The COLOSS BEEBOOK: global standards in honey bee research

This Special Issue of the Journal of Apicultural Research (JAR) comprises the honey chapter (de Almeida-Muradian et al., 2020) of the COLOSS BEEBOOK Volume III “Standard methods for Apis mellifera hive product research”. The chapter describes the properties of Apis mellifera honey and standard protocols for the main methods of honey analysis. Further review papers and original research articles on honey and its properties can be found in the JAR Special Issue “Honey” published in issue 57(1) (Carreck, 2018).

This honey chapter complements the chapters on beeswax (Svečnjak et al., 2019); brood as human food (Jensen et al., 2019); propolis (Bankova et al., 2019) and royal jelly (Hu et al., 2019), which were published in the Special Issue 58(2). The remaining chapters of this volume, on pollen and venom, will be published in a final Special Issue during 2021. It is planned that the complete Volume III will then be published as a hard copy by the International Bee Research Association (IBRA) and Northern Bee Books (NBB).

The COLOSS BEEBOOK project arose from discussions at meetings of the COLOSS (Prevention of Honey Bee COlony LOSSes; www.coloss.org) association, which was established in 2008 to explore all possible reasons for honey bee colony losses (Williams et al., 2012). Those unfamiliar with the concept of the COLOSS BEEBOOK are welcome to consult the introductions to Volume I (Dietemann et al., 2013a), Volume II (Dietemann et al., 2013b), and Volume III (Dietemann et al., 2019). The vision was, and still is, to develop a definitive inventory of standard techniques and methods in honey bee research, in order to ensure that studies performed by different laboratories around the world would be directly comparable with each other. The previous lack of standards had made, for example, establishing whether honey bee colony losses had indeed increased, or were greater in some countries than others, exceptionally difficult. The BEEBOOK is not meant to standardize research itself. It focusses solely on the methods, for which standardization is useful to enable reproducibility as a cornerstone of science.

There were initial concerns by fellow scientists that the project was far too ambitious. However, a concerted effort by the editors, author teams, and manuscript reviewers achieved the task, and the first two volumes of the COLOSS BEEBOOK were published as Special issues 52(1) and 52(4) of JAR, and as hard copy volumes by IBRA (Dietemann et al., 2013c, 2013d) in 2013. The hard copy volumes were intended for use as reference copies at the laboratory bench and in the field. There was initially some doubt as to whether any copies would be sold, since the papers themselves were available to download on a “free to view” basis. Nevertheless, the initial 200 copies of each volume sold out quickly, and in 2018 they were both reprinted by IBRA and NBB on a “print on demand” basis. Both volumes are now available from the IBRA Bookshop (www.ibra.org.uk) and from Amazon.

With the completion of the originally planned three volumes of the COLOSS BEEBOOK in sight, it seems appropriate to now explore whether it has, as hoped, been fully adopted by the bee science community as an aid to collaborative science and development of our understanding of honey bees. There are several measures of this. One is the number of citations of the chapters in other scientific papers. The CrossRef database in February 2020 shows a total of 1,618 citations to BEEBOOK chapters in scientific papers, which are accumulating at a rate of approximately 30 per month. The rate of citation has increased greatly in the last 18 months, and the most highly cited chapters (Figure 1) are those on Nosema (Fries et al., 2013; 141 citations), Varroa (Dietemann et al., 2013; 123 citations) and viruses (de Miranda et al., 2013; 113 citations).

Figure 1. Total number of citations of BEEBOOK chapters according to CrossRef (as at 27 February 2020). Chapters are listed irrespective of the volume they belong to and their date of publication.

Another measure of adoption by the scientific community is the number of times that individual chapters are downloaded. The chapters from Volumes I and II had 2,986 downloads from the IBRA website between January 2013 and September 2014, before JAR was transferred to the Taylor & Francis Online platform in April 2015. Since that time, there have been nearly 100,000 downloads of BEEBOOK chapters, including the Volume III chapters published more recently (Figure 2). This is roughly 3,400 downloads per month, or an average of 100 per chapter per month. The propolis chapter (Bankova et al., 2019) has been especially popular, having been downloaded over 15,000 times since its original online publication in September 2016, making it the third most heavily downloaded paper from the more than two thousand published in JAR’s 59 volumes.

Figure 2. Number of downloads of BEEBOOK chapters from Taylor & Francis Online since April 2015 (as at 27 February 2020). Chapters are listed irrespective of the volume they belong to and their date of publication. To this number, some 3,000 downloads between first publication and April 2014 must be added, as well as copies obtained from other sources such as ResearchGate or directly from authors.

