After Peer Review
By Robert T. Pennock
What role do referees play in science?
This Article From Issue
January-February 2025
Volume 113, Number 1
Page 26
At the Lansing, Michigan, site of the 2017 March for Science, an international event to advocate for the importance of science, I was especially taken by one marcher’s placard that was a humorous twist on a classic demonstration call and response. It read:
QUICK TAKE
- The primary value of peer review is to increase trust internally with regard to a reported finding, but peer review can extend to increasing trust in policy decisions.
- The process of peer review has evolved since its beginning as public demonstrations of experiments, but many of the core tenets and purposes remain the same.
- Peer review does not guarantee the truth of a paper’s results, nor is it the only way to report valid science. But its values hold true to reproducibility, objectivity, and humility to evidence.
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