To ensure the integrity of the double-blind peer review process for submissions to the HKS Misinformation Review, every effort should be made to prevent the identities of the authors and reviewers from becoming known to each other. This contribution to the fairness of peer review involves authors making sure they have taken the following steps to anonymize texts, files, and hidden file properties. 

*Note: Authors are responsible for providing an anonymized version of their manuscript.

Steps to Anonymize Manuscripts and Files

Step 1: Remove author names and affiliations from all manuscript files and data sets.

• The title page should not contain author names and affiliations. Keep the placeholders in the article template and do not remove the top matter and journal logo. 
• Do not add the author names to the page headers. Keep the placeholders in the article template. 
• When citing your own work, use (Author, Year) instead of (Jones, 2022) for in-text citations and avoid revealing wording such as “my study” or “we/the authors have previously demonstrated (Jones et al, 2022).” In the Bibliography, use (Author, Year) and leave out the title, publisher, and any other identifying information about your work.
• Ensure that there is no identifying information in the Acknowledgements, Funding, Competing Interests, Ethics, and Data Availability sections. 
• If your manuscript is pre-registered (e.g., OSF), anonymize the contributors.    

Step 2: Remove identifying information from the background properties of your files.

Below are step-by-step guidelines to anonymize your files. If your hardware and software versions are not represented below or if the directions addressing your hardware/software configuration do not seem to work, you could use the menu items on your Word or Acrobat menus that do match up with the directions below and follow those steps. 

For the Office 365 and Word 2019 (or more recent) versions of Microsoft Word

PC	2019 on MAC	365 on MAC
File	File	Open document
Save as	Save as	Review
Tools	Security	Protect document
Remove personal information from file properties on save	Remove personal information from file properties on save	Under privacy, check the box “Remove personal information from this file on save”
Save	Save	Save

For Adobe Acrobat PDF files

PC: Acrobat 2020, 2017, DC	MAC: Acrobat 2020, 2017, DC	PC: Acrobat 2011 & earlier
Open file	File	File
Tools	Properties	Properties
Redact	Description	Description
Remove hidden information	Go to the author box and manually delete any text	Go to the author box and manually delete any text
Look for anything appearing in the results box and choose it	Check the other fields under description for revealing information	Check the other fields under description for revealing information
Remove	If anything is found, delete it manually	If anything is found, delete it manually
Save	OK	OK

For earlier versions of Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word 2016, 2013, 2010 on Windows

• File
• Prepare for sharing
• Check for issues
• Inspect document
• Uncheck all the boxes except “Document Properties and Personal Information.”
• Document inspector
• If any information is found by the document inspector, click “Remove All.”

Microsoft Word 2008 on Mac

• File
• Properties
• Summary
• Remove all identifying information from all fields.
• Save

Microsoft Word 2007 on Windows

• Office
• Prepare
• Properties
• Delete information in the document property fields in the main menu options.
• Save

Microsoft 2003 and earlier (Windows and Mac)

• File
• Save as
• Tools (Windows); Options (Mac)
• Security
• Remove personal information from file properties on save
• Save

*Note: When submitting a revised manuscript, please follow the same guidelines as in Steps 1 and 2.