitative study of the availability of hand-washing facilities in households across Nepal [1]. This study used secondary data from Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2016 to assess the association between households’ wealth status to handwashing stations. The findings reported a statistically significant association between age of the household head, residence place, ecological zone, province, wealth status, having of mosquito net, having a radio, and TV at respondents’ household to fixed hand-washing stations at their households.
The second paper published three days ago in Vaccines is a qualitative study of of interviews with Nepali immigrants living in the UK and their attitudes towards COVD-19 vaccination [2]. Vaccination saves lives and can be an effective strategy for preventing the spread of the COVID-19, but negative attitudes towards vaccines lead to vaccine hesitancy. This study aimed to explore the factors influencing the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Nepali community in the UK. This study found that attitudes towards COVID-19 are generally positive. Nine overlapping themes around barriers to COVID-19 vaccination were identified: (a) rumours and mis/disinformation; (b) prefer home remedies and yoga; (c) religion restriction; (d) concern towards vaccine eligibility; (e) difficulty with online vaccine booking system; (f) doubts of vaccine effectiveness after changing the second dose timeline; (g) lack of confidence in the vaccine; (h) past bad experience with the influenza vaccine; and (i) worried about side-effects. Understanding barriers to the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine can help in the design of better targeted interventions. Public health messages including favourable policy should be tailored to address those barriers and make this vaccination programme more viable and acceptable to the ethnic minority communities in the UK. This Vaccine paper includes two FHSS Visiting Faculty as co-authors: Prof. Padam Simkhada and Dr. Bibha Simkhada.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
References:
ESRC Festival of Social Science is an annual, UK-wide, free celebration of the social sciences, planned to take place from 22 October – 13 November 2022. BU have been involved in the festival for over a decade, running our own internal selection process and delivering up to ten activities per year.
The theme set by the ESRC for this year’s festival is ‘my local area’’ and the ESRC wants to see at least a quarter of festival events based on this. This could be an exploration of Dorset’s social and economic history, the future of Bournemouth High Street, issues around deprivation in coastal towns or rural isolation. The theme is linked to the place-based agenda, which is a priority area for ESRC and UKRI. We encourage you to think broadly around this and we are happy for you to decide how far away you consider ‘local’ to be.
The festival aims to encourage, support and create opportunities for social science researchers to engage with non-academic audiences. It is a prestigious initiative by a major research funder, and BU’s continued involvement is justified by the quality of events and activities. Being part of this festival is an achievement worth citing and celebrating.
It is an excellent opportunity to engage people outside of academia with your research and with the benefit of co-ordinated support and promotion from RDS and the ESRC.
Events must “feature social science (ideally with a social scientist involved in the event)”. If this doesn’t clearly apply to you, consider these options;
Before applying, you will have access to:
When your application is successful, you will receive:
If you have any questions, please email the public engagement team.
This past three weeks Bournemouth University (BU) has strengthened our existing collaboration with MMIHS (Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Science) in Kathmandu. Until 2023 we have a staff and student Erasmus+ student exchange with MMIHS. Currently one FHSS PhD student is in Nepal at MMIHS as part of this Erasmus+ exchange. Two weeks Dr. Pramod Regmi, Senior Lecturer in International Health, was here for the GCRF-funded health and migration workshop which was organised in Kathmandu jointly with MMIHS. See the BU Research Blog of 15th April for more details (click here!). 
Yesterday Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen met colleagues from the UK and Nepal at MMIHS to analyse some of the data from the Nepal Federal Health System Project. This three-year major collaborative project examines the consequences for the health system of Nepal’s move to a federal government structure in 2015. This is a joint project led by the University of Sheffield with Bournemouth University, the University of Huddersfield, and two institutions in Nepal: MMIHS and PHASE Nepal. This interdisciplinary study is funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative [Grant ref. MR/T023554/1]. 
At BU we are looking forward to welcoming MSc students and academic staff from MMIHS to BU as part of this exchange. We hope to generate interest among Nepalese postgraduate student to apply for a PhD place at BU.
