Professor Paula M.C. Swatman BEc, PGDipBus(BusSys), PhD
Academic Life
Like Paul, I have also held Professorial Chairs at a number of Australian universities, as well as one in Germany; and have held visiting professorships in Australia, Europe and the US. A little more detail on my professional and academic life is available on my LinkedIn site.
When we both took early retirement from full-time academic life at the end of 2009 and moved to Tasmania to retire, it became clear I really wasn’t very good at being retired. In 2010, the University of Tasmania kindly offered me an Adjunct Chair in Information Systems and I taught and supervised PhD students more or less half-time for the next 7 years.
I had been involved in Human Research Ethics committees since the mid-1990s and had been a ‘research’ member (Category F) of Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) at Monash, RMIT and UniSA over the years. I therefore joined the UTAS Social Science HREC and, in 2012, became the Chair of that Committee, a role I held in parallel with my academic work for 5 years, bringing both my HREC and academic activities with UTAS to a close at the end of December 2016.
2016 was a very busy year and saw the beginning of a significant shift in my ‘post-retirement’ working life, as I moved from a conventional academic life to one focusing entirely on HRE:
Bellberry Limited: in February, I became a researcher member of Bellberry’s group of HRECs (at that time 8 HRECs, now 12). Bellberry is a private NFP company whose mission is to: “promote and improve the welfare of human research participants and the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of research” via a fast, efficient process of ethical reviews. Specialising in clinical trial reviewing, Bellberry also reviews many social science studies and this, together with my interest in the growing need for and importance of effective data management for research, has been my focus in my work with Bellberry;
Swinburne University: in April, I was appointed as Chair of Swinburne’s HREC (SUHREC) and, until March 2020 when travel around Australia ceased to be possible, flew to Melbourne each month to chair the Committee meeting and to undertake training in HRE for staff and students. I have done this work entirely remotely since 2020 and continue to do so
Research
My background lies in Inter-Organisational Information Systems (IOS) and strategic planning for system integration. My research has focused primarily on the strategic use of E-Business and on the transformational impact of new technology on organisations.
More recently, I have been investigating the implications of social media for research, particularly those associated with Human Research Ethics. This project has grown out of my work as an HREC Chair and involves both theoretical and practical investigation of the opportunities and complexities offered by social media and data management to social science and clinical research projects.
Again like Paul, I have published in excess of 150 articles in refereed academic sources, including book chapters, journals and conferences; have refereed submissions for many journals in the Information Systems discipline; and have been an Associate Editor for several recognised journals.
More detailed information is available from my ResearchGate site
Consultancy
I have been involved in consulting throughout my academic career, with my consulting and research feeding into one another.
Since our move to Tasmania, my consulting has tended to focus on HRE-related activities, where I have been involved in helping to set up and effectively manage low risk ethics committees for a government agency and for a home-based healthcare organisation
I have also provided more traditional academic consulting to several Australian tertiary education providers in areas such as strategy and curriculum development.
Volunteering
One of the most rewarding parts of even semi-retirement is having sufficient time to volunteer in my local community. Since moving to the Huon Valley, I have been involved as a volunteer on committees and F2F user support with a variety of local service providers, including the library service and the Council, where I have a particular interest in the Council’s Health & Wellbeing area, especially in the areas of Positive Ageing and digital support for seniors. I am also a consumer representative with Health Consumers Tasmania on a variety of committees; and am a member of the Consumer Advisory Council of Asthma Australia.