I know better than to try to figure out who authored a paper I’ve been asked to review. And I know not to circulate the “for peer review only” version to colleagues – even if the topic may be very interesting and relevant to them. But as New Soc Prof has pointed out, there is a substantial amount of grey area in the blind peer review process.

Another question: Are you allowed to mention a paper that you’ve reviewed in conversation or is all your reviewing activity supposed to remain top secret? This past week, I had to bite my tongue really hard not to say, “Oh, I just reviewed a paper about this. The authors found…..”  It was totally relevant to the conversation, but I was afraid of breaching the Reviewers’ Code, which I less-than-fully understand.