The Philosophers' Cocoon

A safe and supportive forum for philosophers.

Owned & Moderated by Marcus Arvan (University of Tampa)

Contact: marvan@ut.edu

Blog mission & moderation policy

IMPORTANT NOTE on how to ensure anonymity in commenting
Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2025-26)

recent posts

about

Deanonymizing self-references after review?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

When my draft undergoes a refereeing process, I follow the norm in referring to my own past papers as if they were written by another person. My question is this: when I de-anonymize my draft, is it appropriate if I (1) delete some self-references where I repeat some of my past points, to the effect that I refer to myself a bit less that I would if it were a different author; (2) use the first-person pronoun whenever referring to myself if applicable? Other suggestions for de-anonymizing are also welcome!

Good questions. I'm not entirely sure about (1), as deleting a bunch of in-text citations (even if they are to oneself) seem like substantive changes to the draft that was refereed. (2) seems entirely fine to me. What do you all think?

Posted in

3 responses to “Deanonymizing self-references after review?”

  1. Anon1

    If your current paper relies on arguments made in previous papers, they should be cited, regardless of the author.

    Reply
  2. reference

    I am sorry that the second question was formulated badly. I actually meant whether it is okay to refer to one’s past work without using first person pronoun (e.g. “these authors” rather than “I and other authors…”). I understand this is probably a very minor thing that does not matter either way, but just in case there is a recommended norm. Personally I prefer the third-person if the sameness of the author isn’t important—esp when I no longer have the cited view.

    Reply
  3. Assistant Professor

    I find talking about yourself in the third person a bit awkward, personally (it is endearing when Elmo does it on Sesame Street, but I can’t think of many other particularly successful examples), and would think even if you don’t hold the past view you are citing from your own work but the work is still relevant to cite, then it would make most sense to indicate this change of view in a footnote or in the text (“as I previously argued, [argument, self-citation], though as I now suggest, [update to argument]”). It seems a bit odd to attribute a view to “these authors” if you are among those authors, merely to distance yourself from your own prior view, if that is indeed the intent. I would think being direct about it would be better than using the third-person as it would also help future people engaging with your prior work to track the trajectory of your evolving view and hopefully limit any opportunity for misunderstanding of your published positions.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to referenceCancel reply

Discover more from The Philosophers' Cocoon

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading