Introducing PubPeer : A website for centralized post-publication peer review

By Brandon Stell

Abstract

Can we reduce the flaws in research thanks to a new kind of assessments on papers by the scientific community? In his lecture, Brandon Stell presents PubPeer, the website for centralized post-publication peer review he created in 2012. Inspired by journal club conversations, PubPeer enables scientists to discuss any publication in any field. This platform, Stell says, consequently reduces flaws in research by allowing open discussions and cross-examinations of the material. He then explains how the platform works: how to create an account, how to post comments about an article and how to answer them. He concludes his lecture by announcing the future developments for the platform in order to improve its efficiency.

Summary

00:00:10 – 1. Introduction
00:00:35 – 1.1. What is PubPeer?
00:01:05 – 1.2. PubPeer, inspired by journal clubs to disseminate information

00:02:00 – 2. The benefits of conversations on scientific articles
00:03:00 – 2.1. PubPeer helps determine the quality of publications
00:04:00 – 2.2. PubPeer helps reducing flaws in research
00:05:28 – 2.3. Example of a public policy based on a flawed research: the Poldermans case
00:06:54 – 2.4. Examples of surveys about flaws in scientific publications

00:11:13 – 3. How does PubPeer work?
00:12:10 – 3.1. How to enter PubPeer?
00:13:00 – 3.2. How to comment a publication and how to answer the comment?
00:14:55 – 3.2.1. The principle of anonymity
00:15:18 – 3.2.2. Unregistered submissions: the role of the moderators
00:17:04 – 3.2.3. Registered submissions: the peer number
00:23:25 – 3.3. PubPeer helps pointing out the problems in publications
00:24:38 – 3.3.1. Example of the discovery of a fabricated paper
00:26:00 – 3.4. Browser add-ons

00:27:18 – 4. Statistics about PubPeer
00:27:28 – 4.1. Number of comments per month
00:27:28 – 4.2. Number of times the site is viewed per month

00:33:03 – 5. Future goals of PubPeer
00:33:10 – 5.1. A worldwide journal club
00:33:34 – 5.2. Disseminating information
00:33:46 – 5.3. Encouraging the use of preprint
00:34:05 – 5.4. The PubPeer nonprofit foundation
00:34:37 – 5.5. Helping the discovery of science
00:34:37 – 5.6. Examples of other post-publication peer review websites