Express March 2010

March 2010 | Issue 6

One WOrld Week 2010

Round-up and pictures from the annual festival of diversity

Olympic pool for UxbridgeBoris Johnson to open 50m pool and lido

£9 million funding for new Research CentreBrunel leads the UK in innovative high-tech metals research

CreditsExpress is available to read on our website at: www.brunel.ac.uk/ news/express

We’d love to hear from you with ideas for news items, stories or features, as well as any feedback. Please email your ideas or comments to [email protected]

Brunel Publications Editor: Jo Dooher Tel: ext 65154 Email: [email protected]

Contributors: Ann Cummings Emma Filtness

Photography: Sally Trussler Neil Graveney Marianne Bevis

Print: Brunel University Press

Brunel Express | Issue 6 |

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Boris Johnson to open Uxbridge PoolUxbridge finally unveils its new Olympic-

sized pool and revamped lido

P6-9

News in brief

P10-13

One World Week 2010A look at the best bits of this year’s

festival of cultural diversity

P14-15

£9m funding for new Brunel EPSRC CentreProfessor Fan leads the ground-breaking

Centre in metals research

P16-17

Need to improve your study skills? Just ASK!Get to grips with your studies with the

Library’s Academic Skills (ASK) service

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The great ageing debate with David LodgeAcclaimed author debates the issues

of ageing with the BCCW

Back cover

One World Week Photo Competition GalleryThe winners and runners-up in the

challenge for the best pictures of Brunel

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This is how the button should look after it is printed.

This version is for the printer. This is the front of button with orange color that wraps around to the back of the button.

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Brunel University’s Placement Service has won the prestigious ‘Best Placement Service’ accolade at the 2010 National Placement and Internship Awards, run by RateMyPlacement.co.uk.

The University placement service team, led by Michelle

Kavan, was chosen from placement and careers services

across the country for its reputation amongst employers

and for the quantity and quality of initiatives used to

promote placements to students. Both students and

employers nominated Brunel for the prize.

Mohit Malik at Transport for London was just one of

many satisfied employers: “I really get the feeling that the

team have a genuine passion for developing students and

getting them ready for industry.”

Business and Management student Sannah Kahn also

praised the team for helping her find a placement with

Xerox. “So far my experience has been absolutely amazing.

I have learnt lots about the real world, how important

decisions are made and I get to do real work with real

responsibilities. At the PCC everyone was really helpful and

approachable. I was given all the confidence and support

that I needed.”

Jane Standley, Director of the Placement and Careers

Centre, said: “We are particularly thrilled with this award

because it was students and employers who voted for us. It

reflects the energy, enthusiasm and talent not only of the

placement team but of the PCC as a whole. The integration

of services definitely increases their impact.”

The inaugural awards ceremony was held at Oxford

Brookes University and attended by over 100 company and

university representatives. Other winners at the awards

included Aston University, Microsoft and Barclays Capital.

Brunel Placement team is best in Britain

What did you think of your student years at Brunel? After three or four years of study, you’ll surely have views about your course, your teaching experience and the academic support available to you.

If so, make sure your voice is heard in the 2010 National Student Survey (NSS). By taking a few minutes to fill in the survey, you’ll not only help future students understand more about Brunel, you’ll also help the University to understand what it’s doing right and what it could improve in the years to come.

The University has been working hard to improve the student experience and its student satisfaction rating has grown steadily with each year of the NSS. Last year, over 75% of students fully or mostly agreed that they were satisfied overall with their course. However, the University and the Students’ Union aim to do better this year and has further improved teaching support, such as by opening the Library around the clock during term time, and by introducing the Feedback Bug programme to improve the quality of your assessment feedback.

The survey really is very important to the University, so please take a few moments to complete the survey. It closes on 30 April but please complete it earlier if you get a chance. You can access the survey through the email you will have received from the research agency Ipsos-MORI, or by visiting www.thestudentsurvey.com.

Make your voice heard with the National Student Survey BORiS

JOhNSON TO OPEN UxBRiDGE LiDO AND 50m POOL COmPLEx


Attention final year undergraduates!

Students and staff will have on their doorstep some of the best sporting facilities in London, when London Mayor Boris Johnson opens the £31 million pool and leisure complex in Uxbridge this March.

