Triple-masking v Double-masking: a Trial of Scientific Publication in Public Health

NCT06067633 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: 2023-0516-QC
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,500
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The trial is designed to determine whether knowledge of the identity of the authors, their institutions and of the reviewers of a given article submitted to American Journal of Public Health impacts the final editorial decision. The concept of triple masked editorial process (where editors are unaware of author identities and affiliations in addition to the authors' and reviewers' identities being masked from one another) compared to a double masked process (only authors' and reviewers' identities are hidden from one another; editors are aware of author and reviewer identities) has not been formally tested in a scientific journal, and particularly not in medicals social science, or public health journal. Triple-masking is expected to lead to greater acceptance of articles submitted overall because it will neutralize biases against some authors and reviewers because of who they are or the institutions they are related to. The triple masked editorial process, in which the editors, the authors and the reviewers ignore their respective identities will be compared to a double masked, in which the editor knows the identity of the authors and reviewers, because double masked is currently the editorial process used by the American Journal of Public Health. Even though only manuscripts are randomized, the trial will collect information about the identity of the authors (eg, genes, race/ethnicity, seniority) and the reviewers to be used for secondary analysis. In this sense it is dealing with human subjects and has obtained an exemption from the Institutional Review Board of Queens College.

Conditions

Publication of Articles Submitted to the American Journal of Public Health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Difference in the proportion of manuscripts submitted within the six-month window that are accepted for publication (i.e., not rejected at any stage); risk difference, unadjusted

  Primary outcome

  full duration of the study, 6 months, from September 5 2023 to March 1 2024

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Secondary outcome

  full duration of the study, 6 months, from September 5 2023 to March 1 2024

Study Arms (2)

Triple-Masked

EXPERIMENTAL

For articles allocated to the blinded (masked) editorial process, the editorial assistant will delete identifiable/unmasking content of cover page and letters. All articles will be flagged as being in triplemasked editorial process arm in the document title

Other: Triple-Masked

Usual Procedures

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

All articles will be flagged as being in usual editorial process arm in the document title. For articles allocated to the usual (double-masked) editorial process, the editorial assistant will leave identifiable/unmasking content of cover page and letters for the editors.

Other: Usual Procedures

Interventions

Triple-Masked OTHER

Eligible manuscripts in the triple-masked editorial process arm will be masked electronically before being entered in the trial by the editorial assistant

Triple-Masked

Usual Procedures OTHER

Articles will be processed by the editors with identifiable/unmasking content of cover page and letters.

Usual Procedures

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• New submissions
• Article formats: research articles, notes from the field, non-commissioned editorials, analytic essays, systematic reviews

You may not qualify if:

• Resubmissions
• Article formats: Commissioned editorials, book reviews, Letters to the Editor, Public Health of Consequence editorials, Editor's Choice.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Queens College, The City University of New York: lead

Study Sites (1)

QueensC

New York, New York, 11365, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• Brodie S, Frainer A, Pennino MG, Jiang S, Kaikkonen L, Lopez J, Ortega-Cisneros K, Peters CA, Selim SA, Vaidianu N. Equity in science: advocating for a triple-blind review system. Trends Ecol Evol. 2021 Nov;36(11):957-959. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.07.011. Epub 2021 Aug 26.

  PMID: 34456068 BACKGROUND

Study Officials

• ALFREDO MORABIA

  Queens College, The City University of New York

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

ALFREDO MORABIA

CONTACT

9176648789; amorabia@qc.cuny.edu

ALFREDO MORABIA

CONTACT

amorabia@qc.cuny.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: TRIPLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, CARE PROVIDER, INVESTIGATOR
• Masking Details: Masking securities: Editors will be restricted from accessing the editorial manager for the duration of the project. Additionally, since articles won't be assigned to editors, they won't be able to see anything from their immediate accounts. This should block them from the masked information and preserve the integrity of the project. Editors will be able to search for reviewers with specific expertise from an external, cleaned nominative version of the editorial manager database. They won't however know who, from the reviewers selected, accepted the invitation and wrote the review. In this sense, reviews' authorship will be masked to the editor.
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Two group, parallel, superiority trial with 1:1 allocation

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 21, 2023
• First Posted: October 5, 2023
• Study Start: September 6, 2023
• Primary Completion: March 1, 2024
• Study Completion: March 1, 2024
• Last Updated: October 5, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)