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Research communication has changed rapidly over the last decade creating new opportunities for researchers in all disciplines to communicate their research directly to an engaged audience. The communication of research now needs to be seen as a continuous process and an integral part of the research. It is now possible to set up a network of social media platforms that communicates research to a bespoke audience that may create real impact for that research. Here I look at opportunities for researchers to communicate their research to various audiences using social media.

SUMMARY In the last 2 decades, renewed attention to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) has spurred the development of antiparasitic agents, especially in light of emerging drug resistance. The need for new drugs has required in vitro screening methods using parasite culture. Furthermore, clinical laboratories sought to correlate in vitro susceptibility methods with treatment outcomes, most notably with malaria. Parasites with their various life cycles present greater complexity than bacteria, for which standardized susceptibility methods exist. This review catalogs the state-of-the-art methodologies used to evaluate the effects of drugs on key human parasites from the point of view of drug discovery as well as the need for laboratory methods that correlate with clinical outcomes.

How public relations practitioners in the United Kingdom create and maintain social capital in support of organizational objectives is considered in a research project addressing a research gap identified in its literature review. The project informs the work of a new Working Party on Social Capital established by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. The project’s empirical phase is informed by a conceptual model developed by the authors and presented in the chapter. It draws on research from behavioural economics and evolutionary biology building on theories associated with community organizing and leadership studies. The conceptual framework also features a phronetic planning tool to help practitioners balance organizational requirements against wider social responsibilities. This aspect of the framework serves as an antidote to social capital being viewed as a resource which can be appropriated for narrow organizational ends. The chapter argues that such an instrumental approach to building social capital is both counterproductive and unethical.

This study seeks to upgrade the concept of humble inquiry into humble intelligence (HI) to address a particular set of seemingly intractable challenges known as wicked problems. It locates the concept of wicked problems in the academic literature to underpin its argument that, because of their ubiquity within organizations and across communities, wicked problems have implications for the practice of PR. It suggests that many of PR’s functional challenges within organizations can be characterised as “wicked,” while the discipline’s strategic interests suggest PR has a wider role to play in helping society address other “wicked” dilemmas. Despite these issues and opportunities the article identifies how PR has yet to recognize, let alone engage systematically with the challenges conceptualized as wicked problems. To confront them, the article sets out Schein’s notion of humble inquiry and upgrades it to humble intelligence, loosely defined as a cluster of multiple and interacting capabilities that, in concert, forge a form of collective intelligence amongst a wide range of stakeholders. In this coalition, HI can harness the dispersed knowledge that exists in communities and organizations to go beyond traditional, hierarchical, and, often, isolated forms of expertise. This reorientation engages wicked problems productively by deploying multiple perspectives, extending networks, and building the social capital required for collaboration. The article concludes that as well as gaining traction on seemingly intractable challenges, HI both complements and adds value to dialogic theories of PR.

The aim of this chapter is to encourage a reorientation of creativity research in Public Relations (PR). By identifying key themes which characterise the study of creativity in PR, the chapter highlights limitations in current scholarship, including an overemphasis on what is framed as the creative individual. To offset these research gaps, the chapter introduces a collaborative perspective on creativity which is new to the field and positioned as a viable focus for future investigation. It is argued that this social conceptualisation of creativity has important implications for PR’s strategic role in organisations, its wider impact on society, while also highlighting the importance of leadership to the creative process. This perspective brings a range of factors into play for those with an interest in creativity, and to synthesise key themes, a new conceptual framework is presented to guide future research.

What are the best ways to advance PR leadership? In exploring answers, we consider the last two decades of PR literature and identify two main tendencies. We link those two with general leadership literature and practices, as well as with literature on leadership pedagogy. We conclude that, rather than recent moves to look within the field, without self-reflection, to existing PR perspectives and figures for solutions, looking outwards has greater potential to transform not only the PR leadership literature, and PR practice, but also to create less hierarchical, and more democratic and "leaderful," PR workplaces. © 2014.