It seems top athletes really are superhuman. Not only can they physically outperform us mere mortals, it now seems they can also think and react quicker than us too.

A new study* by a team of academics at Brunel University and the University of Hong Kong (led by the School of Social Science’s Dr Michael Wright) showed that elite and professional athletes demonstrate greater activity in the cortical regions of their brains while taking part in their particular sport. This increased brain activity means they are faster to observe and react to their opponents’ moves than their novice peers, giving them a split-second advantage in preparing an appropriate response.

The research team analysed both the reaction time and brain activity of badminton players who ranged in ability from recreational to international level. The players were shown video clips of an opposing badminton player striking a shuttlecock and were asked to predict where it would land. Although all the participants showed activation in the cortical regions of the brain associated with observation, understanding and preparation for action, the elite players showed a much higher level of activity, and were able to respond more quickly to the tactics of their opponent.

These observations may have implications for the way athletes train in the future, suggesting that for a sportsperson to triumph over their rival, they need to devote as much attention to their mental agility as they do to their physical strength.

*Published in the latest edition of NeuroReport

Academics reveal link between superior sportsmen and speedy minds

The main attraction will be the 50m Olympic-standard pool with a fully adjustable floor to allow for recreation, training and competitions. The 220ft, Grade II-listed lido complex will also be a big draw during the summer months. The lido has been restored to its former Art Deco splendour, including its 12-sided ‘star’ outdoor swimming pool, the only remaining example of its kind in the country. Other facilities on site include a 100-station gym, sports and dance studios, sauna and steam rooms, and a café.

As well as the recreational benefits to both the Hillingdon and Brunel community, the facilities could help lure sporting talent to the region. The University and Hillingdon Council are working together to attract a major Olympic training team to the area for pre-games training before London 2012. The addition of the pool complex, alongside the accommodation and world-class athletics facilities at the University, makes the area a very attractive prospect to national Olympic teams. A delegation from China, the world’s largest Olympic team, has already visited Brunel and the pool complex to assess their training potential.

Brunel’s own community will also directly benefit from the University’s close relationship with the Council: the School of Sport and Education and the Students’ Union swimming clubs will be able to book lanes in the 50m pool for training and teaching purposes. In addition, NUS card-holding students can take advantage of special concession rates.

The pool complex is located on Gatting Way, just north-west of the town centre, and is a 15-minute walk from Uxbridge tube station or a short bus-ride on the U1 or U2.


The main attractions will be the 50m Olympic-standard pool and the 220ft, Grade ii-listed outdoor lido.

“ “

News in brief


Research Centre

advances

understanding

of chromosome

movement

Researchers in

Brunel’s Centre for

Cell and Chromosome

Biology have revealed

that chromosomes

move much faster within

our cells than had been

thought, advancing knowledge of

chromosome behaviour that could

improve our understanding of

diseases such as premature ageing

and cancer.

Our DNA is organised into

chromosomes, housed in

chromosome territories within the

nuclei of our cells. These territories

are positioned depending on

whether the cell in which they sit is

in an active or resting state. When

the cells are stimulated to change

state, the territories repositioned

to allow for optimal cell

function.

The research team, led

by Dr Joanna Bridger,

found that when cells

are induced from an

active to a resting state,

the repositioning process

takes just 15 minutes.

Such rapid movement

appeared to imply that a

motor within the cell nucleus was

responsible for the repositioning.

The team successfully tested this

hypothesis by using drugs to block

the behaviours of a specific motor

protein within the cell. By blocking

the protein, the chromosomes

remained stationary.

As a consequence, the study

has revealed that chromosome

repositioning is non-random and

is a tightly controlled process, and

has furthered the understanding

of chromosome behaviour. The

team are continuing to study these

behaviours in cells derived from

patients with Progeria, and with

cancer, as well as normal aged cells.

The study was supported by the

Brunel Progeria Research Fund.

New book by William Leahy

challenges Shakespeare

Authorship question

An acclaimed new book by Head

of the School of Arts Dr William

Leahy, Shakespeare and his Authors,

looks set to finally legitimise the

academic study of the 400-year-old

Shakespeare Authorship question.

The question of who wrote

Shakespeare’s plays – and who really

was the man that we know as

Shakespeare – has become a

major cultural phenomenon

that fascinates millions

of people the world over.

