To My Research and Extension Colleagues

This blog entry is for my soybean research and extension colleagues. Please receive it as a friendly request for help.

My postings on this site are intended to provide the most recently generated soybean information to Mississippi producers. To do this, I lean heavily on information that is published in journals, university bulletins and information sheets, and extension bulletins and fact sheets for several reasons.

• I always assume that information in these sources has been checked for accuracy and reviewed for quality of content and experimental conduct.


• I rely on these sources of information because they are findable on university websites and in libraries.


• They are assumed credible because they are on a reputable website or in a reputable publication.

Much good and credible research results never make it to the above venues. They are hidden away in annual reports, power point presentations, or other non-reviewed venues. The time, effort, and expense (usually with public monies) spent to obtain these results was just as great as that for information that appears in the aforementioned venues, but the final phase was not completed. Plus, I either won’t find it or I will be wary of its credibility since it was not reviewed for quality of content.

This is especially true of oral presentations because, as we all know, an oral presentation can be slanted in any direction the presenter wants. That is not to say the presentation is tainted; rather, it just hasn’t been reviewed by colleagues for quality of content and validity of the interpretation of the results.

Now my request.

• If you have results from research that will be beneficial to Mississippi soybean producers, I encourage you to submit it through your institution’s review process for publication. Sometimes that may be the least interesting part since you already know the results and taking the time to put it into words is just not that exciting. I assure you that the information you have generated will be the most credible if you complete this final phase.


• Contact me and I will gladly work with you to put a condensed version on this website. You will be given full credit for the work and the presentation, and will have the professional satisfaction of knowing that your results are available to the producers who most likely supported it monetarily and most certainly need it to improve their production potential.

I look forward to hearing from you.

larryheatherly@bellsouth.net