Ensuring a Blind Review

To ensure the integrity of the blind peer-review for submission to a journal, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from being known to each other. This involves the authors, editors, and reviewers (who upload documents as part of their review) checking to see if the following steps have been taken with regard to the text and the file properties:

  1. The authors of the document have deleted their names from the text, with "Author" and year used in the references and footnotes, instead of the authors' name, article title, etc.
  2. With Microsoft Office documents, author identification should also be removed from the properties for the file (see guide below).

For Microsoft 2010 and future versions (Windows):

  1. Click the File tab and then click Info.
  2. Select 'Check for Issues' and then from the drop down menu, select 'Inspect Document'.
  3. In the Document Inspector window, check the 'Document Properties and Personal Information' box and uncheck the other boxes.
  4. Click Inspect.
  5. Review the results of the inspection and then click 'Remove All' to remove the content.
  6. Save the file.

For MacIntosh Word 2008 and future versions:

  1. Under the File menu select "Properties".
  2. Under the Summary tab remove all of the identifying information from all of the fields.
  3. Save the File.

For Microsoft 2007 (Windows):

  1. Click on the office button in the upper-left hand corner of the office application
  2. Select "Prepare" from the menu options.
  3. Select "Properties" for the "Prepare" menu options.
  4. Delete all of the information in the document property fields that appear under the main menu options.
  5. Save the document and close the document property field section.

For Microsoft 2003 and previous versions, and Macintosh versions of Word:

  • Under the File menu select: Save As > Tools (or Options with a Mac) > Security > Remove personal information from file properties on save > Save.