What is PubPeer capable of?

Many scientific studies are flawed. Often, the reason is poor methodology. Sometimes, it is outright fraud. The conventional means of correction — a letter to the journal concerned — can take months. But there is now an alternative. PubPeer is a website that lets people comment anonymously on research papers and so, in theory, helps purge the scientific literature of erroneous findings more speedily.

Of all the feelings that motivate people to take action or motivate them to avoid a certain action, regret is one of the most powerful. Because we don’t like feeling regret, and because we feel the most regret about things we can fix, regret is actually a motivator for action. If we’re feeling regret, then that’s when we’re highly likely to take action. And we’ll often take an action to avoid regret before it happens.