So there remains an important role for a review mechanism. As a restaurateur you first hope that your restaurant is reviewed at all, and then you hope that the review is good. Note that customers have access to all restaurants, irrespective of the reviews. In contrast, traditional journals and conferences merge the review and access functionality so that readers of the journal or conference proceeding have access only to works that have a positive consensus review. In addition to documents, other technical material may also be reviewed, including software, demos, presentations, and bibliographies.
Reviews are completely public, as also the reviewer's identity.
Anyone may view any review, along with the name of the reviewer. A password-secured registration process is used to authenticate reviewer identity. The reviewer chooses what to review. In consequence, some hot material may have multiple reviews. The vast majority of research output will never be recognized with a review.