In theory, yes.  Among ideal rational agents, yes.<p>But in practice, science depends on the trust that scientists aren&#x27;t actively subverting the process: failing to consider alternate hypothesis, fabricating data, ignoring data, deliberately filtering for confirmatory data, groupthink, etc.<p>So an import safeguard is the ability to detect when someone is doing the above, even if the detector doesn&#x27;t know the literature well enough to refute it.<p>With that said, that doesn&#x27;t mean there&#x27;s enough evidence of misconduct to justify a subpoena in this case; I&#x27;m just saying, it&#x27;s not simply a matter of &quot;just look at the data rather than the people&quot;.