Ensuring a Blind Peer Review

Ensuring a blind peer review. The Editor should check to see that all author identification has been removed from the file: (a) author’s reference to their own work should use the convention of “Author” plus year, and (b) the document’s Properties should not include the author’s name. The Editor should also check whether Supplementary Files can be shared with Reviewers. If the author felt the files could be presented to Reviewers, they will be submitted along with the manuscript.

Inadequately prepared submissions. If the Author has clearly failed to ensure that the submission adheres to the journal’s Author Guidelines, including the need to ensure that the submission supports a blind review, the Editor can elect to notify the Author that the work needs to be resubmitted. The author can then resubmit the improved version by email directly to the editor.