From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2018 09:36:18 +0000

Do we know why this service has not been used much? I assume that
PubMed did a survey of potential users before they started this
service and would hope that they would do a different survey to find
out why it has not worked. I cannot see how it can be a valuable
experiment if they do not find out why it did not work. I know (Ann)
are just the messenger but maybe someone on this list is associated
with PubMed.

My memory is that Nature did some work in this area some time ago and
that they discontinued their services because of lack of use but I do
not know what they learnt from the experiments.  Maybe they told us. I
have not searched with any great perseverance because it is so
difficult to find projects like this unless they are fairly recent.

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: Ann Shumelda Okerson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2018 23:56:42 -0500

PubMed Commons has been a valuable experiment in supporting discussion
of published scientific literature. The service was first introduced
as a pilot project in the fall of 2013 and was reviewed in 2015.
Despite low levels of use at that time, NIH decided to extend the
effort for another year or two in hopes that participation would
increase. Unfortunately, usage has remained minimal, with comments
submitted on only 6,000 of the 28 million articles indexed in PubMed.

While many worthwhile comments were made through the service during
its 4 years of operation, NIH has decided that the low level of
participation does not warrant continued investment in the project,
particularly given the availability of other commenting venues.

https://ncbiinsights.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2018/02/01/pubmed-commons-to-be-discontinued/