Journal Submission & Peer Review
How to Anonymize a Manuscript for Blind Peer Review
A failure-proof pre-submission sanitization protocol for double-blind peer review: separating the Title Page, neutralizing self-citations under APA 7, redacting ethics committee names, Windows/Mac Word Document Inspector metadata stripping, and PDF/LaTeX anonymization.
Direct Answer
To anonymize a manuscript for double-blind peer review, separate all author names, institutional affiliations, and grant acknowledgments into an independent Title Page file; reframe self-citations in the objective third person or apply journal-mandated [Author, Year] masking; generalize institutional ethics review board names; and permanently purge digital document properties using Microsoft Word Document Inspector (Windows) or Protect Document Privacy (macOS) before generating neutral-named submission files.
Preflight Audit
Double-Blind Submission Preflight Checkpoints
- 01
Split manuscript into two distinct files: an unblinded Title Page and a fully sanitized Blinded Manuscript
- 02
Reframe all author self-citations in the objective third person or apply journal-mandated [Author, Year] masking
- 03
Redact university names, hospital sites, and specific IRB protocol numbers from ethics approval statements
- 04
Execute Microsoft Word Document Inspector (Windows) or Protect Document Privacy (macOS) to scrub file properties
- 05
Accept all tracked changes, remove author initials from comment bubbles, and wipe image EXIF data
- 06
Assign strictly neutral file names (e.g., Blinded_Manuscript.docx) with zero author surnames or grant codes
1 / 6
Implement the Two-Dossier Architecture: Title Page vs. Blinded Manuscript
The foundational principle of double-blind (double-anonymized) peer review across international publishers (Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, IEEE, and ACM) is the strict structural segregation of author identity from scientific content. When submitting to a double-blind journal, you must prepare and upload at least two separate master documents to the editorial portal.
The Unblinded Title Page file contains: full article title, running head, complete names and professional affiliations of all authors, ORCID iDs, corresponding author contact details (institutional address, telephone, email), formal acknowledgments, funding and grant award declarations (including grant numbers from NIH, NSF, Horizon Europe, or Wellcome Trust), conflict of interest disclosures, and CRediT contributor role statements. This document is retained exclusively for editorial office records and is never dispatched to peer reviewers.
The Blinded Manuscript file contains: article title, abstract, keywords, main scientific text (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion), tables, figures, and references. It must contain zero author names, zero departmental affiliations, zero institutional email addresses, and zero acknowledgments. Before finalizing, verify that running headers on even and odd pages contain only a shortened title, and that all footer metadata codes have been purged.
- Author names and departmental affiliations removed entirely from the text beneath the main title
- Corresponding author email, postal address, and ORCID iDs restricted strictly to the Title Page file
- Acknowledgments, financial grant details, and conflict of interest statements transferred to Title Page
- Running headers and footers inspected across odd and even pages to ensure no author names appear
2 / 6
Neutralize Self-Citations: Third-Person Framing vs. APA 7 Placeholder Masking
The most frequent accidental de-anonymization occurs through self-citation syntax in the literature review and methodology. Phrasing such as 'In our earlier work (Johnson et al., 2022), we established...' or 'Extending our laboratory's proprietary synthesis protocol (Davis, 2021)...' immediately signals author identity to expert reviewers.
Two recognized editorial approaches exist to address self-citations. Approach A (Universal & Preferred) reframes your previous publications in the objective third person, discussing them exactly as you would any independent scholarly group: 'As Johnson et al. (2022) previously established...' or 'Applying the synthesis protocol developed by Davis (2021)...'. This preserves vital bibliographic context, enables reviewers to assess the methodological lineage, and prevents citation indexing errors post-acceptance.
Approach B (Mandated Placeholder Masking) applies when a journal's Author Guidelines explicitly prohibit any visible self-citations. Under APA Style (7th Edition) and specific society rules, replace in-text citations with '(Author, 2022)' or '[Masked for Review, 2022]'. In the reference list, sort the entry alphabetically under 'A' or at the end of the bibliography: 'Author. (2022). [Title masked for double-blind peer review].'. Caution: Never overuse placeholder citations (e.g., masking 12 references in a single manuscript), as a conspicuous cluster of anonymized entries signals a narrow research group.
