You knew.
Before you left that lab, you knew exactly what it was like inside it. You knew how the supervisor treated people. You knew what happened to the ones who asked too many questions, who pushed back, who didn't perform exactly as expected.
You knew. And when you left, you said nothing.
Not because you didn't care. Because you were scared.
Scared she would hear about it. Scared it would find its way back to your next employer. Scared that speaking the truth would cost you more than staying silent already had.
So you left. And the next researcher walked in.
Maybe you saw them arrive. Maybe you thought about warning them. Maybe you wished there was a way to say something without putting your name on it.
There wasn't. So you said nothing.
The room full of silence
Here is the thing nobody says out loud: you were not alone in that room.
The others were experiencing it too. You could see it in how carefully they chose their words around her. In how nobody asked questions in group meetings. In the way everyone smiled a little too carefully when she walked in.
Everyone knew. Nobody talked. Because nobody had a way to talk that felt safe.
That silence was not weakness. It was rational. The risk was real. Your career was real. The recommendation letter she still held was real.
But the next researcher's three years were also real. And they walked into that lab because nobody warned them.
The question
You review papers for free. You spend days on it. No credit, no payment, no recognition. You do it because science depends on honest evaluation before something gets published.
The next researcher needed honest evaluation before they signed.
You had the information. You had no safe way to share it.
That gap is exactly what RateYourPI exists to close.
Your review is anonymous. Your email is deleted the moment your review goes live. There is no record connecting you to what you wrote. The system is architecturally designed so that even we cannot identify you after the fact.
You have everything to gain. The next researcher gets the warning you wished you had. The supervisor sees that silence is no longer guaranteed.
And you have nothing to lose. Because there is nothing to find.
Are you still scared?
Good. That means you understand what it cost you to stay silent before.
Now there is a way that costs you nothing.
30 seconds. No login. Anonymous.