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It is not correct to consider the move to a double-anonymous process an experiment. It is one in a progression of changes that have been enacted over the years to improve the equity and integrity of the proposal review process. We continuously evaluate the review process, with attention to fairness and balance over several factors, some of which are programmatic (e.g., are there more disproportionately more extragalactic programs than galactic?), and others demographic. We then make changes accordingly to address these issues.

Is there scientific evidence that anonymizing proposals results in a reduction of bias?

Yes. While this process may be new to astronomy, there is an abundance of literature on this topic from many different fields. The working group on anonymizing proposal reviews has reviewed the literature on this topic, and the results are clear: the removal of names and affiliations results in reduced bias in the review process. We have collected some relevant journal articles on this, which can be read here.

How difficult will the changes be on proposers?

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