After Richard Yarnell wrote:

"The main difference [between popular and scientific writing] is
"scientific method" and peer review.  If we distinguish between hearsay and
rigorous scientific reporting, a good deal of what is being discovered and
published now should stand the test of time."

Ron Law later posted the following message:

>The following editorial in the British Medical Journal might be of
>interest to some in light of recent discussion about the objectivity of
>science.
>
>BMJ 1997;315:759-760 (27 September)
>
>Editorials:    Peer review: reform or revolution?
>
>Time to open up the black box of peer review

***********    Etc. (the entire editorial)   *************

   From firsthand experience my colleagues and I have learned the hard way
that the anonymous review process largely accomplishes the following three
end results:

1)  Manuscripts that support prevailing viewpoint gain favorable reviews.

2)  Grant proposals that would appear to yield supportive evidence for
existing theory gain favorable reviews.

3)  The anonymous review system can thus actually slow scientific progress.

   Patrick H. Wells and I provided documentation for one such episode in
our own experience in Excursus EXC of our book:  1990  Wenner, A.M. and
P.H. Wells.  ANATOMY OF A CONTROVERSY:  The Question of a "Language" Among
Bees.  Columbia University Press.

   (Ironically, that book received severe anonymous peer review at two
levels before it was accepted for publication, a fact that has not deterred
language proponents from ignoring its content.)

                                                        Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106

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*
*     "...it is lamentable how each man draws his own different conclusions
*                from the very same fact"
*
*          Charles Darwin, in a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace on 1 May
1857
*
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