we have peer review....but peer review is human, and some fields, it's a small world.
I'm not in that particular field of neuroscience (albeit Alzheimer's patients do come in to the clinic...because where else are they going to go?). But when I was in the research world, a big factor was who you knew, and who you could cozy up to, in terms of getting grants, papers published in top journals, etc. Who you ate lunch w/ in big conferences. That being said, fortunately, there was an element of recognition of skill/ability and good work, as well as a decent amount of (sometimes irrelevant) challenge/response and general peacock-ing in terms of the peer review...but it was a reminder that science is above all, a human endeavor and not immune to humanity's sins.
I'm not in that particular field of neuroscience (albeit Alzheimer's patients do come in to the clinic...because where else are they going to go?). But when I was in the research world, a big factor was who you knew, and who you could cozy up to, in terms of getting grants, papers published in top journals, etc. Who you ate lunch w/ in big conferences. That being said, fortunately, there was an element of recognition of skill/ability and good work, as well as a decent amount of (sometimes irrelevant) challenge/response and general peacock-ing in terms of the peer review...but it was a reminder that science is above all, a human endeavor and not immune to humanity's sins.