Hacker News Reader

I have a friend who is somewhat famous in his little research niche. Even when submitting papers for blind review he will do things like deliberately spell some words British and others American to make it harder for peers to figure out who the paper is from. The peer group is indeed small and rivalries happen quickly. Sometimes you know what other labs are doing very similar research and it's a race to publish first.

View on HN

> "he will do things like deliberately spell some words British and others American to make it harder for peers to figure out who the paper is from."

This is a good initiative, but a catch is that if he's the only person deliberately spelling some words British and others American, the spelling choice becomes a unique identifier.

Though, it could work as long as no one within the group knows who is using the varied spelling.

This happens often with coauthored papers as well, so not a total giveaway, necessarily.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com