Okay, but how was kcorbitt being a devil's advocate with respect to this paper?
Re:Understanding Bias in Peer Review
by humanrebar on Friday December 01, 2017 @10:45AM
(#15824474)
He was being devil's advocate with respect to popular opinion, not this particular paper.
The paper was pretty clear that the popular opinion (among those with knowledge of the topic) is mixed, with advocates for both single blind and double blind, and that that vast majority of evaluations is done single blind - that is to say, aligned with the kcorbitt's position.
What do you mean by "devil's advocate"? Because I can't make sense of how to apply either my understanding of the term, nor the description at Wikipedia, to kcorbitt's comment.
Popular opinion among scientists, engineers, etc. is that science stands (and should stand) on its own without needing support from appeals to authority, bandwagon effects, etc.