PubMed Commons, new comments section for papers in pubmed

[Doug]

Pubmed just launched the pilot phase of PubMed commons, "a system that enables researchers to share their opinions about scientific publications". If it is used responsibly this could be incredibly valuable. Most of the time I skim abstracts to see if a paper contains relevant info I am looking for. But given the nature of scientific writing these can sometimes be pretty tough to penetrate. I think personal comments could help here. They might also help reveal important findings that I didn't notice the first time I read a paper. It will also be fascinating (perhaps not in a good way) to see what people say about your own papers. In any case, it will be interesting to see where this goes.

[m/z]

Sounds interesting. However, they say that:
"Accounts should be established with a user's true identity -- pseudonyms and anonymous accounts are not allowed..."
Sometimes it is perhaps better if you allow people to also be anonymous? - this can generate a more open and constructive debate. I doubt if spamming and trolling is going to be a big issue in the science community anyway, but of cause I understand their reasoning...