Blind peer review

Instructions to ensure blind peer review

•    Remove author names: Remove author names and affiliations from the manuscript and all accompanying files, including the title page and page headers. 
•    Replace self-citation references and footnotes: If the authors cite their own works, replace the references with [redacted] or [blinded] or [Author X]. 
•    Anonymize the project: If you are easily recognizable based on the project, you can anonymize it. 
•    Remove identifying information from file properties: Use the document inspector to search for hidden properties and remove any identifying information and also see details removing identifiers from file properties. 
•    Avoid revealing wording: Avoid revealing wording such as “my study” or “we/the authors have previously demonstrated”. 
•    Anonymize contributors: If your manuscript is pre-registered, anonymize the contributors.
•    Remove any identifying information from figures or images, including logos, location details, or patient identifiers. 

Anonymising file properties

MacIntosh Word 
Under the File menu select "Properties"
Under the Summary tab remove all of the identifying information from all of the fields.
Save the File.

Microsoft Word Document 
Instructions are for Windows Office 365.  
NOTE: It is not possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes, so save a copy of your original document before anonymizing.  

•    Open the commented document that you want to make anonymous. 
•    Save a copy under a different file name.  
•    Open the File menu on the far left of the menu ribbon. 
•    In the screen that opens, Select Info on the left-hand side bar  
•    Click on the Check for Issues box; choose “Inspect Document" from the drop-down menu. 
•    In the Document Inspector window:  
– Uncheck the Comments, Revisions, Version, and Annotations box. In this case, your purpose is to keep your comments in the document.  
– Check the "Document Properties and Personal Information" box.  
– All other boxes should be unchecked. 
•    Click the Inspect button at the bottom of the window, then when the next screen appears, click on Remove All. 
•    Finally, save the file – you may want to save it as a copy with “-anon” or “anonymized” added. It may take a few seconds for the changes to appear. 
– Comments and Changes in the file will be attributed to “Author”. 
– No names will be identified in the “Related People” area of the Info section of the File page.  

PDF files
With PDFs, the authors' names should also be removed from Document Properties found under File on Adobe Acrobat's main menu.