Until recently, discussion

of the question existed

mostly on the margins

of academia, deemed by

some Shakespearean

academics as

unimportant or, indeed, of

interest only to conspiracy theorists.

Yet, many academics find the

Authorship question intriguing and

worthy of both theoretical and

philosophical analysis.

This new collection of essays edited

by Dr Leahy brings together leading

literary and cultural critics to explore

the Authorship question as a

social, cultural and even theological

phenomenon and consider it in all

its rich diversity and significance.

Contributors to the collection

include leading scholars from the

universities of Bristol, Sussex and

Glasgow, as well as the former and

current Artistic Directors of the

Globe Theatre, Mark Rylance and

Dominic Dromgoole.

BBC Three’s Dancing on Wheels

filmed at Brunel

Brunel University was the filming

base for much of the BBC’s latest

dancing competition show, Dancing

on Wheels, which started in

February. The BBC team filmed at

Brunel for 18 weeks in summer

2009, using Bar Zest, the Mary

Seacole building and the Sports

Centre for rehearsals and interview

sections.

The show is a variation on the

BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing format

in which six wheelchair users are

paired with able-bodied celebrity

partners. The celebrities are all

past Strictly competitors, including

swimmer Mark Foster, M People’s

Heather Small, and Hollyoak’s Kavin

Sacre (Jake Dean). The winning

couple will represent the UK at

the European Championship of

Wheelchair Dance Sport in Tel Aviv.

Late-night Library is a success

The Library began its new 24-hour

opening policy last November, which

so far has proved very popular with

Obituary: Elaine Ankers By Ann Cummings, Director of Library Services

Elaine Ankers was a very popular member of staff who was

rated extremely highly in terms of her attitude, commitment and

professionalism. Elaine started work for Brunel University in 1993 as a

Library Assistant at Runnymede. In 2001, she gained promotion to the

post of Senior Library Assistant at the Uxbridge Campus and in 2005 was

promoted to the post of Principal Library Assistant. In recognition of her

performance, the University awarded Elaine with a STAR award in 2006.

She was always one of the first to volunteer to help others. Even when

she became ill last year she insisted on continuing working and, despite

her own pain, she made time for colleagues who needed someone to

help them through their worries. She was popular with both staff and

students for her friendliness, enthusiasm and positive outlook.

In her spare time she was very active with running and cycling

and this was reflected in the way she took

everything in her stride. Nothing

was too much trouble. She

leaves a husband and two

grown-up sons and will

be much missed by

us all.


the student body. The Library is

now open from 12noon on Sundays

through to 9pm on Fridays during

term-time, which clearly suits the

200+ students still studying at

2am, and the early risers who can

guarantee themselves uninterrupted

concentration before 9am.

Some students even showed their

appreciation for the opening hours

on Twitter – one student tweeted

“Brunel library now 24 hour we tank

(sic) God :)” while another posted

“Thanks for opening for 24 hours!”

To better serve the student night

owls, the Library has also partly

refurbished the ground floor with

new furniture and 100 additional

PCs.

High Art Horror: Brunel restores

70s classic film for DVD

Cine-Excess, the joint DVD

label owned by the Brunel Cult

Film Archive and art-house film

distributor Nouveaux Pictures, has

launched a re-mastered version

of the 1977 classic horror movie

Suspiria to much critical acclaim.

Brunel lecturer Xavier Mendik, the

director of Cine-Excess, helped

supervise the restoration of the

release, as well as writing and

directing the DVD documentary, Fear

at 400 degrees, which is aimed at

fans and film studies students alike.

The Cult Film Archive has been given

the rights to a selection of the 300

movies owned by the legendary

B-movie director and producer Roger

Corman (of which Suspiria was one),

which will be released throughout

the year on the Cine-Excess label.


News in briefSprinter Ejehu scoops

Olympic competition prize

Brunel student and 200m sprinter

Junior Ejehu won first place in

the Search for an Olympic Hero

competition. He secured the £1,000

top prize in a regional competition

for his superb performances over

the last year, which saw him take

gold the national indoors U20

200m and reach number two in the

national 200m rankings. He also

came tantalisingly close to a place in

the European Junior Championships

Final, missing out by just 100th of a

second.

