Peer review versus editorial review and their role in innovative science

Peer review is a widely accepted instrument for raising the quality of science. Peer review limits the enormous unstructured influx of information and the sheer amount of dubious data, which in its absence would plunge science into chaos. In particular, peer review offers the benefit of eliminating papers that suffer from poor craftsmanship or methodological shortcomings, especially in the experimental sciences. However, we believe that peer review is not always appropriate for the evaluation of controversial hypothetical science. We argue that the process of peer review can be prone to bias towards ideas that affirm the prior convictions of reviewers and against innovation and radical new ideas. Innovative hypotheses are thus highly vulnerable to being “filtered out” or made to accord with conventional wisdom by the peer review process. Consequently, having introduced peer review, the Elsevier journal Medical Hypotheses may be unable to continue its tradition as a radical journal allowing discussion of improbable or unconventional ideas. Hence we conclude by asking the publisher to consider re-introducing the system of editorial review to Medical Hypotheses.

Bettina Neunteufl | Mike Morris | Michael Hajek | Thomas Baumgartner | Mike Sullivan | Seth Roberts | Michael Baumgartner | Georg Steinhauser | William Bains | Wolfgang Steinhauser | Jafar Kolahi | Teresa Biermann | Dimitrije Nikolić | Tomasz Drewa | Max Bichler | Georg Gittler | Carlos A. Vega | Peter Celec | Christopher Exley | John R. Skoyles | Juan F. Gomez | Johann Summhammer | Thomas Schwarzgruber | Jason Hart | Stefan Risch | Ian Young | Michael Dwyer | Heiner Rindermann | Bernhard Lendl | Ian Prince | Petar Ivanovski | Antonei B. Csoka | Reinhard Stindl | Nicholas J. G. Pearce | Nick Wilson | Jonathan Barnett | Roy Calne | Manuel Weinberger | Dennis Mangan | Evan Lewis | Michaela Foster | Arunachalam Kumar | Wolfram Adlassnig | Jesaka Ahau Risch | Serena Anderlini | Petros Arguriou | Aaron Zolen Armendariz | Clark Baker | Martin Barnes | Charles A. Bendall | Yvonne S. Bender | Ronaldo Bini | Eduardo Blanco | John Bleau | Anthony Brink | Darin Brown | Christopher Burghuber | Brian Carter | Cesar Castaño | Maria Eugenia Celis | Nicky Clarke | David Cockrell | David Collins | Brian Coogan | Jennifer Craig | Cal Crilly | David Crowe | Chaza Darwich | Topiciprin Kebos | Michele DeRinaldi | Bongani Dlamini | Fabienne Eder | Raúl Ehrichs Palma | Dean Esmay | Catherine Evans Rött | Robin Falkov | Celia Ingrid Farber | William Fearn | Sophie Felsmann | Jarl Flensmark | Andrew K. Fletcher | Kostas N. Fountoulakis | Jim Fouratt | Jesus Garcia Blanca | Manuel Garrido Sotelo | Florian Gittler | Juan Gomez | Maria Grazia Gonzales Polar | Jossina Gonzalez | Christoph Gösselsberger | Lynn Habermacher | Faith Hakala | Mary-Sue Haliburton | John Robert Hankins | Sepp Hasslberger | Donalyn Hennessey | Andrea Herrmann | Mike Hersee | Connie Howard | Suzanne Humphries | Laeeth Isharc | Stephen Jenuth | Jens Jerndal | Christine Johnson | Yonas Keleta | Anna Kenny | Billie Kidd | Fritz Kohle | Marianne Koller-Peroutka | Lyubov Kostova | Alejandro Kurosawa | Tony Lance | Michael Lechermann | Michael Leuchters | Edward Lieb | Gloria Lloyd | Angelika Losek | Yao Lu | Saadia Maestracci | Alberto W. Mares | Juan Mazar Barnett | Valerie McClain | John Sydney McNair | Terry Michael | Lloyd Miller | Partizia Monzani | Belen Moran | Georg Mößmer | Johny Mountain | Onnie Mary Moyo Phuthe | Marcos Muñoz | Sheri Nakken | Anne Nduta Wambui | Devesh V. Oberoi | Gregory Obmode | Laura Ogar | Jo Ohara | Naion Olej Rybine | Bryan Owen | Kim Wilson Owen | Rakesh Parikh | Bernhard Pemmer | Chris Piper | Terence Reid | Josh Robbins | Ajeandro Romero | Michael Thaddäus Rothe | Sergio Ruiz | Juliane Sacher | Wolfgang Sackl | Markus Salletmaier | Jairaj Sanand | Clemens Sauerzopf | David Scott | Laura Seegers | David Seppi | Kyle Shields | Jolanta Siller-Matula | Beldeu Singh | Sibusio Sithole | Florian Six | Jildou Slofstra | Daphne Anne Sole | Werner F. Sommer | Mels Sonko | Chrislie J. Starr-Casanova | Marjorie Elizabeth Steakley | Konstantin Steinhoff | Johannes H. Sterba | Martin Steppan | Joe Stokely | Karri Stokely | Gilles St-Pierre | James Stratford | Christina Streli | Carl Stryg | Amhayes Tadesse | David Tavares | Laura Thompson | Alison Tomlinson | Jack Tozer | Siro I. Trevisanato | Michaela Trimmel | Nicole Turner | Paul Vahur | Jennie Byl | Tine Maas | Leo Varela | Shiloh Vermaak | Alex Villasenor | Matt Vogel | Georg Wintzigerode | Christoph Wagner | Peter Weinberger | Jennifer Finocchio Wolfe | Michael A. Woodley | Glenn Zuraw | Nicole Zwiren

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