Pay researchers to spot errors in published papers
Came across this on Slashdot – seemed a good idea, assuming that it turns out to be practical and scalable.
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Is there a way to make pay-to-publish journals pay for it? 
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Probably not – but it is possible that the fact that pay-to-publish journals won’t pay for it becomes a further distinguishing factor versus more legitimate journals.
There is also the issue of scarce resources and cost-benefit. I doubt if there is sufficient researchers or money to pay them to check every article. This means that there will need to be prioritisation, and if an article has a high priority, it would seem likely that it would not need to get itself published in a p2p journal.
I suspect, if it takes on at all, it will take on first with those organisations that are in a position to reap direct benefits from it – prestigious journals using it as a form of reputational insurance, grant-offering organisation using it to ensure that they aren’t throwing good money after bad in follow-up grants, etc. Only then, after it is widely established (assuming that this happens at all) is there likely to be pressure on other organisations to follow suit in enforcing this new norm.
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