Textbook of Maritime Medicine

The dissemination of research is dependent of the value of the study. Research of low value should not be communicated. However, whether positive or negative, all results from sound research may contribute to cognition and have consequences for the level of knowledge and practice with regard to health and safety.

The outcome of good research should be made available to the scientific community as well as to the maritime trades and their employees. The latter may be perceived as implicit but all too often researchers in occupational health tend to hide in their institutes and the trades and workers may consequently miss important information for improving their standard of working life, health and safety. The same risk applies to maritime health and safety.

It is therefore the moral obligation to all researchers to communicate quality research results not only to the scientific community but also to the concerned workers. This is an imperative whether the results have involved the workers directly, e.g. by permitting physical examination, laboratory studies or interviews, or whether studies of the environment such as of noise emission or slip resistance of flooring or footwear have been undertaken.

One should always consider the presentation of research results (verbal or poster presentation) in national and/or international fora (such as the biannual meetings of the International Maritime Health Association (http://www.imha.net/) as well as publication in a scientific journal (e.g. one of the journals listed previously) which is likely to address the scientific target group for the results of the study. A verbal (or poster) presentation is usually made before the written publication. The advantage of this succession is that it permits, in advance of the written publication, critical comments from and discussions with others in the scientific community that shares the same interests.

The websites of a few national scientific societies of maritime health and safety and of the International Maritime Health Association are listed in Table 19.7.1

Table 19.7.1:. Examples of scientific societies dealing with maritime medicine

The researcher should seriously consider the best way(s) to reach the maritime workers and whether a national or an international dissemination of research results should be sought. The magazines of the maritime trades and unions are usually interested to receive written material for publication. Presentations and discussions at their meetings are also appreciated and the researcher is encouraged to such participation, which may also be regarded as an investment in goodwill from the trades and unions.

Several reference books deals with the process of writing scientific papers [17], and presenting scientific work [18].