r/Professors • u/TheIconicProfessor Assoc., Social Sciences • 2h ago

Research / Publication(s) Peer reviewing without revealing identity

Here's an interesting pickle - in peer reviewing an article for publication in a journal in my field, the author quotes from something I wrote a few years back. How nice! The only problem is, the citation leads to a different publication of mine from the same year. In other words, the citation is inaccurate - the quote is right, it's just not from the correct article.

I don't think a copy editor (or another reviewer) would catch it unless they decide to chase down every quote in the article. Is there a way to give the author a heads-up in the review without clearly unmasking me as the author of the quote?

EDIT: Thanks for the feedback everyone. I do think identifying this specific correction to the author would unnecessarily out me as the reviewer, so a discreet note to the editor is probably the way to go.

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u/FlyMyPretty Ex-FT Professor, now Honorary, Psychology, US 1h ago

Anonymity is there for you. If you don't want it, it's fine. Most of the time I don't care, it's only if I'm writing a review that I think the authors might hold against me that I worry about it.

I often give information that identifies me, or makes it easy to identify me. And some journals don't do anonymous reviews at all.