Peer review is the backbone of journals, and (some) journals serve an absolutely critical function in academia: they increase the signal:noise ratio. Most of wh

Peer review is the backbone of journals, and (some) journals serve an absolutely critical function in academia: they increase the signal:noise ratio. Most of what is published is noise; without the curation provided by (certain) journals, anything of significance is very likely to be drowned out. As a casual example in the biomedical sciences, the Journal of Biological Chemistry has an output of ~30,000 pages per year, most of which is 'noise'. That's just ONE journal. The journal Cell, on the other hand, has an order of magnitude less, most of which is 'signal'. EDIT: This is not to say the peer review approach doesn't need work, and lots of it. The whole current approach to research needs an overhaul. I'm just saying it's a bit hasty to throw the baby out with the bath water.