Translational research: where is LIS bedside?

  By Suzana Sukovic

Last month I had a pleasure to participate in LISRA’s webinar, Sharing practitioner-research: a panel discussion. In my opening talk, I mentioned a need to engage with ‘translational research’ in LIS. In response to a question from the audience, I promised to share some resources, and here is my answer.

Translational research originates in health and is still predominantly used to advance health outcomes. It is often described as ‘bench to bedside research’. ‘Translational research’, ‘research translation’ and ‘knowledge translation’ are the terms often used interchangeably, but there is some difference in meaning (see explanation of terminology by Sydney Health Partners). 

So, what is it? 

'Translational research makes engagement with practitioners and the wider community its priority. It seeks to “translate” research in ways that enable that research to be applied. It also “closes the circle” by allowing practitioners to provide feedback to researchers based on their experience’, explains Pru Mitchell in her article From concept to classroom: what is translational research? 

Mitchell’s article is about translational research in education, one of the areas outside health in which this type of research is gaining prominence. A/Prof Elaine Wethington explains reasons why social sciences are later adopters, and outlines some benefits of translational research.  

So far, librarians have been described as supporters of translational research in health, and the support role was discussed in the literature. However, the library and information sector hasn’t applied translational research in its own practice in any substantial way. Once again, our field needs to decide how to move beyond research support to develop our discipline and practice.

Writing this post, I remembered another LARK blog post about lessons from health. This older post is about my conference presentation Towards a teaching library: connecting academia and the profession presented at EBLIP8 (see slides). Since then, I worked in education research in health, and now believe more than ever in the concept of a ‘teaching library’. Furthermore, I now think that the model of a ‘teaching library’ may be a way to introduce translational research into LIS. Some food for thought while we think what ‘bench to bedside’ means in our field.

For further exploration

ACER, Translational Research 

Choi P J, Tubbs R, Oskouian R J (March 19, 2018) The Current Trend of the Translational Research Paradigm. Cureus 10(3): e2340. DOI 10.7759/cureus.2340

CQUniversity Library, Knowledge Translation 

Lowitja Institute, Knowledge Translation 

USC Library, Research Knowledge Translation Defined

Dr Suzana Sukovic is Director of Research and Library Services, PLC Sydney

Translational research image source: https://bctr.cornell.edu/

Sharing practitioner-research: How can ALIA help?

Earlier this week, LISRA organised a panel discussion 'to consider the opportunities, issues and challenges for library and information professionals in sharing and disseminating Australia’s emerging body of LIS practice-based research'. Four panelists started with their statements to open discussions. One of them was Andrew Finegan from ALIA who summarised his opening statement for LARK. A full recording is available from the LISRA event page.

By Andrew Finegan

As a professional association, one of ALIA’s core activities is to support research and publications that inform its members and the library and information sector.

 

One way that ALIA does this is through the production of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, or JALIA. Produced quarterly, JALIA presents research and research-in-practice articles which are subjected to a double-blind peer review process.

 

ALIA’s agreement with JALIA’s publisher allows authors to make their research publicly available through their institutional repository, with zero embargo – through what is commonly known as Green open access. As this content would otherwise only be immediately accessible through subscriptions, we encourage those who publish their work in JALIA to also take this opportunity.

Indeed, it should be noted that this does place the responsibility of access onto the author, with the expectation that the author does the work in preparing and uploading their research onto their institutional repository. University libraries make a valuable contribution to the research community by supporting academics through this process.

 

Of course, not everybody who has their research published in JALIA has access to an institutional repository, with many authors coming from school, public, state, territory and national libraries. This in itself can create a barrier to access, as there is no obvious place for them to upload their Green open access version.

Fortunately, ALIA manages its own repository, ALIA Library, where research content such as conference papers, reports and discussion papers are held. ALIA can work with these authors to make their JALIA-published research available as green open access.

 

However, we also need to think beyond the formal research journal as the only way to engage practitioners with research. The reality is that there are library professionals who, for whatever reasons, do not actively engage with research that is published in this format.

 

ALIA provides numerous opportunities to engage with different audiences with LIS research, through different channels:

• Conferences – there is a current call for proposals for the ALIA National 2022 Conference
• INCITE magazine – upcoming themes and submissions deadlines are listed on the website
• ALIA Groups and committees – The New Generation Advisory Committee run monthly twitter discussions in #AusLibChat, Health Libraries Australia produce their open access journal JoHILA, and of course LARK hold research related events and this blog.

This past year has also seen an increase in webinar discussions which have created new opportunities to engage large audiences online.

 

Of course, to engage effectively with different audiences, it is so important to understand how the tone and style of your communication needs to be adjusted to best connect with that audience - especially with practitioners who may not be actively engaged with an academic style.

 

As with any communications, you should first and foremost think about your audience. There is a very specific style that you’re expected to use to engage with an academic audience. However, for a non-academic audience, this can be much more fluid, and you need to be ready to adapt your tone for each context, and craft your message to be specifically relevant to their interests and sector. This is an art that is best be developed through active engagement, and so I’d certainly encourage LIS researchers to explore these different spaces.

Communications, ultimately, is a call to action, and researchers have the opportunity to connect with practitioners in their own language and in the spaces where they are engaged, to both inform and challenge them to continue to develop their professional practice, with a robust evidence base.

Andrew Finegan is ALIA Communications Manager

publishing@alia.org.au