- First-person possessive phrases ('our previous study', 'in our lab') rewritten in the objective third person
- If journal mandates placeholder masking, in-text citations converted to (Author, Year) or [Masked for Review]
- Masked reference list entries alphabetized correctly under 'Author' or '[Masked]' without disclosing titles
- Essential self-citations retained; tangential self-citations pruned to prevent speculative reviewer guessing
3 / 6
Redact Institutional Affiliations, Ethics Committees, and Grant Identifiers
Studies involving human participants, animals, clinical tissue, or sensitive organizational data require institutional ethics oversight. However, disclosing the exact university, medical school, or municipal institutional review board (IRB) reveals your geographic location and institutional base to reviewers.
In the blinded manuscript, generalize all ethics declarations: 'This protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of [University Name Masked for Peer Review] (Approval Protocol ID: [Redacted for Double-Blind Review]).'. Do not omit the ethics sentence entirely, as editorial screening bots will flag the manuscript as ethically non-compliant. Upload official unblinded IRB certificates and trial registration documents as 'Supplementary Material — For Editor Only' or 'Not for Review'.
Similarly, generalize geographic study locations that could narrow authorship down to a single research group. Replace 'survey administered to undergraduate nursing students at University of Michigan Hospital' with 'survey administered to undergraduate nursing students at a large public Midwestern university teaching hospital'. For data and code repositories, avoid linking to personal GitHub or Zenodo accounts; generate an anonymous view-only link via Open Science Framework (OSF) with contributor names masked.
- University name, hospital site, and specific IRB protocol numbers masked in the ethics statement
- Official unblinded ethics approval letters tagged as 'Editor Only / Not for Review' in the submission portal
- Hyperlinks to GitHub, OSF, Zenodo, or Dryad scrubbed of user avatars, commit histories, and personal usernames
- Specific geographic research locations generalized without obscuring critical clinical or cultural variables
4 / 6
Scrub Digital Metadata via Word Document Inspector & macOS Privacy Controls
Even when every character of text is meticulously de-identified, word processing software embeds comprehensive forensic metadata in the digital file container. Microsoft Word silently stores the author's login account, operating system username, organization name, computer serial identifier, template path, and total editing minutes in the document properties.
On Windows Word: Navigate to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document. In the Document Inspector dialog, ensure 'Document Properties and Personal Information', 'Comments, Revisions, and Versions', and 'Hidden Text' are checked. Click 'Inspect', review the itemized report, and click 'Remove All' next to Document Properties. Next, open File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options, and check 'Remove personal information from file properties on save'.
On macOS Word: Select Tools from the top menu bar > Protect Document. Under Privacy, enable 'Remove personal information from this file on save'. Click OK, then save and re-open the document. Furthermore, verify Word Preferences > User Information to confirm that system login strings are not being re-injected. If submitting a revised manuscript with redlines, accept all changes and stop tracking, or ensure user comment tags are anonymized to 'Author'.
- Windows Word Document Inspector executed and 'Remove All' applied to Document Properties and Personal Information
- macOS Word 'Remove personal information from this file on save' enabled under Tools > Protect Document
- File > Info properties verified: 'Author', 'Last Modified By', and 'Company' fields are completely blank
- Track Changes accepted/rejected, tracking stopped, and all comment bubbles stripped of reviewer/author names
5 / 6
Sanitize PDF Document Properties, Image EXIF Data, and File Naming
When submission systems require direct PDF uploads or automatically compile source Word documents into a reviewer PDF proof, embedded metadata can transfer directly into the PDF document dictionary. Reviewers opening the PDF in Adobe Acrobat, PDF-XChange, or a web browser can press Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on macOS) to instantly inspect the 'Author', 'Title', and 'Creator' fields.
In Adobe Acrobat Pro: Open File > Properties > Description tab, and ensure Author, Title, Subject, and Keywords are empty. In Acrobat Pro, run Tools > Redact > Sanitize Document or 'Remove Hidden Information' to purge metadata, embedded search indexes, digital signatures, and object streams. If using free tools, print to PDF using a clean virtual PDF printer with metadata passthrough disabled.
Pay equal attention to figure graphics and file names. High-resolution photographic evidence, confocal microscopy micrographs, and Western blots frequently contain EXIF camera metadata, including author names, GPS coordinates, and local file paths (e.g., C:\Users\jdoe\Desktop\Figure1.tif). Strip EXIF tags using an image editor before compiling. Finally, enforce neutral file names: never name files 'Smith_Review_Article.docx'; name them 'Blinded_Manuscript.docx', 'Main_Text.pdf', and 'Figure_1.tif'.
