In April, 2025 a site called Science Guardians, an "online journal club" with remarkable similarities – but also key differences – to PubPeer, launched what it called an "investigation" into PubPeer. Since then the anonymous account has posted numerous posts on X critiquing PubPeer while promising to reveal the "perpetrators of the PubPeer Network Mob".
El-Deiry has discussed publicly that he is a candidate for the top job at the National Cancer Institute. He is also a co-editor-in-chief of the journal Oncotarget. He was extended an invitation to answer questions on his thoughts on scientific publishing, post-publication review and on if he’s still in the running at NCI. His answer was this: "To clarify, I am not involved in the operations or leadership of ScienceGuardians. Like many others in the academic community, I registered on their post-publication peer review platform and have occasionally reshared posts I found of interest or relevance."
