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Considering an event with a double masked (i.e. double "blind" process), should an anonymous submission include acknowledgments to people who helped with the research work but denied to be co-authors, or wait for the final version to include such acknowledgments?

I assume not: if they are asked to be referee and feel there is a conflict of interest, they will just declare so, leaving the doubt whether it is because they are an author or just a contact, which will nicely help with the authors' anonymity.

On the other hand, I hope such people will realize that they WILL be acknowledged in the final version and not assume that no proper credit was given to them!

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  • This seems like a very good reason to provide a list of who'd you prefer to exclude as reviewers during submission.
    – Anyon
    May 20, 2022 at 14:04
  • Good point: I will ask the organizers if providing such a list is an option.
    – J..y B..y
    May 21, 2022 at 13:47

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Acknowledgments should always added at the final editing stage, after scientific review. The acknowledgments in fact must have no scientific content. It is not a reviewer duty to check the acknowledgments (it may be, however, editor's duty to do that, to confirm that fundings are properly acknowledged).

Similarly, it is not a task for the reviewer to assess the author and co-authors contribuitions, the reviewer should judge only the content of the submission.

Ps: in the under review submission, you may already add a Acknowledgment section, with a formal sentence something like "when accepted for publication, fundings and collaborators will be properly acknowledged". Even funding informations may lead to identification of the authors.

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A double-blind submission should not include any identifying information, including names of people who you know. In this case you would not acknowledgements to the submission at all (you also cannot acknowledge grants etc. because that gives hints about your identity).

If you want to make sure that it is clear there will be an acknowledgement (although I don't think that is really necessary), add the section to the submission but fill it with filler text like [removed for submission].

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