- PDF opened in Adobe Acrobat or browser and Document Properties (Ctrl+D / Cmd+D) verified empty
- Adobe Acrobat Pro 'Sanitize Document' or 'Remove Hidden Information' run to strip embedded metadata
- Microscopy micrographs and clinical photographs scrubbed of camera EXIF metadata and user file paths
- All submission files assigned strictly neutral names with zero author surnames, lab names, or grant codes
6 / 6
Address LaTeX, Overleaf, and Society Template Anonymization Nuances
Authors compiling manuscripts in LaTeX or Overleaf face unique de-anonymization vectors. LaTeX preambles typically define author, affiliation, and email macros that are compiled into title banners or PDF header dictionaries unless explicitly disabled by publisher anonymous options.
Utilize official publisher anonymous document class options: For ACM conferences and transactions, use \documentclass[sigconf,anonymous,review]{acmart}; for IEEE publications, use \documentclass[journal,10pt,review,anonymous]{IEEEtran}; for Springer Nature, use \documentclass[default,sn-basic,iicol,anonymous]{sn-jnl}. These switches automatically suppress author blocks and institutional footnotes while maintaining standard page geometry.
Manually audit your TeX source for custom macros and acknowledgment environments. Comment out or conditionally suppress acknowledgments using boolean switches (e.g., \ifblind ... \else \begin{acks} ... \end{acks} \fi). Crucially, inspect your hyperref package settings: ensure \hypersetup{pdfauthor={}, pdftitle={Paper Title}} is configured, as hyperref defaults to populating PDF metadata from \author{} unless explicitly overridden.
- Publisher anonymous document class options activated (e.g., [anonymous,review] in acmart or sn-jnl)
- \author{}, \affiliation{}, \email{}, and \thanks{} blocks commented out or verified fully suppressed
- Acknowledgments environment (\begin{acks}) wrapped in conditional switches or removed until camera-ready proofs
- \hypersetup configuration checked to ensure pdfauthor is set to empty string: pdfauthor={}
Desk-Reject Prevention
Top 8 De-Anonymization Pitfalls & Mitigation Safeguards
Editorial offices across Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley routinely reject or return unblinded submissions prior to reviewer dispatch. Avoid these 8 administrative failure modes.
| De-Anonymization Pitfall | Mechanism of Reviewer Exposure | Recommended Safeguard |
|---|---|---|
| Author Names in File Name | Submitting 'Smith_Jones_Manuscript_Rev.docx'. Many journal submission portals (ScholarOne, Editorial Manager) deliver files to reviewers using original author file names without automatic renaming. | Rename files to neutral conventions: 'Blinded_Manuscript.docx', 'Main_Text_Anonymous.pdf', or 'Figure_1.tiff'. |
| Tracked Changes & Comment Metadata | Deleting author names from body text, but leaving revision marks or margin comment bubbles stamped with 'Dr. Jane Doe' or institutional initials. | Accept all revisions, click 'Stop Tracking', or use Word Document Inspector to permanently anonymize reviewer and author initials to 'Author'. |
| First-Person Self-Citations | Using first-person possessive phrasing: 'As we demonstrated in our previous longitudinal study (Miller & Taylor, 2023)...' instantly unmasks the research group. | Reframe in the objective third person: 'As Miller and Taylor (2023) demonstrated, previous longitudinal findings indicated...'. |
| Specific Institutional Ethics & IRB Details | Naming the specific institutional review board, hospital ethics committee, and local registry protocol number in the methodology section. | Mask as '[Institutional Review Board name masked for double-blind peer review]' (Protocol ID: [Masked]). Upload formal unblinded certificates as 'Editor Only' files. |
| Public Repository & Data Sharing Links | Supplying active GitHub, OSF, or Zenodo URLs displaying author usernames, commit histories, contributor avatars, and institutional email addresses. | Generate an anonymous view-only link via Open Science Framework (OSF) with 'Anonymize contributor names' checked, or host data in a blinded sandbox repository. |
| Visual Masking via Black Highlighting | Highlighting text with black background color in Word or Adobe Reader without deleting the underlying characters. Reviewers can simply select, copy, and paste the hidden text. | Physically delete identifying characters and replace with bracketed placeholders '[Information redacted for double-blind review]'. |
| Document Properties Metadata Leak | Word and PDF files silently store author login accounts, computer user names, organization names, template paths, and total editing time in file properties. | Run Windows Word Document Inspector / macOS Privacy Settings / Adobe Acrobat Document Properties scrub (Ctrl+D / Cmd+D) to wipe all personal metadata. |
| Running Headers & Footers | Running headers containing 'Williams et al. / Deep Learning for Genomics' on alternating pages, or footers containing internal department document reference codes. | Audit odd and even page headers in Word. Ensure running headers contain only a shortened article title and neutral page numbering. |
Peer Review Ethics
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if an author's name or affiliation is accidentally left in a blinded manuscript?
