Editors are essential for jockeying the peer reviewers. It does happen sometimes where you get a malicious peer reviewer. Maybe they don't understand the scienc

Editors are essential for jockeying the peer reviewers. It does happen sometimes where you get a malicious peer reviewer. Maybe they don't understand the science, maybe the conclusions disagree with ones from their own work, maybe you are scooping their current work without realizing it, or maybe they just have an axe to grind with your principle investigator. I've seen it happen and it can be ugly, but the editor serves as a backstop here. They can look at what both of you are saying as the adult in the room, and usually they assign a new reviewer. Editors are also the whip for lazy reviewers, since they set the deadlines.