This paper is presented as a counterpoint to normative research which sets out what PR practice should be and the accounts of working life put forward by leading figures in the industry. In adopting this orientation the author draws on contemporary developments in historical biography which have seen a move away from so-called “great man” perspectives on events, to research which pays attention to “everyman” accounts, particularly the personal stories of men and women experiencing the same episodes on the “front-line”. The paper suggests that a focus on C-suite narratives in public relations research has tended to result in an arid and sanitised understanding of how PR teams work. The study argues that neglecting the voices of those who do not hold formal positions of power and authority prevents a nuanced appreciation of working life and how things get done. Episodes from his career as a PR practitioner are used by the author to illustrate this point. These personal stories are framed theoretically by Chia’s (2011) research on the efficacy of the oblique. Chia contends that traditional accounts of practice underestimate the importance of peripheral and seemingly insignificant factors which can be more influential than those designed to make a difference. Through a consideration of these insights the paper positions humour as a crucial intangible asset of PR practice, while noting it remains an unappreciated and unexplored subject of scholarly inquiry in the field. To spark academic interest, the author highlights the important role humour plays in the social interactions between PR employees, particularly in the creative process, in the maintenance of morale in uncertain working environments and as a mode of resistance. This aspect of the discussion is grounded in the literature from organisational studies which explores the role of humour in work place teams (Westwood & Rhodes, 2007).

This article explores issues associated with organisational governance in the context of stakeholder engagement. It argues that both public relations (PR) research and practice have yet to address systematically the challenges inherent in this area, particularly how organisations exert power over stakeholders. Prompted by a consideration of the situational theory of power put forward by the sociologist Steven Lukes, it introduces the concept of passive aggression to PR practice. This is cited as an example of a wider phenomenon, which the author calls dark dialogue. The insights generated by these perspectives are used to highlight how theoretical approaches in the PR field that seek to understand and promote the role of dialogue in organisational-stakeholder relations face an empirical challenge. This insight is then used to highlight the limitations of what has been traditionally termed as social auditing. It is suggested that PR and social auditing practice share the same blind spots when it comes to assessing how organisations exercise power and behave towards their stakeholders. The article goes on to advocate collaboration between PR professionals and academics to practically address these issues through a reconfigured social auditing process. It ends by suggesting that action research provides a methodological framework through which these theory-practice interactions can be facilitated productively.

This article argues that little is known in public relations (PR) about the experience of leadership and, more specifically, the challenges associated with enacting desired leadership behaviours in the work place. The study focusses on the personal experiences of PR leaders and considers how exploring the interplay between a leader and their context enhances understanding of the conditions under which knowledge is enacted, or rather not enacted, in different leadership situations. The discussion is informed by perspectives from organization and leadership studies which highlight the importance of reflexivity to leadership learning. In addition to applying a reflexive lens to leadership practice in public relations, the study addresses a lack of empirical research focussing on the situated experiences of PR leaders. It considers the reflexive potential of a programme of interviews with PR practitioners providing examples to illustrate the role this form of research can play in leadership studies. The context investigated concerns the work place experiences of senior PR executives who claim to be ‘empowering leaders’. The discussion of the findings focuses on how organizational power relations distort the practitioners’ espoused leadership values and engages in a process of problematization designed to challenge the uncritical promotion of normative and decontextualised approaches to leadership. The article highlights the benefits of a reflexive orientation to PR leadership research and pedagogy, while calling for the promotion of a particular form of contextual intelligence to help practitioners confront the organizational conditions which specifically impact on their ability to lead others.

SUMMARYOpen science is a new concept for the practice of experimental laboratory-based research, such as drug discovery. The authors have recently gained experience in how to run such projects and here describe some straightforward steps others may wish to take towards more openness in their own research programmes. Existing and inexpensive online tools can solve many challenges, while some psychological barriers to the free sharing of all data and ideas are more substantial.