Last, but not least, last week Prof. Vanora Hundley and I launched the book Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences in Kathmandu. This textbook has three chapter authors who are currently (or were recently) affiliated with MMIHS: Prof. Sujan Marahatta, Dr. Pratik Adhikary and Dr. Yubaraj Baral.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
Wasti, S.P., van Teijlingen, E., Simkhada, P.P., Hundley, V. with Shreesh, K. (Eds.) (2022) Academic Writing and Publishing in Health & Social Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal: Himal Books. [ISBN: 9789937117609]
ESRC Festival of Social Science is an annual, UK-wide, free celebration of the social sciences, planned to take place from 22 October – 13 November 2022. BU have been involved in the festival for over a decade, running our own internal selection process and delivering up to ten activities per year.
The theme set by the ESRC for this year’s festival is ‘my local area’’ and the ESRC wants to see at least a quarter of festival events based on this. This could be an exploration of Dorset’s social and economic history, the future of Bournemouth High Street, issues around deprivation in coastal towns or rural isolation. The theme is linked to the place-based agenda, which is a priority area for ESRC and UKRI. We encourage you to think broadly around this and we are happy for you to decide how far away you consider ‘local’ to be.
The festival aims to encourage, support and create opportunities for social science researchers to engage with non-academic audiences. It is a prestigious initiative by a major research funder, and BU’s continued involvement is justified by the quality of events and activities. Being part of this festival is an achievement worth citing and celebrating.
It is an excellent opportunity to engage people outside of academia with your research and with the benefit of co-ordinated support and promotion from RDS and the ESRC.
Events must “feature social science (ideally with a social scientist involved in the event)”. If this doesn’t clearly apply to you, consider these options;
Before applying, you will have access to:
When your application is successful, you will receive:
If you have any questions, please email the public engagement team.
The festival aims to encourage, support and create opportunities for social science researchers to engage with non-academic audiences. It is a prestigious initiative by a major research funder, and BU’s continued involvement is justified by the quality of events and activities. Being part of this festival is an achievement worth citing and celebrating.
It is an excellent opportunity to engage people outside of academia with your research and with the benefit of co-ordinated support and promotion from RDS and the ESRC.
The theme set by the ESRC for this year’s festival is ‘my local area’. The ESRC want to see at least a quarter of festival events on this theme.
Events must “feature social science (ideally with a social scientist involved in the event)”. If this doesn’t clearly apply to you, consider these options;
Before applying, you will have access to:
When your application is successful, you will receive:
If you have any questions, please email the public engagement team.
This year’s BNAC (Britain-Nepal Academic Council) Study Days are hosted by the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford. 
The Study Days are held today (14th April) and yesterday. BNAC promotes academic and scholarly links between Britain and Nepal through, among other things, collaborative research, exchange programmes, and the organisation of annual lectures, and seminars on areas of mutual interest to both British and Nepali academics and researchers.
Three presentations at this two-day event are co-produced by BU colleagues.
Today say the start of the Eight National Summit of Health & Population Scientists in Nepal. Bournemouth University is involved in two presentation. The first will be one by University of Huddersfield PhD student Tamang Pasang, and her supervisors Prof. Padam Simkhada (FHSS Visiting Faculty), Dr. Bibha Simkhada (former BU Lecturer in Nursing and current FHSS Visiting Faculty) and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen. Pasang will be talking about her thesis fieldwork: ‘Impact of Federalisation in Maintaining Quality of Maternal and Neonatal Care in Nepalese Health System’.
The second presentation will focus of the Nepal Federal Health System Project, our major collaborative project examining the consequences for the health system of Nepal’s move to a federal government structure in 2015. This is a joint project led by the University of Sheffield with Bournemouth University, the University of Huddersfield, and two institutions in Nepal: Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences MMIHS) and PHASE Nepal. This interdisciplinary study is funded by the UK Health Systems Research Initiative [Grant ref.
MR/T023554/1].
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternity & Perinatal Health (CMMPH)
The call for applications for this year’s ESRC Festival of Social Science is now open – deadline Fri 29 April.
The ESRC Festival of Social Science is an annual, UK-wide, free celebration of the social sciences, planned to take place from 22 October – 13 November 2022. BU have been involved in the festival for over a decade, running our own internal selection process and delivering up to ten activities per year.
