| Description | Grey literature collection of publications relating chiefly to qualitative and quantitative social research reports relating to HIV and sexual health but also including documents relating to government policies and legislation, epidemiology and international conferences on AIDS. The papers comprise of reports, booklets, leaflets, periodicals, conference abstracts and questionnaires that are chiefly organised by subject and location including separate sections for 'Non-UK Grey Literature', 'UK HIV Basic Research', 'UK HIV Policy' and UK HIV Resource Documentation'.
The collection includes publications produced by the SIGMA Research group and correspondence from various UK House of Commons Members of Parliament from lobbying on sexual health issues such as opposition to Section 28 (or Clause 28) of the Local Government Act 1988 and amending the Criminal Justice Bill on age of consent for homosexual activity legislation. The grey literature originates mainly from university based research groups but also includes reports from intergovernmental agencies, central government, local government and voluntary organisations. |
| AdminHistory | SIGMA Research is a social research group specialising in behavioural and policy aspects of HIV and sexual health. It also undertakes research and development work on aspects of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) health and well-being. Sigma is part of the Department of Social and Environmental Health Research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The research group conducts projects on a local, regional and national assessments and projects have included the Gay Men's Sex Survey (1997); the development of the national HIV prevention strategy for gay and bisexual men, 'Making it Count', (2011) with CHAPS Partners and 'The Knowledge, The Will and The Power' (2008) as part of the National African HIV Prevention (NAHIP) programme.
The research group grew out of Project SIGMA (Socio-Sexual Investigations of Gay Men and AIDS), headed by Tony Coxon and initially funded by the Medical Research Council and the DHSS and based in the University of Portsmouth, founded 1984. The early years of the project focused on using anonymised sexual diaries of gay men and conducting interviews about their lifestyles and HIV infection. In 1997, Peter Weatherburn became Director and the group joined the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2011. |