peer review or not, when reading you have to: * determine whether the numbers are intentionally fudged. * read the methods and results and check for possible

peer review or not, when reading you have to: * determine whether the numbers are intentionally fudged. * read the methods and results and check for possible systematic errors. * see if the data supports the conclusions of the authors. * make sure you understand the limits and implications of what the authors claim. as a layperson, I can't really do this for biology. so inevitably, I give things a quick once-over, come up with questions and look to the people I trust for answers or contradictory data. so it's basically an ad-hoc peer review.