PubPeer is taking off
Posted in Tips
PubPeer, a site for anonymous (or non-anonymous), post-publication peer review is taking off nicely. Traffic is increasing to the site and there are a lot of interesting comments, including both detailed commentary and brief observations. Some discussions are getting quite involved (over 15 comments).
Since the last time Labrigger mentioned PubPeer, they’ve added some nice features.
1: Recent comments. (pictured above) shows the most recent activity on the site.
2: Alerts. Users can choose to receive email alerts whenever someone comments on their favorite
papers.
3: Simplified author signup. Get to commenting easier.
It would be good if the anonymous authors of this nice project give some credit to the originator of the idea of anonymous post-publication commenting, as described here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.2522
[…] Previously on Labrigger: Post-publication peer review PubPeer is taking off […]
If you think that author invented the idea of anonymous commenting, even if restricted to the field of science, you are silly. This is not a singular idea that can be attributed to one person: many websites have offered anonymous commenting on primary literature for some time.
Also, that paper post-dates the founding of the site.
None of us at PubPeer had seen that link until someone brought it to our attention a few weeks ago. Having said that, we obviously take no credit for the idea of anonymous commenting and we are happy to give credit to whoever wants some. We put the site together simply because we would like to see more post-publication conversation (whether at PubPeer or elsewhere).
By the way, we have to admit that we are bit surprised at how voyeuristic the scientific community is so far. We are receiving lots of traffic to the site and a slow rate of appearance of new comments. If anyone has ideas to what’s standing in the way of people talking about their (least) favorite papers, please send us a message at contact@pubpeer.com. Does genereg have any more ideas we can give credit for? We will consider adding any features that will get people talking more about published papers!
PubPeer appears to be a variant with similarities to BioMed Critical Commentary (bm-cc.org). BMCC was popularized in the journal Science, 21 November 2008 322: 1169. To my knowledge, the first public notification of repeated use of altered images in publications by Savio Woo was from BMCC (http://bm-cc.org/processpmid.php?pmid=18812551 and http://bm-cc.org/processpmid.php?pmid=19298132), subsequent to an alert submitted to me. PubPeer now has a nice addition by uncovering repeated use of images in the cloning article. Congratulations to PubPeer. SE Kern, Editor, BioMed Critical Commentary