[dsqrt]

I wouldn't say that traditional journals in my field are biased in favor of top U.S. research institutions. The bias comes from the readers. Someone reading articles that are not directly connected with their research has a hard time judging whether the results are solid or not. It is unfortunately natural that scientist, often without even realizing it consciously, end up using proxies, such as the author's affiliation, when evaluating papers. My worry is that adding comments to the arXiv might institutionalize these biases and contribute to the formation of a more closed and elitist scientific community.