Academia.edu acquires Plasmyd to bring peer review into the 21st century | VentureBeat

"... In October, hundreds of journals accepted a bogus scientific paper, filled with fabricated authors and fancy-sounding jargon. For academics and researchers, the peer review process is sacred. But this “sting operation,” as UK paper the Guardian put it, threw the whole process into question. Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, Brit-born entrepreneur Richard Price is on a mission to bring modern technology to academics with his website, Academia.edu. Price recently raised $11.1 million to publish every science PDF online, and market his online platform for academics to post papers. Price realized that he could leverage Academia.edu’s massive network of scientists — 5 million and counting — to improve the peer review process. Rather than having one or two academics review a paper — why not ask dozens to take a look?  To build out the technology, Academia.edu today acquired a peer review startup called Plasymd. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the two Plasmyd founders, Adnan Akil and Kevin Wu, will join the company full-time ... An algorithm, developed by Academia.edu and Plasymd, could determine the top scientists in their field who have mastered the subject matter in question.  In future, the author of a report could perform a search in Academia.edu’s network, and reach out to the experts. Dozens of people could review the paper, rather than just one or two.  In addition, the author will have the opportunity to respond to any critiques and suggestions online. The most active users of Academia.edu have developed online profiles, and are reaching out to likeminded experts ..."