Scientists around the globe nowadays regularly take to the internet to scrutinize research after it’s been published — including to run their own analyses of the data and spot mistakes or fraud.
And as interest in this so-called post-publication peer review has swelled, one lawyer argues, biotech and pharma companies would do well to take note. If companies and their investors aren’t reading these sites, they may be the last to know when industry-funded research is called into question.
The most prominent forum for these discussions is PubPeer, where anyone can create an anonymous account and comment on published research papers. Many of the posts on PubPeer point out instances of plagiarism and duplicated or manipulated images — all of which represent retractable offenses and serious scientific misconduct. But posters often note erroneous data, flawed methodology, or even just sloppy thinking that somehow escaped the scrutiny of peer reviewers before the article was published.
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