Birthday greetings

I love working with people from across the world. Birthdays are fun!

Preprints - Seminar by Elsevier

An interesting online seminar

Preprints: A New Way to Publish Your Research Results 

Presented by 

• Michael Magoulias, Director of Operations and Product Fulfillment, Elsevier SSRN
• Dr. Rui Dai, Senior research director at Wharton Research Data Services\

 

Here is the published information about the presentation

Preprints are a rapidly growing piece of scholarly communication. Compared with traditional academic papers, preprints allow fast publication and instant citation of research results. As a complement to journal publication, they allow the research community to share information or research results, provide the direction of development for research, and help facilitate international and interdisciplinary collaboration. Preprints are also a positive way for early-career researchers to receive feedback ahead of submitting articles to journals. As evidence mounts on their importance, we’re seeing preprints increasingly included in formal evaluation processes for grant proposals and faculty reviews. In recent years there has seen a surge in use and need for preprints in the research community. SSRN data shows that the fastest growing disciplines over the last year on its platforms were in economics and medical research. The rapid rise in medical research preprints has helped play a crucial part in advancing and accelerating understanding of SARS-CoV-2. SSRN is an open access online preprint community. A searchable online library, it enables authors to post their papers and abstracts easily and free of charge providing an online database of early scholarly research. With over 2.2 million users, it lists 806,000 full-text documents and an additional 134,000 abstracts. Elsevier data reveals that over the last five years, there has been a 148% increase in the number of researchers publishing preprints on SSRN. There has also been a 50% increase in the number of downloads of preprints on SSRN over the same period with downloads hitting 17.9 million at the end of 2020. 

The session will cover in detail: Michael Magoulias, SSRN Overview of preprints in the scientific communication landscape What is the main purpose and who are the key players? Deep Dive into SSRN as an example that covers the widest number of disciplines How to submit a paper? What happens to a paper after submission? How is accessibility maximized by the platform? What metrics are available to demonstrate impact? Overview of APAC policies on preprints Thoughts about future development and relationship between preprints and peer review 

Dr. Rui Dai, Wharton Research Data Services What are the benefits of using preprint server? Why are researchers using them in disciplines such as economics and finance? What should you consider before you post a preprint? How does a preprint relate to a journal publication? Analysis of research posted on preprint server SSRN Join this webinar to learn and discuss how SSRN, the world’s most interdisciplinary early research platform, benefits researchers by improving the discoverability of the pre-print content. This makes it easier for researchers to identify potential collaboration partners, read and assess another researcher’s most recent work, and demonstrate impact to funders through early forms of scholarly output. It can inform decision-making and serve as an effective repository for demonstrating your organization’s expertise to an international community of thought-leaders and policymakers.

PhD students: Joyful collaborations

I love working with my PhD students: Kate Margetson, Belinda Downey, Marie Ireland, Caitlin Hurley, Holly McAlister

Kate Margetson and her supervisors: Sarah Verdon and Sharynne - 10 Oct 2022

Belinda and her supervisors: Leanne Gibbs, Sharynne, Will Letts - 26 Sept 2022

Marie and Sharynne (and Sarah V) - 28 Sept 2022

Caitlin and Sharynne - 28 Sept 2022

Blog statistics: 257K views!

I have just had a look at this blog's statistics! There have been 21.1K views in the past 12 months and 257K views over the 10 years I have kept this blog!

The top countries accessing my blog are: USA, UK, Australia, France, Russia, Sweden, Brazil, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Germany, Vietnam, Romania, Netherlands, Canada, India, Poland, Japan, Indonesia.

ECV2022 update, planning, and committee meetings

There has been a lot of work this week for ECV2022: https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022/

Here are the current numbers: 

• 1206 registrations from 69 countries 
• 118 abstracts from 25 countries 

A number of meetings have been held today including:

• ECV2022 Chairs meeting about keynotes, social media, submissions, panel discussions, ethics, copyediting, etc.
  