“The last season was a stepping

stone for me to get a place at

London 2012,” said Ejehu, who

shares his coach Ayo Falolo with

Brunel graduate and 2012 hopeful

Montell Douglas. “Winning this

prize means a lot and will help with

training costs to reach my goals,”

he added.

Runner Emma

Pallant also came

fourth in the

competition

and was

awarded

£300.

Chinese Olympic Committee eyes

Brunel’s training camp potential

Brunel hosted members of the

Chinese Olympic Committee in

January, who visited the University

to assess its potential as a pre-

Olympic Games training base and

sports science support service for

the Chinese Olympic teams.

The delegation, who represent the

world’s biggest Olympic team, were

reportedly very impressed with

the training and accommodation

facilities the University has to offer.

Professor Ian Campbell, who is

leading Brunel’s 2012 Programmes,

said, “We are very encouraged by

their enthusiasm to build a long-

term partnership in the areas of

pre-Games training camps and

sports science support services.

We look forward to developing

this relationship over the coming

months.”

More international teams

will be assessing the

University’s potential

as a pre-Olympic

training base over

the coming months,

including South

Korea.

BURA reaches 12th

place in UK repository

rankings

According to the 2010

world rankings, the

Brunel University

Research Archive

(BURA) is now ranked

12th in the UK and

153rd in the world out of all

institutional research repositories.

BURA’s high position in the rankings,

which is calculated using each

repository’s size, visibility, number of

rich files and scholar rankings, is a

testament to the dedication of the

BURA team, who have worked hard

to encourage the uptake and usage

of the Archive since its inception in

late 2006. In just over three years its

files have attracted an impressive

1.7 million downloads globally.

The new league table places

Brunel alongside the repositories

of major research universities

such as Cambridge, Durham and

Edinburgh and ahead of those of

the Universities of Nottingham and

Leicester.

Our ranking also looks set to

improve further over the next year.

The introduction of the Brunel Open

Access Mandate, a policy which

requires all academics to submit

their new research findings to BURA,

should result in a marked growth in

both BURA’s physical size and the

impact of the research contained

within it.

Read more about Open Access

on page 18.

Graduate Claire Bertschinger

made a dame in New Year

Honours list

Anthropology graduate Claire

Bertschinger, the nurse whose work

provided the inspiration for the

1985 Live Aid concerts, has been

awarded a DBE in the New Year


Honours list for her commitment

to nursing and international

humanitarian aid.

Working as an International Red

Cross nurse in Ethiopia, Claire was

the central figure of a BBC news

report highlighting the 1984 famine.

BBC news presenter Michael Buerk

described her as “one of the true

heroines of our times – an ordinary

woman who did extraordinary

things and really did move

mountains.”

Claire said she was “startled but

very moved” by the honour. “I

couldn’t believe it when I saw the

letter – I thought it was from the

taxman!”

Claire graduated with an MSc

in 1997 and was awarded a

Brunel honorary degree in 2008

in recognition of her outstanding

services to the international

community.

Events Manager Liz Thomas leaves Brunel

Liz Thomas, the University’s Events manager for the last seven years, has

departed Brunel for a new role in the City.

Liz joined Brunel in early 2003 following careers in dance, fashion and

events, and has since organised a huge number of events, from official

building openings to honorary degree ceremonies and VIP visits. She

was a key player in the University’s 40th anniversary year celebrations in

2006 – the highlight of which was a visit from Her Majesty the Queen –

and helped put together an unforgettable 80th birthday celebration for

Brunel’s Emeritus professor, Heinz Wolff.

Many of you may know Liz (by name if not in person) for her role in

organising the annual Graduation ceremonies. Working closely with the

Registry team, she helped to take graduation off campus (to Wembley

Conference Centre) in 2003, and then, with the help of a large number

of colleagues, she brought it back home again in 2007!

Liz left Brunel at the end of February to take up the post of Director of

Events at the Rocket Science Group, based in Central London, and will

take on large-scale events in London, elsewhere in the UK and overseas.

Pictured: Liz Thomas (seated), with the Events team (l-r: Holly Nicol, Liz Woodward, Kiki Militsis)


The weather might have been especially wet and wintery,

but Brunel University undoubtedly had a spring in its step

thanks to the annual explosion of sights, smells and sounds

that was One World Week 2010.

one world week

Last year’s One World Week was always going

to be a tough act to follow. The Vice-Chancellor

took on Professor Rob Macredie in a tense cooking

competition, photographer Sally Trussler unveiled

the I am Brunel exhibition (now a permanent fixture

in the Hamilton Centre), and a spectacular troupe

of Lion dancers helped welcome in the Chinese

New Year.

