In a very rough analogy, this is why we have film critics, because we can't trust other institutions in the industry (studios, individual theaters, directors) a

In a very rough analogy, this is why we have film critics, because we can't trust other institutions in the industry (studios, individual theaters, directors) as a guarantee of quality. If a panel of respected tenured professors in the field ranked the best works in open access journals each month, or if there was a high profile yearly prize for best open access papers of the year, that could help disaggregate reputational effects from the publication itself. Bootstrapping this sort of thing is hard. I'm sure Nobels didn't signal as strongly in year one as they do now.