A Finnish fortnight

HULL, United Kingdom—After a visit earlier this year to Oulu in Finland, I made two more trips to that country, a week apart. Unlike my visit to Oulu, when snow was still on the ground, Finland was experiencing a heat wave with temperatures rising to 28 Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit), and the days were very long.The first of my last two visits was to the University of Tampere, where I had not been previously, to deliver a seminar on writing for publication to doctoral students in health sciences. My hotel was one of the tallest buildings in Tampere, and, from the roof bar, I could see lakes surrounding the city and well into the distance. The air in Finland is unpolluted.

Dinner with my hosts was in an even taller structure—the Näsineula—which has a revolving restaurant at the top. Again, the view was superb, and in the two revolutions it took to eat dinner, I was able to take it all in. I had never experienced a revolving restaurant before, so my vision of having to hold on to my plate was unfounded. The pace of revolution is quite sedate and barely perceptible, but I did wonder why the bar was getting further away during dinner, only to reappear. Yours truly really needs to get out more. 

After a weekend at home, I was back on another flight to Finland—to Helsinki. This time I was with my University of Hull and JAN colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, and we visited a place with which we are both very familiar—the University of Turku. Again, the purpose was to deliver seminars on writing for publication to doctoral students in various health sciences.

Running
I was able to fit in two lovely early-morning runs in Finland. In Tampere, I ran through fragrant forest. Apparently, after the snow clears, the smell of the tree resin emerges. In Turku, I ran along the river to the harbor and over some very picturesque bridges. I am in training for the Humber Bridge 10K race on 27 May, my first race this year. The Humber Bridge is pictured at the top of this blog entry.

I have been trying to emphasize quality over quantity in my program with frequent track training sessions—mostly spent catching up with the rest of the pack, which is much younger—and hill training, which, from start to finish, has me praying for it to stop. Derek Rickets of City of Hull Athletic Club, our fantastic coach, is ever encouraging with choice phrases, including: “Never mind, Rog; the one at the back is always benefiting the most.” I must, therefore, be gaining maximum benefit. In my heart, I want to get a good time in the race. In my head, I will just be glad to be standing at the end.

Readers of “Connecting Continents” will realize that I deliver many seminars and workshops on writing for publication. This is an integral part of my role as an editor-in-chief, and I always enjoy doing them. I have a range of presentations available, and what I deliver depends on what I’ve been requested to present. Over the years, the hot topics in academic publishing have changed. The topics that interest people also vary across the world, depending on local and national academic pressures, and awareness of issues in academic publishing varies across the world. In recent years, however, I am increasingly emphasizing publication ethics, open access, and the problem of predatory publishing.

Nurse Author & Editor
I am also making a habit of pointing audiences to the publication Nurse Author & Editor, edited by Leslie Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN. Published under the auspices of the International Academy of Nursing Editors (INANE), the online Nurse Author & Editor, to which I am a frequent contributor, can be subscribed to at no charge. It’s a good venue for sharing short, accessible, and useful pieces on emerging issues in academic publishing and on writing for publication.

I have recorded my most recent pieces as podcasts, which are available on my podcasting site and my YouTube channel. Even though I say it myself, they are proving very popular. You may want to check out two: one on writing an introduction and background to a manuscript and another on how to start a discussion section of a manuscript. The advantage of the podcasts is that they can be downloaded.

I inflicted one of my haiku on you in a recent entry. I am delighted to say that I now have an entry in the Living Haiku Anthology. I see some of the truly “big names” in haiku there, so it is a special honor to be counted amongst their number. Someone has tried several times to register my interest in haiku on my Wikipedia entry, but an editor quickly removed those attempts because there was no published evidence. Last time I checked, the link to the anthology was there, so I think the Wikipedia editors must be happy now. Anyone who doubts the rigor of Wikipedia should try creating or editing a page; little gets past the editors without scrutiny.

I have one week in Hull before I head back to the Far East for a short tour, taking in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. That will be the subject of my next entry. RNL

Roger Watson, PhD, RN, FRCP Edin, FRCN, FAAN, professor of nursing at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom and a frequent visitor to Australia and China, where he has visiting positions, is editor-in-chief of JAN and editor of Nursing Open. Click here to access Blogger-resident entries posted before 2017 in Watson’s former blog “Hanging smart.”