But 2010 One World Week rose to the challenge

in admirable style, despite the near-relentless

downpours that threatened to derail the fun. Huge

numbers of you took part in competitions and

sports tournaments, helped raise money for the

Haiti Appeal and enjoyed the displays and parades

that took over the campus for the week.


FOOd, glOrIOus FOOd

Food was a dominant feature of the week, but

never more so than during the International Food

Fayre in the Hamilton Centre Atrium. Students and

staff piled up their plates to the point of collapse

with heaps of creamy potato dauphinoise, moreish

noodle omelettes and mouth-watering Jamaican

chicken. To wash it all down, the Fairtrade Fortnight

organisers doled out free samples of Fairtrade beer

and wine and over 200 free bananas!


Insects On Parade

Three instrument-wielding insects on stilts led a parade of local schoolchildren along the

concourse in honour of the Lady Mayor of Hillingdon. Cue much singing, cheering and

waving, not to mention surprise and laughter from the onlookers.


BIrds at Brunel

Owls, buzzards and falcons kept a watchful eye on a fascinated audience

during a falconry display and talk on the Quad. Their arrival oddly

coincided with the swift disappearance of the local pigeon population…

dOn’t try thIs at hOMe!Some of the Week’s activities were definitely best left to the professionals. Chinese Acrobats in The Atrium bent their bodies into impossible contortions, a blindfolded martial artist diced up pieces of fruit balanced on nervous volunteers’ bodies using a scimitar, and the cheerleading squad attempted to build a human pyramid – all in the name of entertaining the Brunel community.


A new Brunel-based Research Centre looks set to help ensure the future success of the UK’s highly valuable manufacturing and metals industries.

Brunel leads the way in high-tech metals research with £9m EPSRC Centre

The EPSRC* Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Liquid Metal Engineering (LiME), led by Professor Zhongyun Fan, will help to find solutions to the challenges facing the automotive, aerospace and energy sectors, all of which depend on a supply of high performance, keenly priced metallic materials if they are to remain competitive in both home and international markets.

And the challenges they face are considerable. To meet the demands of its customers, the metals industry – worth £17 billion a year to the UK – needs to produce stronger, more durable and more lightweight materials, minimise its carbon footprint and environmental impact, and increase its cost-effectiveness.

Professor Fan is certain LiME will help industry meet those challenges. “We aim to safeguard its role in wealth creation by developing manufacturing technologies that cut carbon emissions by millions of tonnes, reduce energy use by trillions of kilowatt-hours and save millions of tonnes of natural resources over the coming years – without jeopardising efficient production of high-quality metallic materials.”

The Centre’s goal is to shift the metals industry’s reliance on resource-hungry manufacturing methods that swallow up vast amounts of primary ores and raw materials, and towards greater reuse and recycling of metals already in circulation. Lower energy demand (eg, for extracting and processing metals), less ecological damage (eg, from mining operations) and less pressure on waste disposal infrastructure are just some of the benefits that will result.

Professor Fan added, “Our task isn’t simply to develop advanced manufacturing technologies – it’s also to stimulate new attitudes to metals within industry, at government level and throughout society. Our work could help generate billions of pounds’ worth of

benefits for the UK economy over the next 10 to 20 years.”

The LiME Centre for Innovative Manufacturing will receive £9 million in funding over five years from EPSRC and from 15 industry partners. Brunel University will lead on the project, but will work with partners from Oxford University and the University of Birmingham. The funding for LiME forms part of a larger £70 million Government/EPSRC investment in high-tech manufacturing business, announced in January 2010 by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson. LiME was one of three new Innovative Research Centres created by the new round of funding, bringing the total number of Centres in the UK to 19.

Impressively, LiME is not the only EPSRC-funded Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre to be led by a team at Brunel: the Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Healthcare (MATCH) is a research collaboration led by Professor Terry Young (SISCM)and has received a total of £12.2M in funding from EPSRC since its inception in 2003. MATCH researches in the healthcare technology assessment arena and its aim is to streamline the cost, creation and delivery of

new healthcare technology, which will in turn help to increase the quality of the UK’s health service provision.

