Evidence guide
What Does Peer Reviewed Mean?
Peer review is quality control by other specialists—not a guarantee that a paper is correct.
What reviewers do
Reviewers examine methods, logic, novelty and reporting, then recommend revision, rejection or publication. Editors make the final decision.
What reviewers cannot do
They rarely re-run the experiment or audit every raw data point. Fraud, subtle analytical errors and overstated conclusions can survive review.
Why it still matters
Peer review usually improves reporting and screens out obvious problems. Confidence rises further with open data, preregistration, independent replication and systematic synthesis.
A practical reading checklist
- Is this a preprint or version of record?
- Are data and code available?
- Has the paper been corrected or retracted?
- Has another team replicated it?