Survey proposals

Surveys are a useful means of gathering information. Factual information and knowledge base should be accessible by other means, and BESS surveys should only be used to supplement that or to survey the membership’s perceptions/attitudes/opinions on the management of certain conditions. Other forms of surveys that would be highly topical and relevant to the needs of patients and/or the NHS would also be appropriate.

Surveys are often conducted to inform future research design, more specifically to aid in grant applications for specific areas of clinical research. Surveys designed for this specific purpose will be encouraged, as it will help promote BESS as a research network.

The topic of the survey should be as specific as possible, and the questionnaire designed appropriately to extract the information required on the topic. The questions should be unambiguous and consistently easy to understand. Using clinical scenario-based questions tends to elicit better response rates.

Please find further guidance below.

Criteria

Eligibility criteria for the applicant:

  • Shoulder and Elbow consultants, orthopaedic trainee researchers supported by a Shoulder and Elbow Consultant or an Allied Health Professional.

Eligibility criteria for selection:

  • Up to three surveys will be selected each year. The theme for survey proposals must be clinical research into shoulder and elbow disorders. All surveys will be assessed by the Research Committee.

Further guidance

Instructions to authors

Requests for circulation of surveys to BESS members should be submitted covering the following aspects:

  1. Purpose of the survey, and its potential benefit to the membership
  2. Relevance of the survey topic to the needs of patients and/or the NHS
  3. Justification that the survey is necessary to answer the question/s posed, i.e., such information is not available by other means
  4. Confirmation of how the results of the survey will be utilised
  5. Plans for dissemination of survey results.

The total length of your proposal should not exceed 200 words.

BESS will retain ownership of data from surveys of its members. By submitting your survey to BESS, you agree to provide the Research Committee with a summary of your findings.

These summarised survey results will be archived on the BESS web pages to allow access to other researchers.

BESS will limit the number of surveys to a maximum of three per year. Only well-constructed surveys which adhere to the above principles will be selected for circulation to the membership. The Research Committee will provide this quality assurance by objectively assessing the surveys submitted to BESS.

Appropriately constructed surveys following the above guidelines should be submitted via the link below.

Questions can be submitted to the Research Committee via research@bess.ac.uk.

The survey proposal submission system is now open. The closing date is:

09.00, Monday, 27 March 2023

SURVEY PROPOSALS FOR 2023 HAVE NOW CLOSED.

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The BESS privacy notice is located here. Please ensure you read this before submitting your survey.