If an author identifier is detected during initial editorial triage, the editorial office will immediately issue an 'Unblinded Submission Returned to Author' notice, requiring complete metadata re-sanitization and resubmission. This resets your submission queue and introduces a 2–4 week delay. If the breach is detected after a peer reviewer has opened the file, COPE guidelines require the editor to evaluate whether the reviewer's objectivity has been compromised; in many cases, the editor must discard the review and assign new independent reviewers, causing substantial delays.
How do I cite my own previous work in double-blind review without violating APA 7 or ethics guidelines?
The international gold standard under APA 7 and COPE guidelines is to cite your previous publications in the objective third person (e.g., 'As demonstrated by Miller & Davis, 2021...'). This avoids revealing that the authors are Miller and Davis while preserving essential scientific context. Only use placeholder masking (e.g., '[Author, 2021]') when a journal's Author Guidelines explicitly mandate total self-citation redaction. If placeholder masking is used, alphabetize entries under 'Author' in the reference list without disclosing article titles.
Where should institutional ethics approval and clinical trial registration numbers be placed?
In the blinded manuscript, the ethics statement must be retained but masked to generalize the institution: 'This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of [University Name Masked for Peer Review] (Protocol No. [Masked]).'. Never omit the statement entirely, as automated editorial screening checks for compliance keywords. Full unblinded ethical approval certificates and trial registration documents must be uploaded separately as 'Supplementary Material — For Editor Only' or 'Not for Review'.
When and where should acknowledgments and grant funding awards be added?
All acknowledgments, financial grant awards (e.g., NIH, NSF, Horizon Europe), departmental fellowships, and contributor gratitude must be placed exclusively on the separate unblinded Title Page during initial submission. They must not appear anywhere in the blinded manuscript. Once your manuscript completes peer review and receives formal acceptance, the publisher's editorial office will instruct you to merge the acknowledgments back into the final camera-ready proofs.
How do I anonymize public code repositories, data sets, or preregistrations?
Never provide direct links to personal GitHub accounts, personal Zenodo records, or institutional data archives that display contributor names or commit histories. For data and materials, use Open Science Framework (OSF) to generate an 'Anonymous View-Only Link' with the 'Anonymize contributor names' option selected. For software, export clean source code as an anonymized zip file uploaded to the submission portal as supplementary material, or host the repository in a temporary de-identified sandbox with all Git user commit tags scrubbed.
Evidence ledger
Verified Primary Sources & Governance Frameworks
Every anonymization guideline in this checklist is verified against official recommendations from international academic governance bodies, publisher standards, and software specifications.
COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers
Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines mandating mutual reviewer-author anonymity to preserve editorial objectivity and eliminate institutional and prestige bias.
Visit official documentationICMJE Recommendations: Manuscript Preparation and Submission
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors standards defining the structural separation between the unblinded Title Page and the blinded manuscript core.
Visit official documentationAPA Style (7th Edition) Masking for Peer Review
Official American Psychological Association guidelines for third-person self-citation framing and structured reference list masking under (Author, Year).
Visit official documentationElsevier Double-Blind Peer Review Guidelines for Authors
Comprehensive publisher preflight requirements for document property sanitization, separate title page ingestion, and neutral file naming conventions.
Visit official documentationMicrosoft Support: Remove Hidden Data and Personal Information
Official technical documentation for running Word Document Inspector on Windows and configuring Privacy Options to purge user metadata on file save.
Visit official documentation