Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting Launches Official Icons

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Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting (BPR3) announced today the launch of its’ official icons. BPR3 was created because several academic bloggers in different fields recognized the need to distinguish serious writing on peer-reviewed research from blog posts discussing more informal topics. According the the BRP3 website:

Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting strives to identify serious academic blog posts about peer-reviewed research by developing an icon and an aggregation site where others can look to find the best academic blogging on the Net.

Peer review is the system academics use for reviewing each other’s work and involves subjecting scholarly research that has been written up for publication to the examination of others who are experts in the same field. The goal of peer review is to ensure that authors meet the standards of their discipline. When you see the BPR3 icon displayed on a blog post, it indicates the following:

1. The blog post discusses peer-reviewed research, meaning that the research has been:
   • Reviewed by experts in the field
   • Edited
   • Archived
   • Published with clearly stated publication standards
   • Viewed as trustworthy by experts in the field
2. The blog post offers a complete formal citation of the work(s) being discussed.
3. The post author has read and understood the entire work cited.
4. The blog post links to the original source and/or provides a DOI or other universal reference number.
5. The blog post contains original work by the post author and is not simply a reproduction of the research article abstract.

Readers may report potential abuse of the BPR3 icons at the BPR3 website. Repeated abuse of the icons will result in their removal and BPR3 will cease to aggregate future posts from the offending blog. For more information, please see the research blogging icon guidelines.

Highlight HEALTH will be participating in the BPR3 initiative. I’ve already added the BPR3 icon to Highlight HEALTH articles posted over the last four months that discuss peer-reviewed research. Although most articles on Highlight HEALTH reference peer-reviewed literature, past and future posts with the primary focus being the examination of a specific peer-reviewed research article or articles will display the BPR icon shown to the right. Posts currently displaying the icon include:

• Smoking Duration vs. Intensity and the Impact on Lung Cancer Risk
• Individual Genetics, Coffee Consumption, BRCA1 and Breast Cancer
• Biodegradable Polymers for Drug and Gene Delivery
• Overweight Kids and TV: An Advertising Epidemic
• Novel Gene Suppresses Tumor Growth in Multiple Cancers
• Green Chemistry Mimics the Cellular Process of Drug Synthesis
• Irreversible Gene Expression Changes From Smoking
• Healthy Fast Food Not So Healthy
• What You Believe Can Kill You
• Second-hand Smoke Exposure Linked to Psychological Problems in Children

The long-term vision of BPR3 is a central web site where snippets of participating blog posts will be displayed alone with links back to the original posts. Readers will be able to choose the topics they’re interested in and view only those posts. Bloggers will be able to easily find people blogging on the research they’re blogging about; researchers will be able to do the same about their research. Topic-specific RSS aggregation feeds will be available as well as forums and other tools allowing researchers to collaborate in real time.