Brunel is now one of an elite group of Universities that includes Imperial, Cambridge, Loughborough and Nottingham to lead more than one of these Centres at any one time. Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Geoff Rodgers, believes this achievement is a testament to the University’s burgeoning research-intensive profile: “Brunel is now positioned as an internationally leading contributor to research and training for the manufacturing sector.”

*Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council


Our work could help generate billions of pounds for the UK economy over the next 10 to 20 years.

“ “


With dissertation deadlines and end-of-year exams just around the corner, you’ll need a well-honed skillset to help you get the right grades. The Library’s Academic SKills

(ASK) service is now on hand to help you fine tune every aspect of your studies, from brushing up on your maths and essay writing, to managing your time and

delivering a great presentation.

In the short time since its inception last September, ASK has built up a body of virtual and hands-on resources that cover practically every type of study skill you might need. If you’re dealing with a niggling study issue, you can see an advisor during the daily lunchtime drop-in sessions, or tackle it more fully in one of the many available workshops.

However, if you prefer to learn independently, you can use the web-links, handouts and interactive lessons on the ASK u-Link site or browse the study skills book collection on the ground floor of the Library.

Need to improve your study skills? Just ASK!

With dissertation deadlines and end-of-year exams just around the corner, you’ll need a well-honed

skillset to help you get the right grades.

Matrices and Determinants

The workshopsJust a few of the workshops you can sign up for:

Writing your Dissertation

Presentation Practice

Vectors

Common Errors in Assignment Writing

Proofreading your WorkReport Writing

Pictured above : Academic Skills Advisors, Alex Osmond and Emily Danvers

ASK is currently working with Dr Meriel Norris in the School of Health Sciences and Social Care to support 63 final year Physiotherapy students on a research proposal project. An initial survey of these students revealed that 80% were unconfident or very unconfident about writing their proposal, so ASK delivered two workshops tailored to the group’s specific concerns on ‘how to put together a literature review’ and ‘academic writing for the research proposal’. The School’s subject liaison librarian also led a session on referencing and plagiarism.

Feedback after the workshops showed that 83% of students agreed the ASK workshops had increased their level of confidence in writing a proposal. The group will have a further opportunity to fine tune their writing skills in April, when they can submit their work to ASK for feedback on spelling, grammar, style, analysis and structure – either by email or, if required, by appointment in the School.

In addition, as part of a wider project on video learning, ASK is working with the group to develop a series of video resources that explore the challenges faced by Physiotherapy students and the successful strategies they used to write their research proposals. The proposed six videos will feature advice from staff and students on topics such as ‘the literature review’ and ‘choosing a topic’, which further cohorts of students can then use to help strengthen their own skills.

Case Study: BSc Physiotherapy, School of Health Sciences and Social Care

ASK can work with staff in academic Schools to provide tailored support for its students. Support can range from delivering a one-off or series of workshops for students within a particular subject area, to creating subject-themed online lessons.

If you are interested in the ASK team helping students in your School, please email [email protected]

ASK is not just for students – it’s for academic staff too

The ASK ServiceEmail [email protected]

Visit The Library building, ground floor. The drop-in service runs from 12-2pm, Mon-Fri

Click www.brunel.ac.uk/life/study/library


Academic Skills

School of ArtS tAckleS the greAt

The unique, interdisciplinary event was not just a chance to hear the authors talk about their works. The specially invited audience were able to directly challenge the attitudes and representations of the older people portrayed in two of the authors’ novels, Lodge’s Deaf Sentence and Jim Crace’s Arcadia.

This unconventional approach to the ‘book reading’ formed part of the BCCW’s Fiction and Cultural

Mediation of Ageing Project (FCMAP), a major project with £360,000 funding from the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme, which aims to improve

the quality of life for older people. By challenging the concept of ageing in fiction, the FCMAP hopes to get to the root of the stereotypes and attitudes in the UK surrounding older people.

Led by Brunel English Professor Philip Tew and with support from Drs Jago Morrison and Nick Hubble, FCMAP has adopted a unique approach to the subject

– a combination of arts and social science methodologies encompassing reading groups and author interviews, as well as collaboration with the Mass Observation Project, a three-decade-old social research archive containing works written by ordinary people about their own lives.

