Peer review is the backbone of progress in academic research. It’s what capitalism is to a democratic society, a system for economic production and commercial innovation that’s drenched in systemic problems of rapaciousness, but is the LWA (Least Worst Alternative) relative to other paradigms for resource allocation in large societies. So all scientific fields, from entomology to cosmology, rely on functioning peer review mechanisms, which in turn rely on that squishy notion called, “trust”. ...