The festival aims to encourage, support and create opportunities for social science researchers to engage with non-academic audiences.
The festival is a prestigious initiative by a major research funder, and BU’s continued involvement is justified by the quality of our events and activities. Being part of this festival is an achievement worth citing and celebrating. 
It is an excellent opportunity to engage people outside of academia with your research and with the benefit of co-ordinated support and promotion from RDS and the ESRC.
You can apply for up to £1000 to deliver your project.
The theme set by the ESRC for this year’s festival is ‘my local area’. The ESRC want to see at least a quarter of festival events on this theme.
Although encouraged, adhering to this theme is not essential for your proposal. Other social science themes are still welcome.
The ESRC expect to see the majority (>80%) of events targeted at ‘general public’ and youth audiences. This means people attending out of a personal interest in the topic, rather than in a professional capacity.
There is scope for a small minority (<20%) of activities targeting professional stakeholder audiences, for example, people whose work uses your research. Bearing in mind the limited capacity and higher competition for such proposals aimed at professional audiences, your application would need to be outstanding to merit inclusion.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is the ideal place. You’ll have access to comprehensive support, advice and training throughout. If you’re unsure, seek out a more experienced colleague to collaborate with.
The ESRC says that events must “feature social science (ideally with a social scientist involved in the event)”. If this doesn’t clearly apply to you, consider these options;
You’ll be expected to;
Being part of this festival means a higher level of support and reach than we are normally able to provide.
Before applying, you’ll have access to:
When your application is successful, you’ll get:
If you’re interested in applying, here’s what to do next;
We’ll provide more information on applying to the ESRC Festival of Social Science on this blog and the PER Network over the coming weeks. If you have a question in the meantime, please email the team.
We are dedicating this meeting of the BU Public Engagement with Research (PER) Network to helping you apply for the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2022, an annual celebration of the social sciences.
In this session we will explain more about the festival and how to apply through our internal process – opening on Monday 28 March. We will also hear from academics who have previously held events and activities as part of the festival, who will share their experiences and advice.
Find out more about the Festival of Social Science, including who is eligible and how much funding and support you could receive.
We will also share other news on public engagement from BU.
The meeting will take place on Thursday 31 March 12-1pm, on Teams.
To join this meeting and find out about future ones, join our BU Public Engagement with Research Network. Check under ‘Meetings’ for upcoming sessions.
If you have any questions, please email the team.
Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey who was cited last week in The Daily Telegraph in an article with the underlying question whether Vladimir Putin is experiencing so-called “roid rage” from steroid treatment. This theory has been suggested by by Western intelligence services. Orlanda’s PhD study at Bournemouth University focused on men using anabolic androgenic steroids for non-medical use. She published several academic papers on the topic [1-3].
References:
In late 2021 I was contacted by an Indonesian science journalist, Dyna Rochmyaningsih, who was investigating the ethics around international studies on human population genetics to build expand genomic libraries of people in the Global South. She highlights that “these international studies, often led by Western scientists, have contributed to a more global understanding of ancient patterns of human migration and evolution. But on some occasions, they’ve also sidestepped local regulatory agencies in the developing world, and ventured into murky research ethics terrain as a result”. The reason for contacting me was because we had published several papers here at Bournemouth University about the need for applying for ethical approval for research in developing countries [1-3]. I had a long Skype conversation with her about the various perspectives on the matter she was investigating
.
Today she emailed me that her piece ‘Opinion: Genomics’ Ethical Gray Areas Are Harming the Developing World. A recent controversy in the Philippines illustrates the pitfalls and pressure points of international genomics research‘ has been published online. In the email she made a really nice comment: “It was nice talking to you even though you might see that I disagree at some of your points. However, the discussion gave me insights that there is a wide disagreement on what considers ethical research.” I think that is what science should be all about, disagreements, discussions, disputes, etc. and, at the same time, learning from these disputes and gaining greater insight.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Regmi, P. R., Aryal, N., Kurmi, O., Pant, P. R., van Teijlingen, E., & Wasti, S. P. (2017). Informed Consent in Health Research: Challenges and Barriers in Low-and Middle-Income Countries with Specific Reference to Nepal. Developing World Bioethics, 17(2), 84–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/dewb.12123
Congratulations to Bournemouth University’s PhD student Sulochana Dhakal-Rai on the publication today of the latest paper from her research thesis. This latest paper ‘Factors contributing to rising cesarean section rates in South Asian countries: A systematic review‘ has been published in the Asian Journal of Medical Sciences [1].
