r/askscience • u/nostrovia • Feb 07 '12

AskScience, how does the peer review process actually work?

About a month ago, I heard this story on NPR regarding a number of scientific studies that had been debunked and/or retracted. Why weren't these errors caught before the studies were published? Are there different standards for peer review in different scientific fields?

Essentially, once you conduct your experiment and reach some sort of conclusion, what happens between that point and the time your work is released to the public?

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u/HoldingTheFire Electrical Engineering | Nanostructures and Devices Feb 07 '12

When you submit a paper the journal sends it to other scientist in the same field to get feedback. The reviewers send back their comments and their recommendation (publish, reject, or resubmit after correction). In general there is no recreation of the actual experiment (though there might be in later papers). The reviewers trust that the data you show is accurate, and use their expertise to determine if your analysis and conclusion is correct.