The first stage of most business decisions, such as marketing, hiring, and investing, is gathering data. In most cases the information is captured in the form of words. Once the gathering of data is complete, the next step is analyzing the collected words. In many cases this analysis is performed by professional analysts, such as marketing researchers, human resource managers, and portfolio managers. In light of some recent scientific research, should you believe their analysis, and their recommendations?
A recent scientific study (Rothwell, P.M. and Martyn, C.N. Reproducibility of peer review in clinical neuroscience: Is agreement between reviewers any greater than would be expected by chance alone? Brain 2000 123:19641969) measured the level of agreement between reviewers of manuscripts submitted for publication in a scientific journal. These reviewers are usually professors in universities with extensive expertise in the subject of the reviewed manuscript. The editor of the journal asked the professors two questions: 1. should the manuscript be accepted, revised, or rejected, and 2. is the priority for publication low, medium, or high. Every manuscript was...