From a Highwire Press Announcement:
With the recent launch of the peer-reviewed research journal, SAGE Open (www.sageopen.com), and its new, interactive article rating feature, HighWire Press demonstrates its support of independent scholarly publishers with a tool designed for Open Access publications. This new feature, 5-star article rating, gives readers the opportunity to weigh in on the quality and impact of a particular article in a transparent open community forum.
As a supplement to the basic peer review that is practiced by the rapid publication process for open access journals, article-level comments and ratings offer real-time feedback from readers, allowing them to contribute publicly in the scholarly journal discussion. Over time, as the article accrues comments and ratings, the combined scores will become more and more meaningful as a metric to evaluate its importance and quality.
[Clip]
SAGE Open, a new publication created to support open access publishing in the social and behavioral sciences and the humanities, allows colleagues to share their insights about the quality of papers online. In order to rate an article, contributors must be a registered user of SAGE Journals Online (online.sagepub.com).
Read the Complete News Release from HighWire Press