Authors' names and links while submitting for a double-blind review

Question

I am about to make a submission to a computer science conference which adopts a double-blind policy. The submission is through EasyChair portal. My questions are as follows:

1. Should I remove all authors' names in the manuscript before submitting?
2. Since this is a computer science conference, I have some code in Github which shows the proof of my experimentation and reproducibility of my claims. How should I give the link to the code in my Github account in the manuscript without giving away my identity?

Note: I am not talking about camera-ready submissions but about submitting for the reviewing process.

Answer 1

I found the Elsevier Double-Blind Peer Review Guidelines helpful, however, this is somewhat journal/conference specific. Some of the not obvious points from that guideline include:

Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind peer review. To assist with this process the key items that need to be observed are as follows:

• Use the third person to refer to work the Authors have previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as we have shown before” with “… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2007]” .

• Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier

• Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those reviewing the submitted paper.

• Cite papers published by the Author in the text as follows: ‘[Anonymous, 2007]’.

• For blinding in the reference list: ‘[Anonymous 2007] Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.’

• Remove references to funding sources

• Do not include acknowledgments

• Remove any identifying information, including author names, from file names and ensure document properties are also anonymized.

You might consider attaching a static copy of your code as an anonymous appendix directly to your submission.

Answer 2

For the names, yes, definitely you need to remove all of them along with any indicators to the author names or organisation like emails, address, etc. You can add the submission number or the word anonymous in the authors part.

Regarding extra files, when I needed to upload some files for reviewing besides the paper, I made a specific account for conferences submissions. The account name does not indicate my identity. Sort of nickname.

Make sure you do not indicate your organisation or refer to your self by "our" and add a reference as this indicates your identity. Instead, refer to your work as a third party.