• ECV2022 Scientific Committee information session about ECV2022 conference abstract review
• ECV2022 Children's Voices Committee to plan the invitations to be sent across the world for children to contribute to ECV2022

ECV2022 Scientific Review Committee: Kelly Tribolet, Sharynne McLeod, Anne McLeod, Jessamy Davies, Kate Martgetson, Linda Mahony, Van Tran, Libbey Murray, Jahirul Mullick

 

Invited presentation in Da Nang, Vietnam

Today I presented an invited lecture in Vietnam (held for over 70 delegates in Da Nang and others online). The seminar was organised for speech and language therapists in Vietnam and was sponsored by:

• Medical Committee Netherlands – Vietnam (MCNV) 
• Da Nang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy
  
• US Aid 
• VietHealth 
• Trinh Foundation

The 6 hour agenda profiled the work of the graduate speech and language therapists from the Bachelors and Masters programs that have recently begun in Vietnam and five guest speakers including A/Prof Sarah Verdon and myself.

My presentation was titled "The association between children’s communication skills and academic performance" 

Professor Sharynne McLeod

A/Professor Sarah Verdon

Here is some of the information that was provided in my letter of invitation: 

"First of all, I would like to thank you for your continuous valuable expertise and spirit support for our ST [speech therapy] project in particular and for the ST education development in Vietnam in general. 

Secondly, I would like to introduce very briefly about MCNV - TFA's ST Edu development project. As you may have known, MCNV and TFA have been collaborating to implement this ST project since 2017 to run a MSALT course at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Ho Chi Minh city to train a group of SALT traineers for 04 medical universities in Vietnam and a BSALT course at the University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy in Da Nang to mainly pilot a Vietnamese-contextualised BSALT curriculum which can be applied by the 04 medical universities which have trained MSALT lecturer from the MSALT course mentioned above. These are the first official ST degree courses in Vietnam. The MSALT course finished last April and the students were awarded with master degrees but they are still doing their clinical internships. The BSALT course will finish this September, by the end of the project cycle and the project will close this September, 2022. 

Finally but mainly, I would like to be on behalf of MCNV and MCNV's ST project counterparts to invite you to present your research on "The association between children’s communication skills and academic performance" at our ST thematic workshop on 22nd September. Time slot for your presentation is at 15.40 - 16.00 VN time. This is one of the project closing activities by MCNV, TFA and partner universities, planned as a hybrid workshop."

I really have appreciated the warm emails received after my presentation. Here is an excerpt from one: "Thank you so much for your fascinating presentation today with regards to children’s communication skills and academic performance. That’s absolutely terrific presenting. I’m very much keen on learning the findings from your research...I also noticed that you have acknowledged the indigenous community before you started the presentation. May I know the story behind it? ... Once again, it’s an inspiration to be able to listen to your talk. It was very pleasant to hear your voice."

Vale Professor Anne Cutler

A tribute to Professor Anne Cutler appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald last week. https://cloudstor.aarnet.edu.au/plus/s/ecoHm38wlQ1fSq0

"She supported twin goals of research excellence and social equity in Australia and was proud to be associated with Western Sydney University and with its flagship research institute The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development."

DELAD workshop

https://www.clarin.eu/event/2022/delad-workshop-2022

 

Corpora of speech of individuals with communication disorders (CSD) are hard to obtain. They are costly to collect and difficult to share due to privacy issues. Moreover, they are often small in size and very specific in terms of communication impairments addressed. These factors make re-use a challenge on the one hand, and a necessity on the other. In the beginning, two of us (Ball & Müller) organised two workshops in Linköping, Sweden, in 2015 and 2016, in which available resources and issues related to accessibility were inventorised. These workshops resulted in the DELAD initiative (see http://delad.ruhosting.nl/).

 From these workshops it was concluded (1) that only a minority of existing CSD can be made accessible due to privacy constraints, and (2) that we now have limited knowhow to collect new CSD that can be shared according to FAIR principles, (3) that the CLARIN infrastructure is indispensable for this purpose. A third workshop was then organised in 2017 in Cork, Ireland with the support of CLARIN. Selected group of experts in communication disorders research and representatives from the CLARIN data centres were brought together to find solutions to issues such as design and implementation of a data repository, data type and formats, metadata categories and formats, IPR/ethics/consent forms, anonymization, as well as best practices and guidelines for data collection. The action plan resulting from the workshop included concrete initiatives related to the topics. 

 In January 2019 a fourth workshop was organised in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Key topics were legal and ethical aspects of collecting and hosting CSD and the establishment of relevant requirements for the infrastructure for securely sharing CSD. In January 2021 we organised a first online workshop and we will continue this in September this year. 

