About The Top Professional
Professional achievement deserves authoritative presentation.
The Top Professional publishes profiles of accomplished practitioners in which every statement is recorded against a dated source. On a wide screen the source is printed in the margin beside the sentence it supports, so a reader can tell where a claim came from without leaving the page.
- Profiles on the record
- 74
- Fields
- 6
- Every published claim
- Sourced
Why we exist
Anyone will publish a flattering paragraph.
There is no shortage of places that will print a few admiring sentences about a professional. What is missing is one where a reader can tell, without leaving the page, where each claim came from and when somebody last checked it.
That gap is the whole reason for this publication. A profile here is assembled from recorded facts, each one tied to a source with the date an editor read it, and the software refuses to publish a sentence that rests on nothing.
It makes the profiles shorter. Plenty of true and interesting things about a person cannot appear, because nobody has produced a source for them. A profile that looks thin usually means the evidence is thin, and we would rather show that than pad it.
The standard
Evidence before adjectives.
Four rules decide whether a sentence is allowed onto this site. They are enforced by the software, not by good intentions.
-
Source
Every published claim is tied to a source. A sentence that declares no source does not publish.
-
Date
Sources carry the date an editor actually read them. A claim you cannot go back and check is not evidence.
-
Review
Profiles are reviewed before publication by somebody who did not write them.
-
Corrections
A correction is checked against the underlying source, not against who is asking.
Boundaries
What this is not.
-
Not a ranking
Nothing here is ordered by merit. Being listed does not imply that somebody is better than anybody who is not.
-
Not an awarding body
No prize is given and no honour is conferred. The publication records standing, it does not confer it.
-
Not a certification or licensing authority
We do not certify, accredit or license anyone, and nothing here substitutes for a register that does.
Process
How a profile is made.
-
01
Source
An editor records a source and the date they read it: a register, a journal record, a patent, an employer page, or a questionnaire the subject completed.
-
02
Research
What that source says is recorded one fact at a time, in the source wording as well as in plain words, with its standing marked.
-
03
Editorial review
A draft is assembled only from those facts. Every sentence declares which it rests on, and a second reader approves it.
-
04
Publication
The profile publishes with its sources numbered and dated beneath it, and printed in the margin on a wide screen.
-
05
Correction
A correction goes back to the source. If the source was wrong the entry changes and the profile changes with it.
Who writes it
The subject does not control the wording.
Profiles are prepared by editorial staff from recorded sources, and approved by somebody who did not write them.
Subjects can supply information, correct what is wrong, and withdraw their consent at any time. They do not get to approve the wording, and they cannot ask for a flattering line that no source supports.
That distinction is the point of the thing. A profile the subject writes is a biography. A profile the subject can check but not dictate is a record.
Recognition
Professional recognition, presented properly.
Recognition here means a profile prepared to the standard above and published under this masthead: sourced, dated, reviewed by a second editor, and correctable. It is not a prize, and it is not a position in a league table.
Contact
Three ways to reach the desk.
-
Editorial
Questions about the publication, how a profile was prepared, or the sourcing behind a particular statement.
Read how profiles are prepared -
Recognition
Enquiries about being considered for a profile, and questions about what consideration involves.
Request recognition -
Corrections
Something on a profile is wrong, out of date, or rests on a source that does not say what we say it says.
How corrections work
A profile that can be checked is worth more than one that cannot.