5 tips for using PubPeer to investigate scientific research errors and misconduct
- Install the PubPeer browser extension
- Don’t publish a news story simply to point out people have made negative comments
- Verify all claims made on PubPeer
- Use caution when describing the likelihood that researcher misconduct happened
- No matter how small a role a researcher plays in your story, check PubPeer before including them
As an introductory text I can recommend a 5 year old blog entry introducing PubPeer
Battle lines are being drawn on the internet, between the scientific establishment and volunteer vigilantes trying to impose their own vision of the scientific process through “post-publication peer review”.
On one side is the cream of the scientific aristocracy: a professor with a meteoric career trajectory at Imperial College London, one of the best universities in the world, and the top academic publisher, Nature Publishing Group. On the other side: a few anonymous malcontents carping on an obscure web site called PubPeer (welcome to our site!).