The Star Trek Case for Double-Blind Reviewing

The planet Vulcan is simultaneously the source of the universe’s worst neck massagers and its best program committee members.

Unlike humans, Vulcans are ruthlessly rational and unerringly logical.

A Vulcan reviewer is unaffected by how often they have mind-melded with the authors of a paper or whether they know them at all, whether the authors have pointed ears or not, or whether (once every seven years), they might be judged to be suitable mates.

Vulcans are never influenced by the origin and ethnic groups of authors, whether they be Romulan, human, or even Klingon.

In fact, they have no choice: Vulcans are emotionless and inevitably objective. They are in fact only capable of dispassionately reviewing papers purely on their merits.

Humans are not Vulcans. But double-blind reviewing lets us act like them — at least when we are reviewing papers.