The evening’s guests, David Lodge (pictured right) and Jim Crace (left),


What Brunel open Access means for youIn the last issue of Express Professor Geoff Rodgers, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, introduced the new Open Access Mandate and Publishing Fund. Here we try to answer some of your questions about what Open Access (OA) publishing might mean for you.

Q How does copyright work in relation to Open Access?

A Copyright legislation does not prevent you from making your research publications freely available. In most cases you own the copyright in the research publications that you produce. This gives you the exclusive rights to do a number of things, including the right to “issue copies of the work to the public”; in other words to publish it in whatever way you want, including adding it to BURA or to a subject repository such as arXiv or REPEC.

One of the ways that you might choose to issue copies of your works is to submit them for publication in a journal or monograph. At this point

most publishers will ask you to sign a copyright transfer agreement – if you sign this document you will no longer own the copyright for that work and so you can only do what the publisher allows you to do and that might not include adding your work to BURA.

Q I want to comply with the OA Mandate but I also want to publish in a high impact publication that does not offer an OA option – what do I do?

A Ask the publisher if you can sign a ‘Licence to Publish’ (rather than a ‘copyright transfer’) agreement. This will give the publisher the rights that they need to publish your work but will mean that you can retain other useful rights, including the right to add the work to BURA. For example, JISC has created a draft

‘Licence to Publish’ agreement, but most publishers will also have one – they just won’t mention it unless you ask for it!

This February, the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing (BCCW) had the pleasure of welcoming renowned authors David Lodge and Jim Crace to the University to debate one of the biggest issues facing our modern society – ageing.

By Emma Filtness


are both major figures on the literary scene. Lodge in particular has a major following in the UK for both his novels and TV adaptations, and is particularly well known within Higher Education for his works of satire on academia.

The event began with Crace describing businessman Victor, the octogenarian protagonist in his novel Arcadia, and his memories of youth and desire for a public legacy. For an author who initially claimed to have no view on ageing, he raised important issues such as when exactly does one realise one is ‘old’? When do you stop feeling young, and when do you stop pretending that you are still middle aged? Lodge acknowledged that Deaf Sentence – an exploration of disability and independence after retirement – was partly autobiographical (Lodge had

recently struggled with his own experience of deafness), claiming

“ageing has a kind of poignancy and anxiety-generating principle for writers”.

The audience, who had already read the novels as part of reading groups, challenged the authors’ tendency to focus upon negative aspects of ageing, with Lodge agreeing that modern literary authors tended towards pessimism. Some also felt that the authors had focused on the male experience of ageing and that women became marginalised and ignored even earlier than men.

The reception after provided an opportunity for the audience and guests from the Mass Observation Project to meet Crace and Lodge and continue sharing their experiences of and attitudes

towards ageing. Brunel had fantastic feedback about the event from staff, students and the volunteers themselves, with Crace and Lodge (despite being ill with a terrible cold) clearly enjoying the experience.

Q Which publishers offer hybrid journals?

A Hybrid journals are ones in which some of the articles are freely available while others are only available to subscribers. You can apply to the Brunel OA Publishing Fund for funding to cover the publication fees that authors have to pay to make their articles free to all readers. Hybrid OA journals are now offered by a number of publishers including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, the Royal Society, Springer and Taylor & Francis.

If you have other questions about any aspects of Open Access publishing, have a look at the website or contact John Aanonson (BURA Manager, ext 66139) or Lorna Mitchell (Academic Support Assistant Director, ext 66146) in the Library.

Click tinyurl.com/BrunelOpenAccess

Ageing deBAte With dAvid lodge

The GalleryA round-up of the winners and runners-up in this year’s One World Week photo competition.

Kamil KurylonekAhmed RasikhRaevennan Husbands

Peter Polkinghorne Richard Tank

135373 0310

See more Brunel photos on Flickr: www.flickr.com/Bruneluniversity

Or why not submit your own Brunel photos to the Brunel Flickr Community Group? www.flickr.com/groups/Bruneluniversity

ABSTRACT CATEGORY Winner – Husni HassanBUILDINGS CATEGORY Winner – Jo Dooher

Raevennan Husbands

PEOPLE CATEGORY Joint Winner – Hugh Wyeth PEOPLE CATEGORY Joint Winner – Ahmed Rasikh

Express March 2010

Documents

Transcript of Express March 2010