Here are the topics for our next DELAD workshop: Recent developments at ACE / DELAD for support of sharing CDS Sharing clinical data: Obtaining clinical data via hospitals vs Obtaining data outside clinical institutes from alternative organisations The impact of the Data Governance Act & Data Altruism Follow up on voice pseudonimisation And of course there will be plenty of time for researchers’ presentations on their data and options to share these. The workshop will be very interactive and participants are invited to actively participate in the discussions.

Web of Science "17 publications have cited your work since Sep 13th 2022"

Today I received an email from Web of Science stating:"17 publications have cited your work since Sep 13th 2022" (i.e. in the past week!). It is exciting to see the impact of our work. Here are the 17  articles:

1. Translation and validation of the Intelligibility in Context Scale into Sinhala for adolescents in Sri Lanka with cleft lip and palate - Kankanamalage, IM; Cleland, J and Cohen, W 
2.  Current practices, supports, and challenges in speech-language pathology service provision for autistic preschoolers - Binns, AV; Cunningham, BJ; (...); Cardy, JO 
3. Optimizing Outcomes for Children With Phonological Impairment: A Systematic Search and Review of Outcome and Experience Measures Reported in Intervention Research - Baker, E; Masso, S; (...); Sugden, E 
4. Dynamic Assessment for Children With Communication Disorders: A Systematic Scoping Review and Framework - Bamford, CK; Masso, S; (...); Ballard, KJ 
5. Implementing Speech Perception and Phonological Awareness Intervention for Children With Speech Sound Disorders - Brosseau-Lapre, F and Roepke, E 
6.  Speech Sound Disorder Treatment Approaches Used by School-Based Clinicians: An Application of the Experience Sampling Method - Cabbage, K; Farquharson, K and DeVeney, S 
7. Clinical Considerations for Speech Perception in School-Age Children With Speech Sound Disorders: A Review of the Current Literature - Cabbage, KL and Hitchcock, ER 
8. Access to Speech and Language Services and Service Providers for Children With Speech and Language Disorders - Davidson, MM; Alonzo, CN and Stransky, ML 
9. Facing a Clinical Challenge: Limited Empirical Support for Toddler Speech Sound Production Intervention Approaches - DeVeney, SL and Peterkin, K 
10. Intraword Variability in Children With Auditory Brainstem Implants: A Longitudinal Comparison With Children With Cochlear Implants - Faes, J and Gillis, S 
11. Introduction: Innovations in Treatment for Children With Speech Sound Disorders Farquharson, K and Tambyraja, S 
12. Using the Experience Sampling Method to Examine the Details of Dosage in School-Based Speech Sound Therapy - Farquharson, K; McIlraith, A; (...); Constantino, C 
13. Drawing Talking: Listening to Children With Speech Sound Disorders - McCormack, J; McLeod, S; (...); Holliday, EL 
14. SuperSpeech: Multilingual Speech and Language Maintenance Intervention for Vietnamese-Australian Children and Families via Telepractice - McLeod, S; Verdon, S; (...); Wang, C 
15. Clinicians' Perspectives of Treatment for Lateralization Errors: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study - Overby, MS; Mazeika, S; (...); Devorace, L 
16. Minimal, Maximal, or Multiple: Which Contrastive Intervention Approach to Use With Children With Speech Sound Disorders? - Storkel, HL 
17. A Nonverbal Recognition Method to Assist Speech - Meloni, F; Sicchieri, B; (...); Macedo, AA

PhD (with Publication) & PhD by Prior Publication

Today Dr Van Tran, Marie Ireland and I were invited speakers at the Faculty of Arts and Education Research Cafe titled "PhD (with Publication) & PhD by Prior Publication". We were able to share our experiences and suggestions. Here is the YouTube recording of the session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swAddi5ssVo

I'm very proud of all my students achieve during their PhDs. Here is the summary of the session

Please join the School of Social Work and Arts Research Committee for a Research Café about PhD (with Publication) & PhD by Prior Publication. The Café will be of interest to all academic staff and potential PhD candidates. PhD with Publication and PhD by Prior Publication are excellent pathways for those wanting to pursue an academic career and candidates who want to reach a wide audience by disseminating their PhD research, by publication, whilst completing their degree. The Café will provide information about these pathways at CSU and feature a panel of supervisors and graduates who have firsthand experience of the merits and challenges involved. 

