Double Blind Review

Both the reviewer and the author are anonymous.

Referee names are kept strictly confidential. Referee identities may only be disclosed to journal Editorial Board members, who are also instructed to maintain confidentiality.    

Anonymizing your manuscript for double-blind peer review: a checklist

• Do not include author names or affiliations anywhere in the manuscript, or in any Supplementary Information files (or in any file names).

• Provide a separate title page giving all the author names and affiliations (when you reach the “File Upload” stage on submission, please choose the file designation “Title Page”).

• Do not include an Acknowledgments section containing author names in the manuscript on submission. The information can be added to the manuscript after completion of the peer review process.

• Do not include work in the reference list that has not yet been accepted for publication.

• When referring to your own work within the paper, avoid using terminology that might reveal your identity (e.g. avoid phrases such as “we have previously shown [reference]”).
• Do not sign rebuttals at revision stage with author names, nor appeals.

Author anonymity prevents any reviewer bias, for example, based on an author's country of origin or previous controversial work.

Articles written by prestigious or renowned authors are considered on the basis of the content of their papers, rather than their reputation.

Reviewers can often identify the author through their writing style, subject matter or self-citation.

Length of Review Process: The publication process of the accepted work lasts 2-8 months from the date of receipt.

Plagiarism policy: Plagiarism is defined to present a portion or all the work of others as their own. Duplication or self-plagiarism is the reuse of a portion or all of the work in another article without citing the original work.