New Light on Old Boys: Cognitive and Institutional Particularism in the Peer Review System

Peer review of grant applications, it has been suggested, might be distorted by what is popularly termed old boyism, cronyism, or particularism. We argue that the existing debate emphasizes the more uninteresting aspects of the peer review system and that the operation of old boyism, as currently understood would have little effect on the overall direction of science. We identify a phenomenon of cognitive particularism, which we consider to be more important than the institutional cronyism analyzed in previous studies. We illustrate with material drawn from observation of grant-awarding commit tees of the (British) Science and Engineering Research CounciL In the concluding discussion, we explore some of the possible implications for the peer review system.