Just because the bar is low doesn't mean its height is in any way related to its discernment of quality. Say, for example, the bar was simply based on the insti

Just because the bar is low doesn't mean its height is in any way related to its discernment of quality. Say, for example, the bar was simply based on the institution that the author is employed by. That may be a low bar in that anyone from Harvard can get a paper published, but it also doesn't actually tell us anything about the paper's validity. Whereas I wouldn't be skeptical of a good Rush University paper, simply because its authors weren't prestigious enough for Nature to pay attention to.