4 ms·

I take the opposite approach: I sign my reviews and have ever since I was a grad student. It compels me to do a better job reviewing and often leads to further

I take the opposite approach: I sign my reviews and have ever since I was a grad student. It compels me to do a better job reviewing and often leads to further discussion and sometimes collaboration with the authors. Some people don't like what I have to say, but by and large, they respect it. For many topics that I review for, the authors will have a pretty good idea that I wrote the review unless I am intentionally vague. I would rather write clearly and directly and stand behind it. It is a professional risk that I don't think anyone should be compelled to take, but I think signing reviews is generally good for science.

derf_ 12y ago
Yes, I think anonymity in reviews is largely a myth, even in "double blind" reviews. For many topics, there are only a few research groups actively pursuing them, and you can often tell from what other work they cite, what datasets they use, etc., which lab it is. So identifying at least some of the authors is relatively easy. You might not get the exact grad student right, but you probably know their advisor. Identifying reviewers is a little harder, but it's usually not difficult to make educated guesses unless they are, as you put it intentionally vague. Otherwise the other comments on this article about bad reviews from 'people from "a different camp" simply disliking a given approach' and the like would be impossible to justify.