Equality and Equity in Compensating Patient Engagement in Research: A Plea for Exceptionalism

Engaging citizens and patients in research has become a truism in many fields of health research. It is now seen as a laudable—if not compulsory—activity in research for yielding more impactful and meaningful citizen/patient outcomes and steering research in the right direction. Although this research approach is increasingly common and commendable, we recently encountered a major obstacle in obtaining an ethics certificate from an institutional review board (IRB) to conduct a study that places citizen/patient perspectives on equal footing with those of academic/policy experts. The obstacle was the interpretation of fairness in terms of compensation for research participation (i.e. honoraria). In terms of research ethics, this raised an important question: Should all types of participants be compensated equally, or should exceptions be made for citizen/patient participants? We argue that there are good reasons for exceptionalism and that clearer guidance on citizen/patient engagement in research should be embedded into research ethics doctrine.

The dynamics of working at intersections: Reflections from exploring inequalities

This commentary provides a first-hand account of a year-long collaborative academic–policy synthesis project – Exploring Inequalities: Igniting Research to Better Inform UK Policy – between University College London (UCL) and the Resolution Foundation. We brought together leading experts from over fifty organizations, convened six roundtables and conducted additional in-depth interviews. This collaboration resulted in a series of action notes and a final report, Structurally Unsound (Morris et al., 2019). By reflecting on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of doing this type of project, we reveal the hidden realities of knowledge exchange and open up new possibilities for understanding successes and failures for future projects of this kind.

High-risk human-caused pathogen exposure events from 1975-2016

Biological agents and infectious pathogens have the potential to cause very significant harm, as the natural occurrence of disease and pandemics makes clear. As a way to better understand the risk of Global Catastrophic Biological Risks due to human activities, rather than natural sources, this paper reports on a dataset of 71 incidents involving either accidental or purposeful exposure to, or infection by, a highly infectious pathogenic agent. There has been significant effort put into both reducing the risk of purposeful spread of biological weapons, and biosafety intended to prevent the exposure to, or release of, dangerous pathogens in the course of research. Despite these efforts, there are incidents of various types that could potentially be controlled or eliminated by different lab and/or bioweapon research choices and safety procedures. The dataset of events presented here was compiled during a project conducted in 2019 to better understand biological risks from anthropic sources. The events which are listed are unrelated to clinical treatment of naturally occurring outbreaks, and are instead entirely the result of human decisions and mistakes. While the events cover a wide range of cases, the criteria used covers a variety of events previously scattered across academic, policy, and other unpublished or not generally available sources.

Multi-Substance Use Behaviors: Prevalence and Correlates of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) Use among University Students in Finland

Virtually no studies appraised the co-use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) among Finn undergraduates. We assessed the associations between sociodemographic, health, academic, policy, and lifestyle characteristics (independent variables); and individual, multiple and increasing ATOD use (dependent variables) using regression analyses. Data were collected by online questionnaire at the University of Turku, Finland (1177 students). Roughly 22% of the sample smoked, 21% ever used illicit drug/s, 41% were high frequency drinkers, and 31.4%, 16.3%, and 6.7% reported 1, 2, or 3 ATOD behaviors respectively. Individual ATOD use was significantly positively associated with the use of the other two substances [adjusted odds ratio (Adj OR range 1.893–3.311)]. Multiple ATOD use was negatively associated with being single (p = 0.021) or agreeing with total smoking or alcohol ban policy on campus (p < 0.0001 for each); but positively associated with not living with parents (p = 0.004). Increasing ATOD behaviors were significantly less likely among those agreeing with total smoking or alcohol ban policy on campus (p range 0.024 to <0.0001). Demographics significant to either individual, multiple, or increasing ATOD use included males, being single, not living with their parents during semesters, and to some extent, religiosity. Age, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, self-rated health, health awareness, income sufficiency, and academic variables were not associated with individual, multiple, or increasing ATOD use. Education and prevention efforts need to reinforce abstinence from ATOD, highlight their harmful outcomes, and target risk groups highlighted above. University strategies should be part of the wider country-wide successful ATOD control policies.

HRM Through the Lens of an Academic Policy Maker: An Interview with Professor Dr Aamir Firoz Shamsi

This interview provides an insight into the importance of Human Resource Management (HRM) through the perspective of an academic policymaker. The interview was exploratory and was conducted by considering the role of academic policymakers in the success of the field. The interview has identified vital information on the importance and advancement of HRM, its amalgamation, academia and industry liaison in the development of the HRM curriculum and local contextualisation. The interview also emphasised the factors to achieve HRM optimal growth, concerns to oversee, creation of opportunities, and future challenges and prospects for HRM learners.

Sustaining Ocean Observations: Strategic Messaging and Communications

Arguably the most important outcome of the Sustaining Ocean Observations 2.0 Workshop hosted by the Ocean Studies Board was “Strengthening the Collective Voice: Communicating the Importance of Sustained Ocean Observations.” One of the most significant challenges the ocean observing community faces is articulating the value of ocean information and improving ocean literacy. The Ocean Decade presents a pivotal moment to catalyze new effort and funding that will support strategic and unified messages regarding the role that observations play in society. Led by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership (COL), the proposed strategic messaging and communications initiative will develop consistent, layered, and clear messaging regarding the value of ocean observations. COL will leverage existing interagency programs and trusted partners, along with external academic, policy, and industry collaborators, to obtain funding and other resources to support the initiative. This Ocean-Shot will build on ideas put forth by Ocean Obs’19, the Ocean Best Practices System, and other UN Ocean Decade initiatives. Primary activities will include hiring communications experts, surveying the community and relevant partners to collect input on the role of observations, and identifying messaging gaps. This effort would strengthen the community’s collective voice to demonstrate the value of observations to potential funders, philanthropic or private partners, and governments, and would address the needs of the technology sector.

Border U

In this paper, we take an ontological approach to examining the university as an object of activism. We speculatively theorize a Border University and a Border U. A Border University understands and explains academic policy and policy regimes as a bordering practice expressed through technologies that govern the flow and junctures of social movement. The Border U that we theorize centers the lives and contributions of Latinx (im)migrant communities. Border U emerges through activist opposition to the dominant Border University. In speculating Border University and Border U, we draw heavily upon Thomas Nail’s ontology of motion, theory of the border, and figure of the migrant. Recasting the university within an ontology of motion allows new possibilities for building anew a social institution that can tackle the persistent problems of the past, reconciling them in the present, and preparing for the future, as we try to illustrate in the case of Latinx (im)migrant communities in US higher education.