The HST peer review process for Cycle 26 has moved to a double-blind review process, where authors’ identities are concealed from both review panel members and TAC members. See the FAQ section for more information on this change [include link when published]. Proposers will still enter the names and affiliations of all investigators into the APT system, but APT will remove these names from the documents that go to the reviewers. However, it is also necessary for proposers to take steps to anonymize their PDF attachment before it is uploaded to APT. Below are some guidelines to follow to do this:
- Do not include author names or affiliations anywhere in the manuscript, including the page headers and footers.
- When citing references within the proposal, use third person neutral wording when possible. For example, replace phrases like “as we have shown in our previous work (Doe et al. 2010)” with “as Doe et al. (2010) showed...”
- If self-referencing is essential, cite papers published by the author as [author(s) et al. 2010] in the text. In the reference list, delete the citation, and use the placeholder [author(s) et al. 2010].
- Do not include acknowledgements, or the source of any grant funding.
- Check that no author information is included in the metadata that is automatically created by many word processing programs. In many common programs, like Word or Acrobat Reader, this information can be displayed (and edited) in the “File” tab, under “properties.” [Note: Let's check with the APT programmers to see if this already is or can be removed automatically]
- Remove identifying information from figures and tables.
