Impacts of Double-blind Reviewing

Last registered on September 25, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impacts of Double-blind Reviewing
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019440
Initial registration date
September 18, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
September 25, 2026, 9:57 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Amy Finkelstein
Affiliation
MIT
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-10-19
End date
2031-04-15
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Metascience
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The research team will be partnering with the American Economic Association to launch a three-year randomized controlled trial of the effects of author-anonymized peer reviewing, commonly referred to as "double-blind." This evaluation will involve the AER, AER: Insights, and the four American Economic Journals.

In the treatment group, information revealing author identities will be excluded from materials provided to reviewers, and reviewers will be asked to refrain from seeking them out through web searches or other means. The experiment will test the effects of removing author identities from the information routinely provided to reviewers, while recognizing that reviewers may become aware of author identities in other ways.

Key outcomes that will be examined include (1) author and reviewer perceptions of fairness, (2) reviewer awareness of author identities in the treatment (author-anonymized) group, and (3) differential impacts of author-anonymized review on manuscript decisions by characteristics of the authors and their papers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Finkelstein, Amy. 2026. "Impacts of Double-blind Reviewing." AEA RCT Registry. September 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19440-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
The American Economic Association
Type
URL
https://www.aeaweb.org
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Manuscripts submitted during the study period will be randomly assigned with equal probability to author-anonymized or single-blind review. Single-blind review continues the status quo. In particular, referees receive the title page which contains identifying information (specifically, name and institution of submitting authors). Under author-anonymized review, referee reports are prepared without access to the authors' identifying information provided on the title page (specifically name and institution).
Intervention Start Date
2026-10-19
Intervention End Date
2029-10-18

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Initial decision on manuscript-level non-rejection rates by gender, and by institutional affiliation
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Authors will submit an anonymized manuscript and appendix files that allow the editorial staff to create anonymized manuscripts and manuscripts with author information. At the time of submission, authors will be asked their views and preferences on the review process. Reviewers will complete the review as instructed. At the time of submitting their reports, reviewers will be asked questions on their views of the review process. In addition, reviewers who received an author-anonymized manuscript will be asked whether or not they believed they knew the author(s) of the manuscript regardless. Editors receive referee reports and make editorial decisions. After receiving the initial decision, authors are sent a follow-up survey which will inform them of whether their manuscript had been anonymized (treatment status) and their views on the review process for that manuscript.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done after submission through an online app which will randomly assign the manuscript ID to be anonymized or not. The manuscript ID, treatment assignment, and a timestamp will be recorded in a database accessible to the research team.
Randomization Unit
Manuscript submission
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
n/a
Sample size: planned number of observations
7,750 manuscripts not summarily rejected
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
3,375 manuscripts control, 3,375 manuscripts treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
MDE by gender (comparing half of the sample to half of the sample: 4.6 percentage points MDE by institutional rank (comparing one-sixth to five-sixths of the sample): 6.4 percentage points
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
MIT Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES)
IRB Approval Date
2026-08-26
IRB Approval Number
2604002002
Analysis Plan