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I think there should be a credentialed peer reviewing profession. It would be alt-ac and pay well, and turn academic journal publishing into something more along the lines of ordinary publishing. PhD for peer review and/or industry should be a viable track in graduate programs. Maybe far-fetched, but probably a way out of the current nonsense. It would take a journal of note to pilot such a thing. It would also have the benefit of eliminating most of the ego function of peer reviewing, and the fact that in some fields peer review if blind in name only.

I don't doubt that reviewing is noticed by colleagues and promotion committees, but it is still pretty low on the promotion and tenure totem poll relative to the other things you could be spending your time on (including associate to full). That's part of the problem, and one of the reasons a good deal of peer review is phoned in.