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<anonymous> Anonymous

Placeholder for the name of a contributor where the actual name is unknown or not disclosed.

Usage/Remarks

The element <anonymous> may be tagged as an EMPTY placeholder, which can be used to generate display text such as “anon.”. However, <anonymous> may contain textual content, with text such as “Anonymous but attributed to Francis Bacon” or “Reviewer 3”.
An EMPTY <anonymous>
When the element <anonymous> is used solely for display generation, it is typically an empty placeholder. When printed or displayed on screen, the presence of <anonymous> causes text such as “anon.”, “Anonymous”, or “Author unknown” to be generated.
Textual <anonymous>
There are several good reasons to place content into <anonymous>, including:
  • The text for the display is too complicated or unique for automatic generation, for example, “Anonymous but attributed to Francis Bacon”.
  • The text acts as a code name for an anonymous reviewer (See discussion in the next paragraph.)
In the context of complex, multi-round open-peer-review processes, potentially with serial contributions by multiple anonymous referees, a case can be made for:
  • The use of opaque identifiers or aliases for anonymous reviewers in published open-peer-review metadata (to assist with the full and accurate description of peer review content), and
  • The retention of these identifiers in metadata disseminated to other intermediaries and third parties using standard article schemas such as JATS.
From an Editorial point of view, it is important to identify reviewers who opt to remain anonymous with consistent aliases (for example, “Reviewer 1”, “Reviewer 2”, “Reviewer A”, “Reviewer B”, etc.), ideally between rounds of review. Such identifiers make it possible to relate follow-up comments on revised versions of a given manuscript to feedback on earlier versions.
The @content-type attribute can be used to make this situation clear:
  • A @content-type on the contributor can name the contribution as “reviewer” and
  • A @content-type on the <anonymous> can name the Anonymous as a reviewer “alias”. 
...
<contrib-group content-type="author">
 <contrib contrib-type="author">
  <contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">...</contrib-id>
  <name><surname>Smith</surname><given-names>Sue Ellen</given-names></name>
  <role>Lead author</role>
 </contrib>
 <contrib contrib-type="author">
  <contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">...</contrib-id>
  <name><surname>Smith</surname><given-names>John Bass</given-names></name>
  <role>Computer visualization</role>
 </contrib>
</contrib-group>

<contrib-group content-type="reviewers">
 <contrib id="rev-au2" contrib-type="reviewer">
  <anonymous content-type="alias">Reviewer 1</anonymous>
 </contrib>
 <contrib id="rev-au6" contrib-type="reviewer">
  <anonymous content-type="alias">Reviewer 2</anonymous>
 </contrib>
</contrib-group> 
...
Attributes
content-type
specific-use

Multi-lang Attributes

lang-focus
lang-focus-custom
lang-group
lang-source
lang-source-custom
lang-translate
lang-variant
lang-variant-custom

Base Attributes

id
xml:base
xml:lang
Models and Context
May be contained in
<contrib>, <person-group>
Description
Any combination of:
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  anonymous    %anonymous-model;                            >
Expanded Content Model
(#PCDATA | email | ext-link | uri | inline-supplementary-material |
related-article | related-object | hr | bold | fixed-case | italic | monospace | overline |
overline-start | overline-end | roman | sans-serif | sc | strike | underline | underline-start |
underline-end | ruby | alternatives | inline-graphic | inline-media | private-char | chem-struct |
inline-formula | tex-math | mml:math | abbrev | index-term | index-term-range-end | milestone-end |
milestone-start | named-content | styled-content | fn | target | xref | sub | sup |
x)*
Tagged Sample

In citations

Mixed citation
...
<ref id="pbiob001a">
 <mixed-citation publication-type="journal">
  <person-group person-group-type="author"><anonymous/>
  </person-group>. <article-title>A clinical evaluation of 
  the International Lymphoma Study Group classification of 
  non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma. The Non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s 
  Lymphoma Classification Project</article-title>.
  <source>Blood</source> <year iso-8601-date="1997">1997</year>;
  <volume>89</volume>: <fpage>3909</fpage>&ndash;<lpage>3918</lpage>.
  <pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">9166827</pub-id>.
 </mixed-citation>
</ref>
...
Element citation
...
<ref id="pbiob001a">
 <label>1</label>
 <element-citation publication-type="journal">
  <person-group person-group-type="author">
   <anonymous/>
  </person-group>
  <article-title>A clinical evaluation of the International
   Lymphoma Study Group classification of non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s
   lymphoma. The Non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s Lymphoma Classification
   Project</article-title>
  <source>Blood</source>
  <year iso-8601-date="1997">1997</year>
  <volume>89</volume>
  <fpage>3909</fpage>
  <lpage>3918</lpage>
  <pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">9166827</pub-id>
 </element-citation>
</ref>
...