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I am about to submit a paper (my first!) to a journal in statistics. There is a requirement to submit a "blinded" version. Should I remove the acknowledgements section too for this? If I do, what are the chances that my paper will be sent to the person whom I acknowledged in my paper? How do I prevent it?

edited Dec 15 2011 at 10:16

asked Dec 15 2011 at 9:54

ken
51●1

2

1) Well, the referee doesn't need to check the 'thankyous' for correctness etc... But this might be something that your supervisor (or equivalent) can better answer. 2) Depends... 3) You, as the author, don't have any say in the choice of referee. – David Roberts Dec 15 2011 at 10:22

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I have never seen it but why not just put 'I would like to thank * for their patience etc... and to the uUniversity of ** for their financial assistence.' Then it is clear that you are paying attention to the journal's policy on blind evaluation whilst making it clear that you are acknowledging help. The editor is not going to send it to somewhere that is very closely associated to the university where you are. if you are concerned, mention this in your letter submitting the article. – Tim Porter Dec 15 2011 at 10:55

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I am not sure what exactly Franz means by this, but if you acknowledge the help of someone, then I could imagine two completely opposite reactions by the editor. If they perceive that the person you are thanking is not closely associated with you but an expert in the area, then that would make them a natural choice for refereeing. On the other hand if the editor perceives that the person you are thanking is close to you either geographically (say same department), or by association (say advisor-type), then I doubt that they would ask them to referee. (cont'd) – Sándor Kovács Dec 15 2011 at 12:28

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At the same time, if your paper cites 5 papers of a single author, then that person goes high on the editor's list of potential referees. Then the editor might try to figure out whether this person is related to you or just ask them. I was once asked to referee the first paper = Ph.D. thesis of one of my students. I recused myself as I don't think an advisor should decide whether the first paper of their student should appear in a particular journal. This actually brings me to my point: As Tim said, don't worry about it too much. You can hardly influence the editor's decision. (cont'd) – Sándor Kovács Dec 15 2011 at 12:34

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I disagree with David Roberts's statement that "you, as author, don't have any say in the choice of referee." An author can write to the editor that a particular person (or even a few particular people) should not be chosen to referee the paper; if that request is accompanied by a legitimate reason, I think the editor would respect it. – Andreas Blass Dec 15 2011 at 15:41

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Blinding a paper : the acknowledgements section

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