NPR: Science Bloggers Aim to Mark 'Serious' Posts

Science Bloggers Aim to Mark 'Serious' Posts

We bloggers seem to have a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later.

But Dave Munger, a science blogger and stay-at-home dad in Davidson, N.C., wanted to find a way to show people that some blog posts are meant to carry more weight than a rant or an off-hand comment. So he and several other academic bloggers created BPR3 — Bloggers for Peer-Reviewed Research Reporting.

The purpose behind the group's site, Munger told me, is to separate useful and thoughtful comments on peer-reviewed science from posts about news releases and those just sounding off. Munger and his wife, a psychologist who teaches at Davidson College, have been doing something similar for years on their own blog, Cognitive Daily, at ScienceBlogs.

A few months ago, Sister Edith Bogue, a blogging sociologist from Minnesota, contacted Munger and asked if she could use their idea — a tab that isolates the research posts — on her site. But they realized that there was a need for something a wider group could use. So, they developed an icon and began the BPR3 blog.

Bloggers can go there to download the icon and use it in their blogs to signal visitors that the post is of a more serious, research-focused nature. The group created guidelines on what kinds of posts would qualify.

It is the Internet, of course, and Munger realizes that anyone can download an icon and stick it on a site. So in a couple of weeks, BPR3 will launch an aggregation site and RSS feed that will be monitored by Munger and his group. Bloggers will need to register to be included in these features.

So, if you came across an icon like this while surfing the Web, would it make you take that post more seriously?

6:07 PM ET | 10-30-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Isn't this taking web 2.0 technology and giving it the branding of traditional journalism and academic writing? I think that people don't look for blog posts in that way but use their judgment based on content and author. Is the post is research, why not submit it to a journal?

Sent by Lisa Neal | 10:44 PM ET | 03-13-2008

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