The paper is part of her PhD study of the rising CS rate in Nepal. This systematic review is co-authored with her BU PhD supervisors, Dr. Juliet Wood, Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen as well as her Nepal-based supervisors Dr. Ganesh Dangel (FHSS Visiting Faculty) and Dr. Keshar Bahadur Dhakal. This is the sixth paper from Sulochana’s interesting and highly topical PhD thesis. The previous five were published in 2018, 2019 and 2021 [2-6].
Congratulations!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Reminder: The Funding Development Briefing will be on Wednesday at 12 noon. The Leverhulme are visiting the session.
They will cover:
For those unable to attend the session, slides will be shared on Brightspace here. But the session will not be recorded.
Invites for these sessions have been disseminated via your Heads of Department. If you do not have these in your diary and wish to attend please contact Alexandra Pekalski apekalski@bournemouth.ac.uk
Congratulations to Jane Healy and Rosslyn Dray, both in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work on their publication today in The Journal of Adult Protection. Their paper’ Missing links: Safeguarding and disability hate crime responses’ considers the relationship between disability hate crime and safeguarding adults [1]. It critically considers whether safeguarding responses to disability hate crime have changed following the implementation of the Care Act 2014. Historically, protectionist responses to disabled people may have masked the scale of hate crime and prevented them from seeking legal recourse through the criminal justice system (CJS). This paper investigates whether agencies are working together effectively to tackle hate crime. The authors conclude that raising the profile of disability hate crime within safeguarding teams could lead to achieving more effective outcomes for adults at risk: improving confidence in reporting, identifying perpetrators of hate crimes, enabling the CJS to intervene and reducing the risk of further targeted abuse on the victim or wider community.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
- Healy, J.C.,Dray, R. (2022), Missing links: safeguarding and disability hate crime responses, The Journal of Adult Protection, Online first ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-09-2021-0030
Our team of health and social science researchers reached a record 25 publications focusing on health and migration in Nepal. The team comprises members from three different departments in FHSS. Dr. Preeti Mahato, Post Doctoral Researcher, and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen are both based in the Department of Midwifery & Health Sciences, Dr. Pramod Regmi, is Senior Lecturer in International Health and Interim Global Engagement Lead in the Department of Nursing Sciences, Dr. Shovita Dhakal Adhikari is Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work. Their collaborators include, among others: FHSS Visiting Faculty Prof. Padam Simkhada, Dr. Pratik Adhikary, Dr. Bibha Sinkhada, and Dr. Nirmal Aryal. The team was also instrumental in establishing the ‘‘Health Research Network for Migrant Workers in Asia’. The 25 publications are listed below [1-25].
References:
Congratulations to Dr. Orlanda Harvey in the Department of Social Sciences & Social Work, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science and FHSS Visiting Faculty Jillian Ireland, Professional Midwifery Advocate in Poole Maternity Hospital (UHD/University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust) whose paper ‘Co-authors, colleagues, and contributors: Complexities in collaboration and sharing lessons on academic writing‘ was published today.[1] 
The paper argues that academic writing, especially in the health field, is usually an interdisciplinary team effort. It highlights some of the trials, tribulations, and benefits of working with co-authors. This includes collaborations and co-authorship between academics from different disciplines, academics of different level of careers, and authors from countries of varying economies i.e., high-income countries (HICs) and from low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper also provides advice in the form of several useful tips to lead authors and co-authors to support collaborative working. Our other co-authors are: Aney Rijal, postgraduate student and Executive Editor of the journal Health Prospect based in Nepal, and Alexander van Teijlingen postgraduate student in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland).
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
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