For a taster see this article in The Conversation by Mhairi Cowden - "A PhD by publication or how I got my doctorate and kept my sanity" https://theconversation.com/a-phd-by-publication-or-how-i-got-my-doctorate-and-kept-my-sanity-11012

Here is another resource "Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation": https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-230-80208-7

The speakers were: 

• Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Professor Mark Evans 
• Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Arts & Education, Brendon Hyndman 
• Sub-Dean, Graduate Studies, Sam Bowker 
• PhD students: Monica Short, Van Tran, Marie Ireland 
• Supervisors: Wendy Bowles, Jenny McKinnon, Sharynne McLeod 

Sam Bowker's useful conceptulisation of The PhD, The PhD (with publications), and The PhD by Publication.

 

ECV2022 abstract submissions

Today was the closure of abstract submissions for ECV2022. We had so many submissions we have not quite finished cataloguing and responding to them - but it is over 100! We have had submissions from at least 25 countries: Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Croatia, Fiji, Hong Kong China, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam. The ECV2022 Scientific Review Committee are ready to begin the fun task of reviewing them to determine which will be presented at ECV2022. 

We also have over 1100 registrations from over 50 countries - and this is sure to increase once people see our program.

IALP's new book: Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations

The following book has just been published to celebrate the centenary of IALP: 

Levey. S. & Enderby, P. (Eds.). Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations. J&R Press. 

We wrote the following chapters 

Chapter 8: Phạm, B., McLeod, S. & Verdon, S., Margetson, K. & Tran, V. H. (2022). Supporting the communication of underserved children in Vietnam. In S. Levey & P. Enderby & (Eds.). Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations (pp. 73-83). J&R Press. 

Chapter 10: Grech, H., Wren, Y., Pascoe, M., & McLeod, S. & Hopf, S. (2022). Speech sound disorders in underserved or unserved populations. In S. Levey & P. Enderby & (Eds.). Addressing communication disorders in unserved and underserved populations. J&R Press. 

 

Here is the description of the book on the publisher's website (https://www.jr-press.co.uk/the-unserved.html#):

The International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics (IALP), now called The International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders, was established in 1924. Its objective is to bring together professionals to promote research and clinical practice to support the needs of those with communication and swallowing disorders who lack health and other basic services. The Unserved, authored by members of the Association, celebrates 100 years of the IALP by presenting ideas to assist all those who work with children and adults who have difficulty in communicating or swallowing in order to improve services for unserved and underserved communities. It offers strategies to address disorders and conditions that affect many areas of everyday life and which are exacerbated by lack of adequate health, education and social services.

Manchester Metropolitan University Inaugural Professorial Lecture: Professor Julie Marshall

Congratulations to Professor Julie Marshall delivered the Manchester Metropolitan University Inaugural Professorial Lecture for 2022/23 in the Faculty of Health and Education on Wednesday 14 September  (in person and online) https://mmuhealthandedinauguralmarshall.eventbrite.co.uk 

I am currently a Visting Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University (2022-2023) and was Julie's international mentor when she was in the Good to Great Program to support her applying for promotion to professor. Julie and I are guest-editing a special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Communication disability - what does it mean to you? 

Abstract: Communication disability occurs when a person’s communication, using spoken, written, signed and/or other nonverbal means, is sufficiently different from others in their community, that it affects their ability to participate in life and their ability to achieve their human rights. In this lecture, Julie will talk about two strands of her work related to people who experience communication disability. The first covers people’s views and understanding of communication development, communication disability and appropriate responses to communication disability. She will report on research on this topic in relation to: people who experience communication disability, family and community members, students and qualified speech and language therapists, and the wider the health and education workforce. The second strand concerns the development of appropriate services and support for people who experience communication disability, in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. She will report on projects in a number of countries. These have involved working with people who experience communication disability themselves, street-connected children, caregivers, speech and language therapists, refugee communities, humanitarian service providers and other key stakeholders. These two strands are inter-connected, particularly through issues of culture and diversity. Key messages will be given for each piece of work. 

