PubPub is an open-access, open-source hosting platform developed by Travis Rich of MIT during his PhD. Since then, PubPub has continued to grow and develop into a novel platform for publication, with interesting features for the users, reviewers, and editors, some of which will be explained below and some of which are still being developed in conversation with PubPub. Now, while JOTE will be using the PubPub environment to host all of our articles, we will still be using our homepage, www.jtrialerror.com, to provide updates on our upcoming events, new initiatives, recruiting, and dissemination of material. Thus, the Journal of Trial and Error will now occupy two distinct online environments.
Why use this platform?
PubPub has some unique features that make the environment distinct. While some of these features exist behind-the-scences, like their streamlined, internal peer-review system, others are features that readers will be able to use. One such feature is their “post-review” system. When viewing one of our articles in PubPub, readers have the option to leave comments on specific words or phrases. These comments could come in the form of clarifactory or problematizing questions, links to relevant literature, concerns or compliments for the author(s). JOTE hopes that this ability to comment directly on the article will encourage engagement from the community, and will help to quickly identify flaws, similarities to other experiences, methodological concerns, etc. While our articles at the Journal of Trial and Error do go through a traditional peer-review process, that process is not infallible, and we are happy to have found a platform that permits this form of community self-direction and correction.
How to use its features
Discuss: Use PubPub’s built in annotation features to give your thoughts on specific passages. To do so, please first create an account or log in into your existing one by clicking “Log In or Sign Up” in the top-right corner.
Simply highlight a relevant passage and click the comment icon, like so:
Then, type and post your thoughts in the box to the right:
Open Peer Review: JOTE is currently developing open peer review using PubPub’s in-house peer review system. Although currently not yet implemented, when ready we will be able to slightly lift the veil of academic publishing and show the changes and revisions made during peer review.
Augmented Publishing: In contrast to more static media like paper or PDFs, publishing online allows JOTE to provide clearer, more interactive visualizations of research data and experimental setups. See for instance the figure below from De Groot (2020), in which the Balloon Analogue Risk Task is illustrated interactively in addition to the usual static description found in the original paper.
