A point not mentioned in the article is that this formal peer review system is itself quite young. I think that sending every paper out to several reviewers onl

A point not mentioned in the article is that this formal peer review system is itself quite young. I think that sending every paper out to several reviewers only became the default once we had xerox machines -- 1960s? We did a lot of serious science before that. A bit earlier, the famous anecdote is about Einstein's offence that the Phys Rev editor would dare to send his paper for review at all -- apparently this would not have happened at a German journal of that era: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2005/09/16/einstein-vs-physical-review/ http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2005/09/16/einstein...