Academics struggle to navigate anonymous peer review etiquette and risk career damage through inadvertent disclosure

Researchers face a paralyzing dilemma when resubmitting rejected papers to new journals: they want to acknowledge helpful feedback from anonymous reviewers but fear accidentally revealing the reviewer's identity, which violates academic norms and could damage relationships with the scientific community. Current solutions are non-existent—researchers must either ignore valuable feedback or risk social and professional consequences by potentially identifying reviewers through their acknowledgments.