scholarly journals Bridging research integrity and global health epidemiology (BRIDGE) guidelines: explanation and elaboration

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. e003237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Alba ◽  
Annick Lenglet ◽  
Kristien Verdonck ◽  
Johanna Roth ◽  
Rutuja Patil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Research Integrity ◽  
Global Health Research ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
The Past ◽  
Detailed Explanation ◽  
Fairness Principles

Over the past decade, two movements have profoundly changed the environment in which global health epidemiologists work: research integrity and research fairness. Both ought to be equally nurtured by global health epidemiologists who aim to produce high quality impactful research. Yet bridging between these two aspirations can lead to practical and ethical dilemmas. In the light of these reflections we have proposed the BRIDGE guidelines for the conduct of fair global health epidemiology, targeted at stakeholders involved in the commissioning, conduct, appraisal and publication of global health research. The guidelines follow the conduct of a study chronologically from the early stages of study preparation until the dissemination and communication of findings. They can be used as a checklist by research teams, funders and other stakeholders to ensure that a study is conducted in line with both research integrity and research fairness principles. In this paper we offer a detailed explanation for each item of the BRIDGE guidelines. We have focused on practical implementation issues, making this document most of interest to those who are actually conducting the epidemiological work.

scholarly journals Bridging research integrity and global health epidemiology (BRIDGE) statement: guidelines for good epidemiological practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. e003236
Author(s):  
Sandra Alba ◽  
Kristien Verdonck ◽  
Annick Lenglet ◽  
Susan F Rumisha ◽  
Martijn Wienia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Research Integrity ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Global Health Research ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Protocol Development ◽  
Development Data ◽  
Collection Data ◽  
Mutual Accountability

BackgroundResearch integrity and research fairness have gained considerable momentum in the past decade and have direct implications for global health epidemiology. Research integrity and research fairness principles should be equally nurtured to produce high-quality impactful research—but bridging the two can lead to practical and ethical dilemmas. In order to provide practical guidance to researchers and epidemiologist, we set out to develop good epidemiological practice guidelines specifically for global health epidemiology, targeted at stakeholders involved in the commissioning, conduct, appraisal and publication of global health research.MethodsWe developed preliminary guidelines based on targeted online searches on existing best practices for epidemiological studies and sought to align these with key elements of global health research and research fairness. We validated these guidelines through a Delphi consultation study, to reach a consensus among a wide representation of stakeholders.ResultsA total of 45 experts provided input on the first round of e-Delphi consultation and 40 in the second. Respondents covered a range of organisations (including for example academia, ministries, NGOs, research funders, technical agencies) involved in epidemiological studies from countries around the world (Europe: 19; Africa: 10; North America: 7; Asia: 5; South-America: 3 Australia: 1). A selection of eight experts were invited for a face-to-face meeting. The final guidelines consist of a set of 6 standards and 42 accompanying criteria including study preparation, protocol development, data collection, data management, data analysis, dissemination and communication.ConclusionWhile guidelines will not by themselves guard global health from questionable and unfair research practices, they are certainly part of a concerted effort to ensure not only mutual accountability between individual researchers, their institutions and their funders but most importantly their joint accountability towards the communities they study and society at large.

Building Research Teams

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Peach
Keyword(s):  
Common Goal ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Building Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collective Activity ◽  
Research Administrators ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Century Science

This chapter discusses the process of building research teams. Increasingly over the past three-quarters of a century, science has become a collective activity, with teams of tens, hundreds or even thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians working together on a common goal. Consequently, almost all research involves building, motivating and maintaining a research team. Even a theoretical group is likely to have one or two postdocs, graduate students and visitors, but research teams will, in addition, have engineers and technicians, as well as, possibly, research administrators. The chapter also addresses the importance of creating and maintaining a good team and team spirit, as large projects are assembled from a large number of small teams working on common goals, usually in a loose federated structure with some overall coordination and leadership.

