Burying groundbreaking research

• The peer review process may suppress opposition to mainstream theories, wishing to maintain the status quo within particular scientific fields
• Reviewers tend to be especially critical of research that contradicts their own view and much more favourable to that which matches it
• Established scientists are the ones more likely to be chosen as reviewers particularly by prestigious journals and publishers
• As a result findings that chime with current opinion are more likely to be passed down than new innovative research that challenges the established order
• Thus, peer review may have the effect of slowing down the rate of change within a particular scientific discipline