7

I recently submitted a paper to a conference, and I realized six days after submission that I forgot to remove the authors' names. The guidelines clearly state:

"All papers will be double-blind reviewed and must present original work. Authors’ names and affiliations should not appear in the submitted paper. Authors’ prior work should be cited in the third person. Authors should also avoid revealing their identities and/or institutions in the text, figures, links, etc."

The review process for this conference is about one month long. What should I do now? Is there a high chance of rejection? Should I write an email to the editors? Any advice would be beneficial. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I got an desk reject. It was only couple of hours after sending an email apologizing for that mistake. I got what I deserve.

Improve this question
4
  • 1
    I wrote an answer, but I realized now that I'm not sure what you mean with "forgot to anonymize": did you just leave your name in the front page? Or something more subtle, like a reference to previous work in the body of the paper?
    – Andrea
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:27
  • @Andrea: I left the names on the front page. That is all about it. Does it change anything?
    – Max
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:35
  • 2
    My answer then stands. If you don't do anything the paper will be rejected; send an email and hope for the best.
    – Andrea
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:42
  • 2
    This question is similar to: Will my submission be rejected if I accidentally submit the non-blind version to a conference with double blind review?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.
    – Kimball
    Commented Aug 7 at 4:33

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
11

From my experience as a reviewer/PC member, it is likely to be desk rejected (i.e. the paper doesn't get sent to reviewers) since it has already been six days.

However, it doesn't hurt to reach out to the editor/chairs (whoever supervises the refereeing process), explain your mistake, and provide an anonymized version. If you're lucky, they may replace your submission with the anonymized one and send it out for reviewing.

Improve this answer
9
  • So writing an email is necessary? Maybe the email is pointing them to my mistake and make it worse?
    – Max
    Commented Aug 6 at 10:28
  • 13
    The mistake is going to be caught eventually in which case it will be a definite reject.
    – user192428
    Commented Aug 6 at 10:47
  • Thank you. Is there a chance to get not rejected writing an email or is there no chance.
    – Max
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:20
  • 9
    @Max If you don't attempt to correct your mistake, you are relying on the conference to fail at one of their main duties. If you do send the email, you are relying on the good will, experience, and advice of the people that run the conference.
    – David S
    Commented Aug 6 at 17:28
  • The conference has only two choices: Anonymize it themselves, which is not going to happen, or not sending it to reviewers. So, it is going to be rejected. (I assume the deadline has long passed.) But it is better to apologize so that people in your field build up good will towards you. Having to reject a paper because of a mistake is not pleasant for the PC.
    – Thomas Schwarz
    Commented Aug 6 at 18:34
9

Actually, unless the deadline for submission is imminent or has passed, it is possible that no one has yet noticed the issue. Had they done so with time to spare, you would probably have been told to prepare and submit a revision. I don't think it is as dire as Andrea's answer suggests, and you would probably have been notified by now of a desk reject.

Send that email and prepare the proper version.

And no one here can decide for the conference committee what will be done. That is up to them and only them. Don't waste time.

Improve this answer
5
  • Thank you very much. I sent the email. I am new to this, but learned my lesson. I expect to be rejected, nevertheless.
    – Max
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:42
  • 2
    " I am new to this,...". In Taiji we have a rule that learning begins after 10,000 repetitions.
    – Buffy
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:49
  • 2
    I hope I do not need to have 10,000 repetitions to finally exclude the authors:). Do you have any experience with whether the email will actually get answered?
    – Max
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:54
  • 4
    Not precisely, but the committees I worked with and served on were pretty conscientious. It is a matter of personality and workload, of course.
    – Buffy
    Commented Aug 6 at 12:05
  • Thank you very much.
    – Max
    Commented Aug 6 at 12:09

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .