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The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of a mental health carers’ research reference group on mental health research in the Heart of England region.

The methodology was a co-produced participatory evaluation, and the research was co-produced by the group. The design involved a literature review of carers’ involvement in UK mental health research, and collection of secondary data (group records) and primary data from researchers, group members, and facilitators. Analysis was initially thematic, then synthesised.

The group’s work had a positive impact on researchers and group members, and to some extent on mental health research and networks more widely. No negative impact was identified.

The researchers were not able to contact or include everyone who had been involved with the group. Some of those who did not give input may have felt less positive about the group than those who did respond. Co-production does not signify equality. Evaluation inevitably involves bias.

The conclusion is that mental health carers have a unique and positive contribution to make to mental health research, and have the right to be involved in such research in a non-tokenistic way. This has practical implications for mental health and mental health research services.

This is the first mental health carer-controlled evaluation of a mental health carer research reference group. Mental health carers conducted the research and wrote this paper, giving a perspective rarely found in the literature. This has value for people working in, studying, and researching mental health, and for other mental health carers.

This paper seeks to consider the collaborative efforts of developing a grid computing infrastructure within problem‐focused, distributed and multi‐disciplinary projects – which the authors term interventionist grid development projects – involving commercial, academic and public collaborators. Such projects present distinctive challenges which have been neglected by existing escience research and information systems (IS) literature. The paper aims to define a research framework for understanding and evaluating the social, political and collaborative challenges of such projects.

The paper develops a research framework which extends Orlikowski and Gash's concept of technological frames to consider two additional frames specific to such grid projects; bureaucratic frames and collaborator frames. These are used to analyse a case study of a grid development project within Healthcare which aimed to deploy a European data‐grid of medical images to facilitate collaboration and communication between clinicians across the European Union.

That grids are shaped to a significant degree by the collaborative practices involved in their construction, and that for projects involving commercial and public partners such collaboration is inhibited by the differing interpretive frames adopted by the different relevant groups.

The paper is limited by the nature of the grid development project studied, and the subsequent availability of research subjects.

The paper provides those involved in such projects, or in policy around such grid developments, with a practical framework by which to evaluate collaborations and their impact on the emergent grid. Further, the paper presents lessons for future such Interventionist grid projects.

This is a new area for research but one which is becoming increasingly important as data‐intensive computing begins to emerge as foundational to many collaborative sciences and enterprises. The work builds on significant literature in escience and IS drawing into this new domain. The research framework developed here, drawn from the IS literature, begins a new stream of systems development research with a distinct focus on bureaucracy, collaboration and technology within such interventionist grid development projects.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model elaborating on the type of conditions that can inhibit (or at least temporarily hold back) “reactive conformance” in the wake of an increasing reliance on quantitative performance evaluations of academic research and researchers.

A qualitative study of a research group at a Swedish university who was recurrently exposed to quantitative performance evaluations of their research activities.

The empirical findings show how the research group under study exhibited a surprisingly high level of non-compliance and non-conformity in relation to what was deemed important and legitimate by the prevailing performance evaluations. Based on this, we identify four important qualities of pre-existing research/er ideals that seem to make them particularly resilient to an infiltration of an “academic performer ideal,” namely that they are (1) central and since-long established, (2) orthogonal to (i.e. very different from) the academic performer ideal as materialized by the performance measurement system, (3) largely shared within the research group and (4) externally legitimate. The premise is that these qualities form an important basis and motivation for not only criticizing, but also contesting, the academic performer ideal.

Extant research generally finds that the proliferation of quantitatively oriented performance evaluations within academia makes researchers adopt a new type of academic performer ideal which promotes research conformity and superficiality. This study draws upon, and adds to, an emerging literature that has begun to problematize this “reactive conformance-thesis” through identifying four qualities of pre-existing research/er ideals that can inhibit (or at least temporarily hold back) such “reactive research conformance.”

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a challenging, yet opportunistic, environment in which to conduct transformative service research (TSR) and assess research methodology. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and gain important new insights of a group interviewing method with vulnerable people and their support group, adapted and transferred online during COVID-19.

This research examines the experiences of 35 participants (nine family groups composed of parents and young people), involved in a research project that explores a sensitive topic, youth alcohol consumption and family communication, that was moved online during lockdown. Researcher reflections on running group interviews face-to-face prior to COVID- 19 and online during lockdown are included in the data.

Thematic analysis of participant interviews and researcher reflections reveals four key benefits and three limitations of online group interviews with vulnerable people and their support group. The benefits include being comfortable, non-intrusive and safe; engaging and convenient; online communication ease and easy set-up. The limitations relate to lack of non-verbal communication, poor set-up, and privacy and access issues.

The global environment is uncertain and being able to implement effective qualitative research online is essential for TSR and service research in the future. This paper provides a step by step procedure for an innovative online group interviewing technique that can be used by TSR and qualitative service researchers.

Conducting research during a pandemic has provided unprecedented insights into qualitative research approaches and methodology. This paper contributes to literature on service and TSR methodology by providing a framework for researchers to investigate vulnerable groups online in an effective, safe and non-intrusive way. The framework also has the potential to be applied to other service contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore dirty work sites within an academic context. Working with particular “unloved” groups (Fielding, 1993) can present a number of challenges to researchers, and if professional boundaries are not carefully maintained, researchers can be seen as “dirty workers” within an academic context.

The paper draws a qualitative research project that explores women's involvement with nationalist movements in the UK.

Researching “unloved” groups, and in particular racist organizations, presents a number of potential emotional and professional, and can render researchers “dirty workers” if clear professional boundaries are not maintained.

Examining academia and some academic research as a dirty work site adds to existing literature (Kreiner et al., 2006) that suggests any occupation can have a “dirty work” element that must be negotiated. This paper presents new challenges for managing spoiled “dirty” identities, and suggests that identity management is context-specific.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the nature of graduate training experiences in research groups and to identify factors that may lead to increased student retention and success.

Surveys administered at four US universities resulted in quantitative responses from 130 Master’s and 702 doctoral engineering students participating in graduate research groups. Missing data were imputed, and responses were weighted by gender, discipline, degree program and nationality. Exploratory factor analysis identified four factors describing research group experiences. Regression models were built for two outcomes: satisfaction with research group experience and intention to complete degree. Control variables included gender, discipline, degree program, nationality, year in program and institution.

Fifty-five per cent of the variance in satisfaction was described by a model including agency, support, international diversity and group climate. Sixty-five per cent of variance in intent to complete was described by a model comprising international diversity, agency and support. Several control variables were significant.

Agency and support in particular were the most influential predictors of both satisfaction and intention, suggesting that future efforts should emphasize stable funding, clear expectations, access to mentors and agency-building experiences to help students take an active role in their own success.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a technique called the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) for possible use in the types of market research or management research where it is desirable to generate as many ideas as possible.

The benefits of the NGT were researched in a literature review. After this, qualitative research among research practitioners who have used the technique in Australia was conducted. One focus group of five researchers and three in‐depth interviews were conducted. Some of these responses are presented verbatim, in this paper, to order to illustrate the positive evaluations of the technique by researchers.

The research practitioners in this research were generally very positive about the NGT as a technique for idea generation. The conclusion from the research reported on in this paper is that the use of techniques such as Brainstorming, and the NGT have very beneficial roles to play in management and market research.

Brainstorming techniques and the NGT are discussed as fruitful methods for use in market research. The productive role of silence in idea generation research is also commented on.

Results from the literature review and the original research were compared, and were found to have a high level of congruence. This has implications for research practitioners because while many researchers are aware of Brainstorming techniques, fewer are aware of the potential of the NGT in market research.

The purpose of this paper is to claim that it is useful to assess the web connectivity of research groups, describe hyperlink‐based techniques to achieve this and present brief details of European life sciences research groups as a case study.

A commercial search engine was harnessed to deliver hyperlink data via its automatic query submission interface. A special purpose link analysis tool, LexiURL, then summarised and graphed the link data in appropriate ways.

Webometrics can provide a wide range of descriptive information about the international connectivity of research groups.

Only one field was analysed, data was taken from only one search engine, and the results were not validated.

Web connectivity seems to be particularly important for attracting overseas job applicants and to promote research achievements and capabilities, and hence we contend that it can be useful for national and international governments to use webometrics to ensure that the web is being used effectively by research groups.

This is the first paper to make a case for the value of using a range of webometric techniques to evaluate the web presences of research groups within a field, and possibly the first “applied” webometrics study produced for an external contract.

Professionals in higher education are expected to be informed consumers of knowledge who seek out scholarship, critical evaluators of the applicability of extant knowledge, and contributors who build new knowledge for higher education practice. Despite the understood importance of developing research competencies, many have limited opportunities to develop these skills. This study aims to explore one way individuals develop research competencies: through participation in team-based research experiences.

A longitudinal case study approach was used to investigate what participants in an education research group learn, and how their participation in the group changes the ways in which they think about themselves as researchers and scholars. Four group members participated in two focus group interviews (at the end of the fall 2015 and spring 2016 academic semesters). Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Study participants report gaining knowledge about research, developing an identity as a researcher, and learning about faculty roles. Particular group practices and activities (e.g. full group meetings, subgroup meetings, professional development moments) helped mediate members’ learning and identity development.

Research groups should be considered valuable contexts where teaching and learning take place. By learning – and integrating what we learn – from research group participation, the higher education and student affairs fields may become better able to generate innovative practices and activities that provide students and professionals with opportunities to develop important research competencies.