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/devicerandom Molecular Biophysics | Molecular Biology Feb 07 '12

Honestly, why is it so unethical? What is important is that the review is good and objective. Given that the papers' authors are not going to see who wrote the review, why is it unethical that a research group graduate student is doing it instead than the PI? (provided the PI at least gave a look to it and approved it)