Research
Discussing papers
A place for people who read the research to say what they make of it.
Who can comment
Comments are on research papers only. To comment you need to be signed in and to have the paper open: subscribers can comment on any paper, and everyone else on the papers they have opened with their free papers each week. Subscribers are marked as such.
Your name here
You comment under a name we give you, two or three words like Amber-Heron, never your own name or email. It stays the same across every paper.
What belongs here
- What you think of the work: its methods, results, limits and what it means.
- Related work, replications, or where you have seen something like it.
- Fair questions, and disagreement, however strong, about the work.
What does not: abuse or insults, attacks on people rather than ideas, promotion or spam, anything off topic, and accusations of misconduct against named people.
How comments are checked
Every comment is read by an automated check before it appears. Most appear straight away. Some wait for a person to look, including anything that accuses someone of wrongdoing, and some are not posted, with the reason shown to you. You can edit a comment for 15 minutes after posting, and delete it any time.
Reporting a comment
Every comment has a Report link. Reports go to the people who run Zotpaper, who may remove a comment or stop an account from commenting. You can also write to the desk.
Your data
Comments are public under your given name. If you delete your account, your comments are deleted with it. More in our privacy policy.