But It's Peer Reviewed! That Counts for Something, Doesn't It?
The acquisition of science, knowledge, is an accretive process. Thus Isaac Newton saw further only because he stood on the shoulders of giants. So how much of that modern peer reviewed science winds up being stood upon by those able to peer a bit further? Less than half and likely a lot less than half.
If you have any doubt read "We Must Stop the Avalanche of Low-Quality Research" at The Chronicle of Higher Education. Don't stop there though. Be sure to read "All Those Worthless Papers" too. And what about those impact factors; don't they count? Yes, but not towards reaching the goal of truth. See: "Lost in Publication: How Measurement Harms Science".
There are so many peer reviewed journals around nowadays that almost anything can be published and then be claimed to have been peer reviewed. So how do will we deal with the crush of junk science being published in peer reviewed journals? At this point I don't think anyone knows.