SUMMARYMalaria is a disease that still affects a significant proportion of the global human population. Whilst advances have been made in lowering the numbers of cases and deaths, it is clear that a strategy based solely on disease control year on year, without reducing transmission and ultimately eradicating the parasite, is unsustainable. This article highlights the current mainstay treatments alongside a selection of emerging new clinical molecules from the portfolio of Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and our partners. In each case, the key highlights from each research phase are described to demonstrate how these new potential medicines were discovered. Given the increased focus of the community on eradicating the disease, the strategy for next generation combination medicines that will provide such potential is explained.

There is a growing consensus that drug discovery thrives in an open environment. Here, we describe how the malaria community has embraced four levels of open data - open science, open innovation, open access and open source - to catalyse the development of new medicines, and consider principles that could enable open data approaches to be applied to other disease areas.

Territorial disputes between public relations and marketing are nothing new. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Hutton (2010) refocused them as a matter of survival in the face of marketing attempts “to include or subsume much or all of public relations” (p. 509). In addition to aligning with his call to resist marketing imperialism, this article seeks to renegotiate traditional turf wars between the two fields through a review of recent significant marketing books. Advocating a complexity-based perspective, it argues that evolving disciplines, like evolving species, need to respond not only to each other but also to the wider environment and that requires cooperation as well as competition. It also draws on complexity thinking as a resource for improving disciplinary intersections and for adapting to the uncertain and turbulent conditions of the present.

Malaria causes a huge humanitarian and economic burden. Parasite resistance to established and recently launched anti-malarials is a major issue which, when combined with a malaria eradication agenda, means there is a considerable need for new small molecule anti-malarials. Catalyzed by a recent surge in funding for malaria drug discovery and development, there is an increasing number of compounds in the malaria pipeline.This review covers patents published in English between January 2010 and June 2011, which feature small molecules for the treatment of malaria. Approximately 50 series of compounds are described. Patents covering clinical applications, diagnosis kits or vaccines are not included, nor patents where the principle disease focus is not malaria.There is considerable activity in the field of small molecules for malaria which is likely to continue. The ultimate goal is to identify novel drugs to support the malaria eradication agenda. This requires safe and efficacious compounds, from novel chemotypes, which rapidly kill parasites and which are readily synthesized from cheap starting materials. In addition, compounds which have activity in the liver stages or in transmission blocking may be prioritized for development over analogs related to established anti-malarial series targeting the asexual blood stages of the parasite.

This article discusses the research of economics Nobelist Elinor Ostrom. It argues her analysis of long term community co-operation contains important insights for public relations, especially in the area of community engagement. Informed by Ostrom's focus on common pool resource management, the article highlights the importance of organisations adopting an attitude of mutuality to the external stakeholder environment. It also associates public relations practice with the promotion of a social commons. It then examines Ostrom's insights on the role that face-to-face communication plays in the generation of social capital and the norms of behaviour that promote co-operation. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the practice of public relations in organisations and suggests areas for further research.

In this article, we advocate for innovation in public relations pedagogy by importing ideas and practices from four areas. The first area involves work on disruptive technology and education that applies lessons from Silicon Valley innovations to high school education. The second area considers how knowledge management and project management findings confirm the value of teaching as the cocreation of knowledge. The third draws parallels between the challenges of moving from traditional to future management and moving from traditional to future education. All three areas offer models for innovation by adopting a more improvisational, experimental, and risk-taking ethos in education. In the fourth area, we shift from theoretical advocacy to look at how these innovations feed into an example of public relations pedagogy as co-created stakeholder participation.

This article argues that organization-public relationships (OPR) generate challenges for PR as both a practical and theoretical discipline. The investigation is set against the backdrop of the growing pre-occupation with OPR in research and practice. The study highlights disconnections between how the field represents itself in an OPR context and the existence of particular attitudes and practices in each of these areas. It uses the Orwellian concept of doublethink as a conceptual device to tease out these tensions. These contradictions are framed as public relations doublethink and presented as critical propositions designed to illustrate the gaps that can exist between representation and reality. The article also debates the implications of these examples for the practical and theoretical development of public relations using research that considers how organizations listen to stakeholders on-line. It seeks to stimulate further debate through a new conceptualization of social media listening, as well as a set of inter-disciplinary insights concerned with the study of complex phenomenon. © 2014.

