Anonymize a manuscript for double-blind peer review.
Taking your name off the title page is the easy part. The file itself records the author, the last person to save it and the names on every comment and tracked change. Here is what journals ask for and where to look.
What journals ask for
Elsevier's guidelines ask authors to "choose file names with care, and ensure that the file's “properties” are also anonymised", to use the third person for their own earlier work and to leave out acknowledgements and funding. Springer Nature lists "the file metadata (personal information from the document properties)" among the places identifying details must not appear, and asks for acknowledgements and contribution statements to be left out of the manuscript file.
Check your journal's own page too; the lists are similar but not the same.
Where your name is in the file
- Author: Word sets it from the user name in Office, per Microsoft. Open File > Info and look for Author under Related People.
- Comments and tracked changes: Microsoft's user name page says your name "will appear in places like comments, revisions, and general document properties." A co-author's comment left in the file names them too.
- The file name: "smith_jones_draft3.docx" says who wrote it before anyone opens it.
- A PDF made from it: the PDF usually takes its Author field from the Word file, and can add the program and the dates.
In Word
- Save a copy for submission under a neutral name, such as "manuscript.docx".
- Accept or reject every tracked change and delete every comment: remove tracked changes and comments has the steps.
- On Windows, run File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document and remove the document properties and personal information, per Microsoft.
- Open File > Info again and check that Author is empty.
None of this touches the text. Self-citations written in the first person, acknowledgements and a grant number in the methods still need editing by hand.
Or clean it here
FileSanity's document cleaner shows the author, the last editor and the names on comments and tracked changes in a .docx or OpenDocument file, removes them and downloads a copy; it also offers a neutral file name when the name gives something away. For the PDF you submit, the PDF cleaner blanks the author and the other document fields. Both run in your browser, so an unpublished manuscript is never uploaded anywhere.
Checked
Menu paths checked on 22 October 2026 against the pages linked above. Menus move between versions; when yours differs, the vendor's page is the authority. Found a mistake? Tell us.