ndbm
                                                      new 9/02

      Double-Blind Review Discontinued by APS Journals

For a number of years, Physical Review and Physical Review
Letters offered the option of ``double-blind'' reviewing.  At
the request of authors, their identities were withheld from
referees.  This option has now been discontinued.

This decision was made after a recent study by the editors and
discussion with the APS Publications Oversight Committee.  It
was found that very few authors (0.06%) used the option, and
there was no evidence that the option benefited them:  94% of
the papers handled this way were rejected.  We judge that the
use of double-blind review had no effect on the ultimate result
for these papers.

Although the option was rarely used, as long as it was offered,
it was necessary to maintain, at significant cost, procedures
and software to suppress the author's identity for these few
papers.  Given that the process appeared to benefit neither the
journals nor the authors who used it, it has been eliminated.