Biography: Julie Marshall is Professor of Communication Disability and a Speech and Language Therapist by background. She has worked for 37 years in the UK and internationally, particularly in Africa. She has been at Manchester Metropolitan University for 20 years. Julie researches, teaches and supports service developments that aim to improve life participation for people who experience communication disability. Much of her work has been with under-served groups. Her work has covered a range of topics including people’s knowledge and understanding of communication and communication disability, culture and communication disability, street-connected children, refugees who experience sexual and gender-based violence, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, accessible communication, helping to establish new services, education and training programmes for SLTs, teachers and the health workforce, and supporting UK speech and language therapists to work in Low and Middle-Income countries.

Churchill Fellows announced

Congratulations to my friend Santiago Velasquez who was named a 2022 Churchill Fellow today:

https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/fellow/santiago-velasquez-hurtado-qld-2022/

The Churchill Fellows' Association of Queensland Churchill Fellowship to identify and assess best universal design approaches to improve public transport in Australia

To explore, experience, utilise and analyse the universal design approaches used by the best public transportation systems worldwide. This will enable Australia to move away from a limited accessible design approach based on minimum standards compliance to embrace a universal design approach that doesn’t just benefit a select group of people (Vision impaired individuals and wheelchair users). The obtained knowledge will serve as the foundation for developing and implementing universal design approaches to public transport conveyances and infrastructure around Australia. The long-term objective is to make public transportation systems around Australia work for all people, with and without any disabilities. Travel to Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, UK

Communication rights for teenagers with cerebral palsy in Ukraine

The following article has just been published reporting on a human rights program for teenagers in Ukraine with cerebral palsy: 

Maksymchuk, B., Sarancha, I., Husak, A., Avramenko, O., Kuzmenko, I., Kuzmenko, V., Slyusarenko, N., Chepurna, L., Pankevych, V., Babii, I., & Maksymchuk, I. (2022). Implementing the course “Human Rights” for children with special needs under the changed socio-educational conditions. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 14(3), 428-443. https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/14.3/617 

In the article, they reference my paper:

McLeod, S. (2018). Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2018.1428687

It is amazing to see the reach of this work!

The Queen's dedication to service

This week saw the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. I was honoured to receive The Queens Award 40 years ago, and my certificate contains her personal signature. To receive the Queens Award, there was a rigorous set of requirements, including volunteering, which I undertook over many months in the children's ward at my local hospital. The Queen's dedication to service is echoed in the motto of Charles Sturt University - "For the public good". I thank the Queen for her dedication to service.

ECV2022 registrations - week 3

801 registrations from 53 countries: Argentina, Armenia (Армения), Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia , Canada, Chile, China, Cook Islands , Costa Rica , Croatia, Denmark, Dubai , England, Ethiopia, Fiji, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy , Korea, Latvia (Латвия), Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Philippines , Qatar, Réunion, Scotland , Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, the Netherlands, Tonga, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Zambia

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/early-childhood-voices-conference-2022-ecv2022-tickets-399348240337

Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics - Three special issues focussing on multilingual children with speech sound disorders

Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics has just published three special issues focussing on multilingual children with speech sound disorders. "Individual profiles in phonological development across languages". Guest editors: Barbara May Bernhardt and Joseph Stemberger

• Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Volume 36, Issue 7 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iclp20/36/7 
• Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Volume 36, Issue 8 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iclp20/36/8 
• Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Volume 36, Issue 9 https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iclp20/36/9 

Here is the introduction:

Stemberger, J. P., & Bernhardt, B. M. (2022). Individual profiles in protracted phonological development across languages: Introduction to the special issue. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 36(7), 597-616. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699206.2022.2057871

 

Languages covered: Akan, Farsi, Greek, Japanese, Kuwaiti Arabic, Mandarin, French, Portuguese, Granada Spanish, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovenian, English, German

 

Adjunct staff at CSU

I am very honoured to oversee a number of excellent adjunct staff at CSU.

Recently we have welcomed three new appointments:

• Adjunct Research Professor Carol Kit Sum To - Hong Kong SAR China
  
• Adjunct Associate Research Professor Kate Crowe - Iceland
  
• Adjunct Research Fellow Olebeng Mahura - South Africa
  

Information about adjunct appointments is here:  https://www.csu.edu.au/division/people-culture/current-staff/recruitment-and-appointment/visiting-and-adjunct/adjunct-appointments

Dr Olebeng Mahura