Skip to main content Accessibility help
×

Peer review

Online peer review systems

Where you complete and/or submit your review will vary depending on the journal. At Cambridge University Press, we use two online peer review systems called Scholar One and Editorial Manager, where you'll be expected to submit your review. These systems are user-friendly and should walk you through the process of submitting your review.

Anonymising documents for peer review

In some journals, the identities of the reviewers, authors, or both are kept anonymous during the peer review process. In these cases it’s important for authors and reviewers to make sure any documents they submit do not contain identifying information.

More information about different kinds of peer review processes can be found in our guidance on how to peer review journal articles . To find out what kind of peer review model a particular journal uses, please check the peer review section under the journal information tab on the journal’s home page.

What needs to be anonymised?

There are two ways that identifying information might be included in a document:

  • In the document’s visible content, such as in the main text or comments
  • In the document’s metadata, such as in file properties and history

When you are submitting documents that need to be anonymous, it’s important to make sure both kinds of identifying information are removed.

As an author, please check the author instructions section of your journal’s information tab for information about how to anonymise the content of your manuscript. You may be asked to submit certain key information, such as authors’ names and institutions, in a separate file from your manuscript.

As an author or reviewer, please also follow the instructions below to ensure you’ve removed identifying information from your documents’ metadata as well as their content.

Anonymising PDF files

1. Remove personal information from document properties

  • Open the PDF file
  • Go to Menu > Document Properties
  • Locate the Author field
  • Replace the name in this field with “Author”
  • Save the document

2. Anonymise comments

  • Right‑click on each comment in the document
  • Select Properties
  • Under the General tab, update the Name field to “Reviewer”
  • Click OK, then save the document

3. Apply to multiple comments (if needed)

  • Hold Shift and select multiple comments
  • Right‑click and open Properties
  • Update the Name field to “Reviewer”
  • Apply changes and save the document

Anonymising Microsoft Word files

1. Remove personal information from document properties

  • Open the Word document
  • Go to File > Info
  • Select Check for Issues > Inspect Document
  • Run the Document Inspector
  • Remove:
    • Author names
    • Document properties
    • Personal information
  • Save the document

2. Anonymise comments and tracked changes

  • Review all comments in the document
  • Replace names with “Reviewer” where applicable
  • If using tracked changes:
    • Accept or reject changes as needed, or
    • Ensure usernames are anonymised in Track Changes settings
  • Save the document

Key points

To maintain anonymity in the peer review process, please remember to:

  • Remove any identifying information from the document contents
  • Remove any identifying information from document properties and metadata
  • Check all comments and tracked changes and replace any names with neutral identifiers (e.g. “Reviewer”)
  • Double-check and save a clean version of your file before submitting it