What "Peer Review" Means

Stephan Lewandowsky succinctly describes the meaning of "peer review":

...peer reviewed science is not indiscriminate: not all opinions are equal and one cannot choose what to believe on the basis of whim or ideology. What counts are evidence, logic, and competence.

Peer reviewed science is egalitarian but not indiscriminate.

Science carries with it responsibilities such as accountability and subsequent scrutiny—peer review is a spam filter, which works well but not perfectly. The true value of a peer reviewed article lies in whether or not it survives scrutiny upon publication.

If it does not, then peer reviewed science is self-correcting and eventually cleanses the occasional junk that penetrated the spam filter.