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Notes -
When you've seen enough of the sausage being made at academic journals, you're not surprised about the occasional bullshit thing that happens. I could see being that reviewer, thinking, "Whelp, their study design is pretty bullshit, but there's not really a way to say that it's wrong, especially if they've detailed it and are careful with the way they write their conclusions." Of course, just because they didn't write a totally bullshit conclusion in the article itself doesn't mean that there is anything stopping a mountain of journalists from filling in that work for them in the popular media. Like, what are the actual words that the reviewer is supposed to say to recommend rejection? And even if we could come up with some good ones, what good would they actually do in the face of a politicized editor who is willing to handpick reviewers who are sympathetic to the cause (so such good words would never be spoken) or to just run roughshod over one complaining reviewer (if one existed)?
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