29 July

It's fairly standard to say that peer review is the test of objectivity in science. For most of the history of science, it didn't even exist. None of the giants of modern science had a single publication peer-reviewed. You can see what Einstein thought when a journal editor tried, in 1936. Nature, the world's pre-eminent science journal, didn't have formal peer review until 1973. Peer review was invented after WW2, when a tidal wave of new highly technical science (driven by the war effort winding down) overwhelmed publishers. It was never a test of the truth of anything, it was a test for 'does this paper 'fit' our journal'? It also gave scientists some control over what counted as science, at a time government started to fund their work. As always, it was a status thing. It still is. The group determines what is 'acceptable' science. Peer pressure.