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Author help

How to anonymize your manuscript

Review is double-blind: reviewers must not be able to tell who wrote the paper. These steps take about five minutes. See also the double-blind policy.

1. Remove identifying text from the manuscript

  • Title page: delete author names, affiliations, emails, ORCID iDs and the corresponding-author block. Keep the title, abstract and keywords.
  • Headers and footers: check for names or institution logos.
  • Acknowledgements and funding: remove them, including grant numbers. You add them back in the final version.
  • Code and data links: a GitHub or OSF link under your username identifies you. Create an anonymous mirror at anonymous.4open.science or write “link withheld for review”.
  • Self-citations: cite your own work in the third person (“Ozer et al. (2024) showed…”), not “in our previous work [3]”.
  • In Word, accept or reject all tracked changes and delete comments (Review tab). They carry your name.

2. Clear the author name from the file properties

Word and most editors store your name inside the PDF automatically. The system refuses uploads that still contain it.

Word for Windows

  1. File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document.
  2. Tick “Document Properties and Personal Information”, click Inspect, then Remove All next to it.
  3. Save, then File → Save As (or Export) → PDF.

Word for Mac

  1. Word → Preferences (Settings) → Security & Privacy → tick “Remove personal information from this file on save”.
  2. File → Properties → Summary: clear the Author field.
  3. Save, then File → Save As → File Format: PDF.

LaTeX / Overleaf

  1. Empty the author metadata: \hypersetup{pdfauthor={}} (and remove pdfusetitle if you load hyperref with it).
  2. Blank out \author{}, \thanks{} and the acknowledgements, or use your class's anonymous or review option.
  3. Recompile and download the PDF.

Google Docs

  1. Remove the identifying text from step 1, then File → Download → PDF. Google Docs does not add your name to the file properties.

Already have only the PDF (Adobe Acrobat)

  1. File → Properties → Description: clear Author (and any name in Subject or Keywords).
  2. For a thorough clean: Tools → Redact → Remove Hidden Information.

3. Check before you upload

  • Open the PDF and read the first page, headers, acknowledgements and links once more.
  • In Acrobat or your PDF viewer, open the document properties (Ctrl+D or Cmd+D) and confirm the Author field is empty.
  • After acceptance you upload the named camera-ready version, so nothing is lost.
How to anonymize your manuscript | Quorum