The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS), a study of infectious diarrhea involving over 20,000 children at seven sites in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, recently reported that the little-studied protozoan parasite Cryptosporidium ranks second to rotavirus as a cause of life-threatening diarrhea in infants and was also associated with growth stunting and excess mortality [1]. Cryptosporidium species, predominantly Cryptosporidium hominis and Cryptosporidium parvum, were previously well known for causing chronic diarrhea in AIDS patients, as well as for their chlorine resistance and their association with waterborne outbreaks in the developed world [2–4]. Numerous smaller studies had also demonstrated the importance of cryptosporidiosis in young children and its association with malnutrition (reviewed in [5]) [5–19], but Cryptosporidium had not previously garnered significant attention from the pharmaceutical industry or major funding organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The GEMS put cryptosporidiosis into context amongst more studied diarrheal pathogens and brought it to the attention of these organizations. No vaccine for cryptosporidiosis exists, and the available treatments for those most at risk are inadequate. The only licensed drug, nitazoxanide, is unreliable in severely malnourished children (~56% improvement in diarrhea at 7 days versus 26% in controls [20]), and shows no benefit relative to placebo in HIV-infected patients [20–22]. More reliable, efficacious, and faster-acting treatments are needed for these populations. Interest in Cryptosporidium drug development has correspondingly increased, and despite a limited experimental system, several new molecules with in vitro and, in some cases, validated in vivo activity against Cryptosporidium have been reported [23–35]. However, data regarding these compounds are difficult to compare due to use of differing in vitro and in vivo models and lack of assay standardization (see [36] for a thorough review of this and other barriers). A major current challenge then is to develop a common framework to help Cryptosporidium researchers and funding agencies to prioritize screening hits and leads for further development and to define essential developmental milestones. In this article, we propose a target product profile (TPP) (Table 1) and testing cascade (Fig 1) that can be used to guide this process. This TPP will undoubtedly require revision as progress is made, but can provide clear initial goals and a framework for go/no-go decision making in order to facilitate the appropriate distribution of effort and limited resources. Fig 1 Proposed development scheme and anticipated costs for Cryptosporidium drug development. Table 1 Proposed target product profile for treatments for diarrhea due to cryptosporidiosis.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been assessing the potential environmental and economic benefits of replacing greased or oiled bushings with greaseless (self-lubricated) bushings at its hydropower and navigation facilities. Products of this type currently on the market, however, were not specifically developed for the high-load, low-speed oscillating operating conditions typical for power-generation machinery. In-place testing of these materials on real-world hydroelectric equipment would pose too much risk of failure for critical facilities, and require many years to obtain meaningful performance comparisons. No standard specifications or laboratory tests for such applications have yet been developed and widely accepted. The U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) cooperated in a joint effort between the USACE Hydroelectric Design Center (HDC; Portland, Oregon) and Powertech Laboratories Inc. (Surrey, BC, Canada) to use Power-tech's equipment and the combined hydroelectric expertise of HDC and Powertech Laboratories to develop standardized test procedures and a rating system for greaseless bushing materials intended for oscillating operation in high-load, low-speed conditions. An objective of this work was to evaluate a series of greaseless bushing materials using the new testing regimen. This report documents the development of the testing regimen, discusses the bearing rating procedure, and summarizes the results of the materials testing program.

Investigation was made of the feasibility of developing criteria for the design, development, and use of training devices on the basis of principles formulated by current psychological learning theories. A number of implications for the training device situation were derived from learning principles common to most contemporary theorists. Additional implications were derived from principles characteristic of, or particularly emphasized by, specific learning theorists. The derived implications were presented as a set of guidelines to extend and amplify present human factors guides for training device design and use. These device implications or guidelines were presented in a tabular format organized and indexed according to relevance for (1) specific members of a nineteen category task/behavior classification system, and (2) types of general design problems, e.g., stimulus presentation, performance feedback, or operator output.