ESR Journal Family uses single-blinded peer review from January 2023 onwards

Since their inception, the ESR journals have used double-blinded peer review, where reviewers were blinded to the authors’ identities and vice versa.
As of January 9, 2023, all three journals begin implementing a single-blinded peer review process, where manuscripts sent to reviewers will no longer be anonymized or blinded, but reviewers’ names will continue to be unknown to authors.

There are several reasons for this decision taken by the Editors-in-Chief. First, in light of the rapid development of pre-print archives, anonymity of authors is fading by the authors’ own decision. Second, the journals’ experience so far showed that many manuscripts cannot be fully anonymized. Having reviewers that are experts in their field also means they are often still able to, at least, presume the identity of the authors. Third, reviewers are blinded to important references from the authors, limiting the possibility to assess comprehensive literature search and correctness of citations. Finally, with the single-blindness, the check for anonymity will be skipped and the time from manuscript submission to availability to the Editors could be shortened.

The Editors-in-Chief would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers and authors for their great work and support of the ESR Journals.

Prof. Yves Menu
Editor-in-Chief of European Radiology

Prof. Luis Marti-Bonmati
Editor-in-Chief of Insights into Imaging

Prof. Francesco Sardanelli
Editor-in-Chief of European Radiology Experimental