A bit "About us": PubUp is an open access online platform for researchers to discover & share journal articles that are worth reading, to discuss scientific ideas that are worth spreading, and to connect with people who share similar interests. We'd appreciate it if you provide any feedback, comments or suggestions.
Hi mende, thanks for your comments, a few things I can think of right now:
1. we want to change the current peer review system, instead of letting 2 or 3 reviewers deciding your paper's fate, why not take advantage of ALL peers in your field? We're not quite there yet as it is a big goal, and we believe this is the right direction to head to.
2. academic journal publications are growing exponentially, how to select good papers from noise? PubUp provides peer curated selection of papers that are worth reading.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea a lot, and I firmly believe web technology should be introduced to academia. It is just I don't see how you differentiate yourself from other service. For instance, the frontpage of PubUp seems strikingly similar to the "papers" page at Mendeley.
I'm completely open to an alternative service (or even a complementary one). So... I guess what I'm trying to say: Give me, one of your intended customers, a compelling use scenario or value-add proposition that might compel me to switch.
I think you've gotten the wrong end of the stick with Mendeley. It's a reference manager with social features, some of which could be used (with work on the part of the user) for discovery / post-publication review.
PubUp, in contrast, looks like it is designed specifically for those two things.
Presumably to use PubUp I don't need to store my PDFs in Mendeley, to have signed up to their web component, to have found a group of people whose opinions I trust, yadda yadda.
On a tangent Mendeley also certainly hasn't sewn up the market: the majority of researchers still use one of a couple of older, more established desktop apps for their reference management. That's certainly not to say that it's not a good product, it is, or that they won't become an incumbent eventually, I reckon they probably will. It's just that scientists are a notoriously hard bunch of people to reach.
Sounds like an excellent idea, I think. I've often thought the HN model could be applied to different fields as long as you attract the right kind of user and gain the critical mass necessary. Good luck!
My friends and I build a website for scientists to discover & share journal articles that are worth reading, to discuss scientific ideas that are worth spreading, and to connect with people who share similar interests: http://www.pubup.org/ . Please let me know what you think of the idea and the website. Thanks!
The idea is great, but just so you know... my experience in academia (anecdotal) suggests that Mendeley already has a pretty substantial lead: http://www.mendeley.com/
Me and my friend use facebook, twitter, and (mostly) have appoinment to share interesting paper to read. Discussing paper offline are the reason why we meet. Haha..
I'm completely open to an alternative service (or even a complementary one). So... I guess what I'm trying to say: Give me, one of your intended customers, a compelling use scenario or value-add proposition that might compel me to switch.
