Guest blog: Improving peer review using peer-reviewed studies #PeerRevWk16

This week is the second ever “peer review week”. The theme for this year is “Recognition for Review”. Peer review week aims to highlight the importance of peer review, which is a crucial part of the research process. We asked Dr Adrian Barnett, from the Queensland University of Technology, and a member of our editorial board, to survey […]

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School sex education often negative, heterosexist, and out of touch

And taught by poorly trained, embarrassed teachers, say young people School sex education is often negative, heterosexist, and out of touch, and taught by poorly trained, embarrassed teachers, finds a synthesis of the views and experiences of young people in different countries, published in the online journal BMJ Open. Schools’ failure to acknowledge that sex education […]

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BMJ Open to publish abstracts for the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network symposium

On the Tuesday 7th February 2017, the UCL Qualitative Health Research Network will be hosting their third symposium entitled ‘Engagement, Co-production, and Collaborative Meaning-Making: Collaboration in Qualitative Health Research’, supported by The Wellcome Trust. Held within the Institute of Child Health, 30 Guildford Street, London, the Network invite all those with an interest in qualitative health […]

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Volunteering and mental health, breast feeding outcomes and condom use intentions: Most read articles in August

Association of volunteering and mental well-being, breast feeding outcomes and place of birth, and condom use intentions of heterosexual men The August most read list contains papers with a number of different study designs, on a number of different topics. Returning to the top spot this month is a systematic review on the lack of […]

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Complimentary therapies, well-being and consultants as victims of bullying: Most read articles in July.

  July’s top 10 most read papers sees two studies taking into account doctors’ points of view. The first, by Bourne et al., takes a closer look at look at which aspects of the complaints process they find the most stressful. The second, by Shabazz et al., uses a survey of Royal College of Obstetricians […]

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Volunteering in middle age and senior years linked to enhanced mental health

No positive association seen before age of 40, suggesting link varies across life course Volunteering in middle and older age is linked to good mental health/emotional wellbeing, finds a large study of British adults, published in the online journal BMJ Open. But no such association was seen before the age of 40, suggesting that the […]

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Top 10 Most Read: Cholesterol and mortality in the elderly, chronic pain in the UK and smokers’ quitting attempts

Several new entries make it into our top 10 Most Read list this month. In first place is a systematic review on the associations between low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol and mortality in the elderly. Further down the list is an analysis of Italian medical societies’ websites to examine conflicts of interest between professional medical societies and industry. […]

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Third to half of UK population lives with chronic pain

Proportion likely to rise as population ages; major cause of disability and distress Between a third and half (43%) of the UK population—roughly 28 million adults—lives with chronic pain, finds an analysis of the available evidence, published in the online journal BMJ Open. This proportion is likely to rise as the population ages, warn the […]

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