Panellists will discuss antisocial behaviour in small islands during an inaugural research conference this summer.

The Bermuda Journal of Academic Research is organising the event on July 24, which will also feature a keynote address from Bermudian neuroscientist Eve DeRosa and three different breakout sessions — health and social science, business and economics and the environment and natural science.

Submissions in the first edition of the Bermuda Journal of Academic Research, published online in March, explore cannabis prohibition, partition narratives, how labour supply affects agricultural households, Zambian debt and the cost of trade conflicts.

The journal team interviewed Marla Dukharan, a Caribbean economist specialising in small-island developing states, for the first of its Expert Views series.

The journal’s website states that Expert Views “brings together leading thinkers, from policymakers to researchers, for in-depth conversations on issues of contemporary scholarly and policy relevance”.

The article examines pressures that offshore financial centres present to developing islands and general challenges affecting island states.

Kyaida Lanthier, BJAR co-chief editor, encouraged students and policymakers to take part.

She explained: “For students and younger people, I think that attending can give them an idea of a route they can go down as a future career or maybe inspire them to get involved in research.

“For established researchers and policymakers attending, I think it’s a great opportunity for networking, we’re going to have a whole networking hour set aside at the end of the conference.”

Ms Lanthier added: “A lot of the time there’s overlap in our fields that we do research and spend a lot of time in, but sometimes it’s hard to see when you’re only talking to people within your same field. So conferences like this that are multidisciplinary really bring together people who can have these different conversations and see how they could collaborate in the future.”

Dr DeRosa, the outgoing Dean of Faculty at Cornell University, is trained in human and animal neuroscience and earned a PhD in experimental psychology from Harvard University.

A venue for the conference has to be confirmed and 150 tickets are available. General admission is $50 with discounts for students and senior citizens.

Sofia Spence, BJAR outreach and partnerships manager, said the team hoped to get sponsored attendance from Bermuda College, which backed the journal’s launch last year, and research institutions across the island for the conference.

She added: “We’re also in conversation with private firms to see if we can get delegations of their staff and interns to come to our conference for a bit of a cheaper price.”

Ms Lanthier said the journal team was receiving a lot more submissions from Bermudian researchers for its upcoming second edition, which she hoped would be published by the end of this year.

Submissions for the edition opened on May 15 and will close on September 1.

Researchers interested in presenting in July should visit bermudajournal.org/conference. The top presenter in each category can receive up to $1,000.

• Tickets are available via Ptix.bm. To sponsor or volunteer, visitbermudajournal.orgor e-mail researchjournalbda@gmail.com