Pedro Beltrao of Public Rambling writes a stimulating post exploring whether the editor could be a “value unit” for authors and their publications, independent of the journal. He asks:“could there be freelance editors? Could the editors be separated from the publisher? Imagine [if] I read a paper from a pre-print server, ask some people to peer-review (why would they?) and sell our evaluation to a journal.

Also, can a publisher sell the editorial decision to another publisher? Lets imagine a journal that has a very high rejection rate, the editor asks referees for comments but ultimately the manuscript is rejected. The editor could then ask the authors where they want to send it next and offer to provide the referee report and editorial comments directly to the next journal to expedite the process. Could this journal get paid for this?”

Pedro is not referring here to the transfer system that some publishers, including Nature Publishing Group, offer between their journals, but to the editor taking a role rather like that of an agent in book publishing, as supervisor of the peer-review process and then advocate of the “package” of manuscript and reviews in finding the best possible journal in which to publish the work.