“Does peer review `work’ at all? A systematic review of all the available evidence on peer review concluded that `the practice of peer review is based on faith in its effects, rather than on facts‘.”
“Who is a peer?
“Somebody doing exactly the same kind of research (in which case he or she is probably a direct competitor)?
“Somebody in the same discipline?
“Somebody who is an expert on methodology?
“And what is review? Somebody saying `The paper looks all right to me‘, which is sadly what peer review sometimes seems to be. Or somebody poring all over the paper, asking for raw data, repeating analyses, checking all the references, and making detailed suggestions for improvement?
“Such a review is vanishingly rare…
Hector Heisler's Blog 