From the outset of the BEEBOOK project, it was recognized that due to the rapid development of the field of bee research, the chapters would become out of date eventually, some more rapidly than others. It was envisaged that the scientific community would wish to make additions, corrections and improvements on a “Wiki” basis. To this end, as well as being published as refereed papers in JAR, each chapter was made available in html form on the COLOSS website (www.coloss.org), in sections for each protocol, with a facility for users to make comments and suggestions. For reasons which are not entirely clear, users were reluctant to make use of this, and very few comments were ever made, so this facility was eventually withdrawn.

The need for updating the chapters, when necessary, remains, however, and the first chapter to be tackled, viruses (de Miranda et al., 2013) is currently being revised by the original writing team. Since the original publication in 2013, sadly several BEEBOOK authors have died, others have retired or for various reasons left bee research; but, many new potential authors are now working in the field. The editors therefore envisage that initial requests to update chapters can come either from the original authors, or alternatively from any other researchers in the field. They are herewith asked to approach the editors. The original lead author will then be asked whether they wish to undertake the task of updating, or wish to hand it on to others. The final authorship of revised chapters will depend entirely on the degree of rewriting necessary and the contributions of the original and new authors. Once a revised manuscript is complete, it will then be submitted to JAR for review in the normal way, and if accepted, will be published in an ordinary issue of the journal. It will then be possible to insert the published chapter into the print-on-demand hard copy volume, in substitution for the original chapter, ensuring that purchasers of the hard copies receive the most up to date version. It is for this reason that the original volumes had neither continuous page numbers nor an index.

There may be circumstances where an entire chapter is not in need of rewriting, but, for example, an entirely new major technique that deserves to be added to the chapter has been developed in that subject area. It may, therefore, be appropriate for this to be published in JAR as a “Notes and Comments” article, which can then be added as a supplement to the original chapter in the print-on-demand hard copy.

It was also envisaged at the outset that new threats to honey bees might emerge, or that new subject areas might develop. Thus, it was expected that additional chapters or volumes would need to be written. For example the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, was not considered a major threat to honey bees at the time the BEEBOOK was originally developed, but the insect has since become a pest species in many new countries. Therefore, a team coordinated by Dr Daniela Laurino of the University of Turin, Italy, is currently writing a chapter on this topic for inclusion in the BEEBOOK. Another examples lies with African and Africanized bees. These bees share many similarities with European races of Apis mellifera, so many techniques for working with them are the same. However, they also have a number of unique biological and behavioral differences, such as their migratory habits, which make specialized techniques essential. An additional chapter is, therefore, in preparation and is being coordinated by Prof. Peter Neumann of the University of Bern, Switzerland.

The first three BEEBOOK volumes were devoted to the western honey bee A. mellifera. Its close relative, the eastern hive bee Apis cerana, found only in Asia, shares many similarities, but also has many differences. A team coordinated by Prof. Panuwan Chantawanakul of the University of Chiang Mai, Thailand, is currently planning BEEBOOK Volume IV - Standard methods for Apis cerana research.

Although many COLOSS members are research scientists, and the first three volumes of the BEEBOOK concentrated on scientific techniques, many other members work in agricultural extension services and have the task of disseminating scientific knowledge to beekeepers. Therefore BEEBOOK Volume V - Standard methods for sustainable beekeeping is in the planning stages and will follow the format of earlier volumes. Global principles will be summarized by contributors from different countries who will detail regional variations in beekeeping techniques due to local conditions.

Those with ideas for further chapters or volumes of the COLOSS BEEBOOK are invited to approach the editors with a proposal and suggestions for authors. A bottom-up approach will be essential for the BEEBOOK and any similar initiatives. It can only function adequately when conceived and undertaken as a crowd effort of the respective field. In conclusion, the COLOSS BEEBOOK has been a success by every measure. Our goal is, and has always been, to improve the health of honey bee populations around the world and, ultimately, to contribute to the sustainability of beekeeping.

Norman L. Carreck^a*,
Vincent Dietemann^b,c,
Peter Neumann^b,d, and
James D. Ellis^e
aCarreck Consultancy Ltd., Shipley, West Sussex, UK;
[email protected], [email protected]
^bSwiss Bee Research Center, Agroscope, Bern, Switzerland;
^cDepartment of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland;
^dInstitute of Bee Health, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland;
^eDepartment of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

Acknowledgements

The editors would firstly like to thank the more than 350 authors from 35 countries and the numerous reviewers who wrote and refereed the BEEBOOK. We would also like to thank the International Bee Research Association and the current JAR editorial team, Taylor & Francis Ltd, and Northern Bee Books for making its publication possible. The COLOSS (Prevention of Honey Bee COlony LOSSes) Association aims to explain and prevent massive honey bee colony losses. It was funded through the COST Action FA0803. COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a unique means for European researchers to develop their own ideas and new initiatives across all scientific disciplines through trans-European networking of nationally funded research activities. The COLOSS network is now supported by the Ricola Foundation - Nature & Culture, Vetopharma and the Eva Crane Trust as well as numerous local sponsors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.