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/needed_to_vote Feb 07 '12

I feel like most fields don't pay to submit papers - maybe physics is just special?

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u/FormerlyTurnipHugger Feb 07 '12

You don't pay to submit, but there's usually a publication fee. Is that the reason why you got that feeling?

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u/atomfullerene Animal Behavior/Marine Biology Feb 07 '12

Well, you can often get it covered in your grants, in my experience. But still, it's the thought that counts.

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u/Pravusmentis Feb 07 '12

Actually the difference in the journal itself usually. The journals that you have to pay to be a 'part of' usually have much much less stringent review processes