When Peer Review Yields Unsound Science

To ensure the quality of what medical journals publish, their editors, beginning 200 years ago, have increasingly called on scientific peers to review new findings from research. Now, however, there is considerable evidence that many statistical and methodological errors are common in published papers and that authors often fail to discuss the limitations of their findings. Even the press releases that journals issue to steer journalists to report peer reviewed papers often exaggerate the perceived importance of findings and fail to highlight important caveats and conflicts of interest.

Read About It: New York Times

POSTED: Thursday, June 13, 2002