Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] Peer review plays a key role in scientific development. It is important to explore the effectiveness of peer review for the development and operation of the peer review system. [Design/Methodology] This research aims to review and expound why peer review is effective and why it is ineffective, the two completely different research orientations. So, from the perspective of the internal relationship between peer review and bibliometrics, by introducing the efficient market hypothesis ,which is put forward by Eugene F. Fama, winner of Nobel Prize in Economics,a evaluation path of the effectiveness of peer review from a more systematic dimension is reconstructed. [Findings/Conclusion] Holding that the effectiveness of peer review is the benchmark for the exertion of peer review function and there is a close and complex internal relationship between citation quantity, the core document measurement index and peer review results, this study puts forward an effective peer review hypothesis based on three effective forms of peer review（weak-form,semistrong-form and strong-form）. [Originality/Value] This study puts forward a brand-new explanation path on the effectiveness of peer review from a more diverse and heterogeneous perspective, which presents the inherent complexity of the peer review mechanism to a certain extent, and establishes an internal relationship between peer review and literature measurement indicators.

Key words: Peer review, Bibliometrics, Merton's norms, Efficient peer review, Science of science