Mapping Power

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Government Reform ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Political Economy Analysis

Electricity is critical to enabling India’s economic growth and providing a better future for its citizens. In spite of several decades of reform, the Indian electricity sector is unable to provide high-quality and affordable electricity for all, and grapples with the challenge of poor financial and operational performance. To understand why, Mapping Power provides the most comprehensive analysis of the political economy of electricity in India’s states. With chapters on fifteen states by scholars of state politics and electricity, this volume maps the political and economic forces that constrain and shape decisions in electricity distribute on. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it concludes that attempts to depoliticize the sector are misplaced and could worsen outcomes. Instead, it suggests that a historically grounded political economy analysis helps understand the past and devise reforms to simultaneously improve sectoral outcomes and generate political rewards. These arguments have implications for the challenges facing India’s electricity future, including providing electricity to all, implementing government reform schemes, and successfully managing the rise of renewable energy.

scholarly journals Sharing power in global health research: an ethical toolkit for designing priority-setting processes that meaningfully include communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Priority Setting ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Reflective Equilibrium ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Global Health Research ◽  
Research Priority ◽  
Health Research Priority Setting

AbstractTo promote social justice and equity, global health research should meaningfully engage communities throughout projects: from setting agendas onwards. But communities, especially those that are considered disadvantaged or marginalised, rarely have a say in the priorities of the research projects that aim to help them. So far, there remains limited ethical guidance and resources on how to share power with communities in health research priority-setting. This paper presents an “ethical toolkit” for academic researchers and their community partners to use to design priority-setting processes that meaningfully include the communities impacted by their projects. An empirical reflective equilibrium approach was employed to develop the toolkit. Conceptual work articulated ethical considerations related to sharing power in g0l0o0bal health research priority-setting, developed guidance on how to address them, and created an initial version of the toolkit. Empirical work (51 in-depth interviews, 1 focus group, 2 case studies in India and the Philippines) conducted in 2018 and 2019 then tested those findings against information from global health research practice. The final ethical toolkit is a reflective project planning aid. It consists of 4 worksheets (Worksheet 1- Selecting Partners; Worksheet 2- Deciding to Partner; Worksheet 3- Deciding to Engage with the Wider Community; Worksheet 4- Designing Priority-setting) and a Companion Document detailing how to use them. Reflecting on and discussing the questions in Worksheets 1 to 4 before priority-setting will help deliver priority-setting processes that share power with communities and projects with research topics and questions that more accurately reflect their healthcare and system needs.

scholarly journals Levels of Evidence in Rhinology and Skull Base Surgery Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 019459982098713
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Silver ◽  
Marco Mascarella ◽  
George Tali ◽  
Rickul Varshney ◽  
Marc A. Tewfik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skull Base ◽  
Skull Base Surgery ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Levels Of Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Surgery Research ◽  
Based Medicine

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of evidence of rhinology and rhinologic skull base surgery (RSBS) research and its evolution over the past decade. Study Design Review article. Setting We reviewed articles from 2007 to 2019 in 4 leading peer-reviewed otolaryngology journals and 3 rhinology-specific journals. Methods The articles were reviewed and levels of evidence were assigned using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 guidelines. High quality was defined as level of evidence 1 or 2. Results In total, 1835 articles were reviewed in this study spanning a 13-year period. Overall, the absolute number of RSBS publications increased significantly 22.6% per year, from 108 articles in 2007 to 481 in 2019 ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.9-37.2). In 2007, only 13 articles, or 15%, were high quality, and this grew to 146 articles, or 39%, in 2019. A 14.0% per year exponential increase in the number of high-quality publications was found to be statistically significant ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.2, 20.7). Overall, high-quality publications represented just 25.8% of RSBS articles overall. There was no significant difference in quality between rhinology-specific journals and general otolaryngology journals (χ2 = 3.1, P = .077). Conclusion The number of overall publications and of high-quality RSBS publications has significantly increased over the past decade. However, the proportion of high-quality studies continues to represent a minority of total RSBS research.

Researchers slam UK cuts to global health research

The Lancet ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 397 (10280) ◽  
pp. 1168-1170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqui Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Global Health Research

scholarly journals The two-sided spectacle at the border: Frontex, NGOs and the theatres of sovereignty

2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062110078
Author(s):  
Katja Franko
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
The Past ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
A Site ◽  
Previous Scholarship

The Southern Mediterranean border has in the past decade become one of the most deeply contested political spaces in Europe and has been described as a site of the border spectacle. Drawing on textual and visual analysis of Twitter messages by two of the most prominent actors in the field, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, and the humanitarian and medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, the article examines the split nature of the Mediterranean border which is, among others, visible in radically different narratives about migrants’ journeys, border deaths and living conditions. The findings challenge previous scholarship about convergence of humanitarianism and policing. The two actors are waging a fierce media battle for moral authority, where they use widely diverging strategies of claiming authority, each of which carries a particular set of ethical dilemmas.

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