Reply #131: It happens from time to time

[alcibiades_mystery]

Blindness is a term of process. It means that when the article is sent to reviewers, it does not include author information. It also means that when reviewers submit their comments and judgment, the reviewer's identity is not submitted to the author (or anyone else outside of the editorial staff). Quite often, the blindness is only processual. I've often reviewed articles for which I could identify the author, either because I'd seen the author give the same article as a conference talk (often with the same title), or because I know the author's methodology, objects of inquiry, or even writing style. And, indeed, it's started to become common for academics to place works-in-progress in PDF form on their web sites. It's not some massive breakdown in process, though I agree it puts pressure on the "blind" character of the peer review process, though, again, that was never as blind as one might think. Academic disciplines are very small worlds indeed, especially at advanced levels.

The relevance of blind peer review here goes to your request for the names of the reviewers. You're asking for information that is generally not made available by the editors of an academic journal. That's my only point. It could, of course, be made available by the reviewers themselves, but that is their choice.

Once again, you're asking for information that is generally not made available. Whether you are doing so through ignorance of the process or because you're trying to be clever in an internet forum debate, I don't know. I can't deal with the latter, but I can inform you on the former. You may as well be asking for the journal editor's social security number. It's not persuasive argument to ask your interlocutor to provide information that is next to impossible to get. So you shouldn't do that.

Cheers.