How to anonymise a manuscript - quick question

[ooglyboo]

I have another question (just asked one already)! I am trying to anonymise my paper prior to submission. The journal wants all author references removed from the bibliography and in the text replaced with author A, author B. But what do you do when self-references are to jointly authored papers? Do I write for example (Author A and Smith, 2015)? In which case it would not be anonymous at all as most people in my field would know that I wrote that paper with Smith in 2015. I never quite understand this, would be so grateful for advice!

In my field you don't need to remove references to your own name, you just talk about yourself as if you are someone else (e.g. 'Deianira (2004) explores this idea more fully' rather than 'I have explored this idea more fully in Deianira (2004).' Does the journal say specifically that your name cannot appear at all? As that seems unusual, and harder to make seem anonymous.

Yes, it's really weird. It says all references should be removed from the bibliography and as I say, replaced in the text with Author A, etc. I have never understood how this is more anonymous than simply referring to yourself as someone else. I guess I will just do what they say and they can come back to me if it's wrong. Thanks for responding.

Surely you would assign a letter to each author, you included, then consistently refer to each author by that letter throughout your work. So if you are referring to a piece by you and another author jointly, it might be 'as discussed in The paper by Author C and Author T (2014).'

OK that makes sense. Thanks Lougle.

OMG, that sounds completely insane. Presuming the article still appears in bibliography with full title & journal name? First thing referee will do is put title into google scholar & see who wrote the article under review I would.

And if not fully cited then can't assess whether the reference is supportive, relevant, appropriate. So no point in citing at all. Daft.

I've just noticed a rogue comma in my post. Annoying.

I wonder if it's an attempt to prevent Author bias?

Ahh, this makes it clearer, I think? The process is not removing all Author names, just your own. Then, if you must refer to your own work (which you should avoid) you must do so in the third person. If you are self-citing, you should put [name deleted to maintain the integrity of the review process] and not include the reference in your bibliography.

It obviously may be a completely different journal, but it helps to understand the process, I think?

Nah, you're not even allowed to refer to your own name in the third person. Which I think is the least identifying thing to do! You have to take all references to your own work out of the bibliography and put them on a cover sheet. It's weird - I think that anyone who knows anything about this area and therefore would be most suitable to review would know that it would be odd for the paper not to refer to my work. Does that make sense? Not bigging myself up, it's just that this paper refers to a stream of work, a bit of which I have written! Anyway ... if that's what they want, I'll do it!