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This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of conversation among disaster studies researchers who may be positioned at times and to varying degrees as both insiders and outsiders in relation to the contexts in which they work. Three key questions are explored: how we identify with and relate to people in our study areas, who we do research for and what this means for knowledge creation and research practice.

Prompted by the Power Prestige and Forgotten Values manifesto (2019), the authors conversed with one another by email and video call, asking questions that triggered reflection. The emerging themes informed the key questions and the structure of the paper. The authors write with three individual voices to highlight the element of dialogue and our different experiences.

Sharing in depth with other researchers from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds created space to both listen and find a voice. Emerging themes were positionality, how knowledge is used and implications for research practice. Researchers are part of a living system with the potential to serve, exploit or damage. Knowledge is generated at multiple scales, and we can act as a bridge between people and policymakers, using networks.

The authors remain open and unbiased to “new” local/contextual knowledge, adopting the attitude of a learner. Knowledge creation should focus on pragmatic outcomes such as informing emergency planning.

A novel dialogical approach is used to demonstrate the value of conversation among researchers from different backgrounds that enables them to question and challenge each other in a supportive environment. This leads to deeper understanding of our role as cross-cultural researchers and reveals unifying questions and implications for research practice.

The purpose of this paper is to present reflections of five early career researchers on the challenges of journal publishing and how to tackle them.

The authors attended a participatory workshop on demystifying academic publications. Working individually and in groups the authors shared, discussed, analysed, visualised and ranked perceived challenges and opportunities concerning academic publishing. The authors then delved into the existing literature on the subject. Following their enhanced understanding of the area, the authors reflected on the experience and learnings.

Personal confidence relating to the development of a scholarly identity was found to be a critical factor in the attitude towards journal publishing. Supervisory and peer support, accessibility to journal editors, as well as opportunities to reflect on the writing, publishing and peer review processes through participatory workshops and writing groups, were deemed more effective than formal and conventional guidance schemes.

This work adds to the available literature regarding the issue of academic publishing for PhD students and early career researchers.

The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of issues surrounding publishing apprehension, by laying out thoughts that are seldom expressed.

This paper explores ontological assumptions of disasters and introduces some concepts from Chinese disaster scholarship. The authors suggest an approach to explore and engage with different ontologies of disaster without direct comparison, that can further interdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration.

By reviewing the academic literature and focussing on two recent key translational texts by Chinese scholars, the authors show what can be revealed about ontology and the potential influence on thinking about human-environment interactions and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy.

In Chinese disaster studies, the goal of a “harmonious human-environment relationship” is a foundational concept. There is a clear hierarchical and ontological distinction between humans and the natural ecological system viewed as an integrated whole, with underlying rules that can be discovered by scientific research to enable management of a harmonious relationship.

The authors suggest a practical way to begin with the following questions: What is the societal goal/aim? What is nature? What is society? How do these interact to create disasters? And what are the implications for DRR research and practice? The authors also demonstrate the importance of probing and understanding the underlying ontologies that are the foundation for theory, which in turn is the foundation for policy and action.

Identification of ontological differences in interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research collaborations and working across these boundaries is challenging and rarely questioned. Yet, as demonstrated here, considering ontological assumptions of the causes of disaster, within and across cultures and disciplines, is essential for collaboration and further research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the awareness of library research services, the top desires for new services and overall satisfaction of undergraduate students to plan outreach and marketing efforts.

Researchers developed a survey which was administered both on an iPad and in paper copies. To gather feedback from a wide-variety of students, surveys were distributed outside campus buildings at four locations.

This study demonstrates the need to survey undergraduate students about their use of research services, to effectively plan outreach and marketing efforts. The differences between high-users’ and low-users’ expectations of the library inform and impact potential outreach and marketing efforts. Reaching both groups of students requires that not only awareness of library services increase but also that the knowledge of the value of the library increases, to convert simple awareness of services into use.

Surveys were distributed at one institution, and results may be skewed based on local demographics.

While surveying undergraduate students is common, little research exists demonstrating how outreach and marketing can be informed by evaluating feedback from high and low-users of library services.

Rethinking participation in disaster research and practice could be facilitated when practitioners are provided with opportunities to pause and reflect deeply on their work outside of the context of their own individual projects and organizational networks. The article draws from an extended collaboration between researchers from multiple countries and disciplines in a working group, which aimed at exploring ethics, participation and power in disaster management.

Under responsible engineering science and technology for disaster risk management, the authors undertook weekly meetings over four months to discuss various facets of adopting participatory methods in their individual projects in Nepal, India, the Philippines and the USA. The article develops a critical reflection of practice using an auto-ethnographical and poly-vocal approach.

The voluntary, digital, sustained, unstructured, recurring and inter-disciplinary characteristics of the authors' working group created an opportunity for researchers and practitioners from different fields and different national, cultural and linguistic backgrounds to come together and collectively issues related to participation, ethics and power.

In the paper, the authors do not offer a systematic evaluation of what was a fairly unique process. The paper offers no evaluation of the working group or others like it that focus on questions of replicability, scale and sustainability.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current work is a unique paper that focuses on situating multi-disciplinary practice within disaster risk management (DRM) and enhancing networks, capacities and expertise for professional education for engineers, physical and social scientists who are involved in research and practice. The polyvocal character of the presentation will help readers access the particular experiences of the participants, which reflect the deeply personal character of the subject matter.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

There have always been traditional differences between the various regions of the British Isles. For example, meat consumption is greater in the North than the South; most families take some meat at every meal and this extends to the children. The North is the home of the savoury meat products, eg., faggots, rissoles and similar preparations and a high meat content for such foods as sausages is expected; between 80 and 90% with the cereal only present for binding purposes. Present minimum meat contents would be considered a swindle, also the nature of the lean meat and the lean meat/fat ratio. The high water content similarly would have been unacceptable.