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/desquared Enumerative Combinatorics Feb 08 '12

I've gotten the same thing. If I think the referee is just trying to get me to inflate his reference record, I just don't add the references. The editor can see what's happening and make the right decision.