Abstract
Peer review is discussed from the perspective of different ways of making sense, most specifically, VVO Quine’s statement on the indeterminacy of radical translation. Ontological differences are examined with specific examples illustrating actual contestations. The veracity of claims of racism and exclusion by allegedly hegemonic Western-dominated editorial boards of scientific journals is interrogated. Positivism is contrasted with relational thinking and just where ‘the body’ fits into scientific practice is discussed. Paradigm and paradigm shift as constituting the rules of engagement is proposed. The method is an autoethnographic one that draws on the author’s own experience as a journals’ editor analysing peer review issues via the prism of Western philosophy on the one hand, and the Subject-Object integration of indigenous knowledge systems postulates on the other. Conspiracy theories are questioned and the proposal is that both determinacies (Cartesian and indigenous knowledge systems) need to generate new insights via dialectical engagements.