How to Anonymize a Manuscript for Double-Blind Peer Review
Double-blind review hides more than your byline. See what to remove from a manuscript, including the file's own hidden data, before you submit.
Double-blind peer review means neither side knows who is on the other end. You do not see the reviewers' names, and they do not see yours. To make that work, you have to scrub your own manuscript first. Journals expect more than a deleted byline: names hide in acknowledgements, in footnotes, and inside the file itself.
What does double-anonymized review actually mean?
Publishers describe the goal in plain terms. As of September 2026, Elsevier's guidelines for authors describe journals that use double-blind peer review. Both reviewers and authors stay concealed from each other throughout the review. Most journals ask for two separate files: a title page that carries your name, and a manuscript reviewers will actually open, with no name attached. That split does more work than any single deletion, because it keeps your identity out of the file reviewers see at all.
- The manuscript title
- Every author's name and affiliation
- The corresponding author's full address, including an email address
- Acknowledgements
- The declaration-of-interest statement
Where do visible clues hide in the text?
Deleting the byline is the easy part. The harder part is scanning your own sentences for anything that still points at you. Reviewers read closely, and one leftover clue can undo the whole exercise.
- A co-author's name repeated in a figure caption or a running header
- An institution named under a table, a chart, or a photo
- A grant or funding-program number written into the methods section
- An ethics-approval or IRB (Institutional Review Board) number that includes your institution's code
- Phrases like "we have shown before" or "our earlier study," pointing at your own work
- A link to your own GitHub, OSF profile, or lab website
What hidden data stays inside the file itself?
Some clues never appear on the page. They live in fields you never scroll to. A Word document written on a shared university computer can carry your name in three or four places you never typed it.
- Document properties: author, company, and "last saved by"
- Comments and tracked changes left in the file's edit history
- The file name itself, for example jane_example_draft_v3.docx
- Metadata a LaTeX compiler writes into the PDF, often a local file path with your username
- Hidden data inside screenshots and scanned figures, saved by the camera or scanner
How do you rewrite self-citations instead of blacking them out?
Your own earlier papers are the trickiest clue, because you cannot just delete them. Reviewers need the reference to judge your work. Elsevier's guidelines give a concrete fix: use the third person. Write "Example and Klein (2024) have shown," not "we have previously demonstrated (Example, 2024)."
A German journal's manuscript guidelines go further. They ask authors to replace their name with the phrase "blinded authors" everywhere it appears, in the running text and in the reference list. Check your target journal's exact wording. Some want a placeholder name, others want a genuinely blank citation.
If you just need a blinded PDF copy to attach to a submission form, ONYRI Sanitize can help. It runs in your browser. Mask author names, institutions, and grant numbers under Also mask or through Search the document. The flattened export drops the original file's document properties. It only produces a PDF review copy, and it will not rewrite your self-citations for you.
What should you still leave in for reviewers?
Not everything needs to disappear. Reviewers still need enough to judge the work. Keep your argument, your methods, and a full description of your data. Keep the citation to your own earlier paper in the reference list, with only the name replaced. If naming your institution would help reviewers judge feasibility, describe it in general terms instead. For example, write "a 400-bed public hospital" rather than the hospital's name.
What is the checklist before you submit?
| Element | Where it hides | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Author names and affiliations | Under the title, in the header, in figure captions | Move to the title page, delete from the body and captions |
| Acknowledgements and funding | End of the manuscript or a footnote | Move to the title page only |
| Ethics or IRB approval number | Methods section | Remove the institution code, or note it will be added after acceptance |
| Self-citations | In-text citations and the reference list | Rewrite in the third person, or use your journal's blinding format |
| Repository or lab website link | Data-availability statement, footnotes | Replace with a placeholder, or add it after acceptance |
| Document properties | File metadata, not visible on the page | Run a metadata or Document Inspector check before upload |
| Tracked changes and comments | The file's edit history | Accept all changes and delete comments, then re-save |
| File name | The file itself | Rename to something generic, like manuscript_anonymized.docx |
None of this replaces your journal's own instructions. Read them before you format anything, because one publisher's "Author, year" convention is another's blank citation. Anonymizing a manuscript takes twenty careful minutes. Getting caught by a reviewer who recognizes your writing style is a different problem, and no checklist fixes that one.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between single-blind and double-blind review?
In single-blind review, reviewers know the authors' names, but authors do not know the reviewers'. In double-blind review, also called double-anonymized, both sides stay hidden from each other for the whole process, according to Elsevier's guidelines for authors. That is why your own file deserves the same care the reviewers' identities already get.
Do I have to delete my own earlier papers from the reference list?
No. Reviewers need the citation to judge how your new work builds on the old one. Keep the entry and change only the identifying part. French and German journal guidelines both use the same trick. They replace the author name with a neutral placeholder, such as "Auteur-e" or "blinded authors," everywhere it appears.
Where do acknowledgements and funding numbers go if not in the manuscript?
Elsevier's guidelines for authors put them on the separate title page, along with your name, affiliation, and any declaration of interest. That page never reaches reviewers, so the funding body's name and the grant number can stay exactly as written.
I compiled my paper in LaTeX. Is there anything extra to check?
Yes. A LaTeX compiler often writes a local file path or your computer's username into the PDF's hidden Producer or Creator field. Open the file's properties before you upload it, the same way you would check a Word document. Clear anything that names you or your machine.
Sources & references
- Double-blind peer review guidelinesElsevier
- Double anonymized peer review guidelinesElsevier
- Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooksMicrosoft Support
- Track changes in WordMicrosoft Support
- Richtlinien zur Einreichung von Beiträgen und ManuskriptgestaltungDiskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung (Verlag Barbara Budrich)