Author: Gavin Sherlock
Position: Assistant Professor
Institution: Stanford University
E-mail: sherlock@genome.stanford.edu
Submitted Date: April 16, 2007
Published Date: April 18, 2007
This comment was originally posted as a “Reader Response” on the publication date indicated above. All Reader Responses are now available as comments.

An alternative system, which doesn't require holding articles in editorial limbo (which seems not to be in the editorial spirit) is to choose the reviewers of the article based on the length of time those reviewers typically take, and the length of time that the author usually takes, matching them up. Thus, if you usually take 6 weeks on average to review a manuscript, your manuscripts will be sent to reviewers that usually take that long too. On the other hand, if you normally review within a few days, you manuscripts will be matched up with suitably rapid reviewers. Either system requires a good database of reviewers though, and how quickly they review. In the absence of journals sharing such information, it would likely not be implementable.