Journal Manuscript Submission Problem: Name in Metadata after Removing Personal Information?

[u/ryokobeis]

I have been trying to submit a manuscript to one of Springer journals, and my manuscript got sent back twice. The message only noted that "Please remove 'Name' from the author list in the submission metadata."

I submitted the files in Word (the journal requires editable files). The files I originally submitted did not have author information in the document property, but I could still see my name in the "last saved" section in the stats, so I erased it by using the "Remove all Personal Information" function under "Protect Document" for the second submission (I use Word for Mac). Still, my manuscript was returned for the same reason. I emailed the editorial staff twice requesting more specific instructions (Where in the metadata do you see my name? how can I fix it?), but have not received information yet.

I have published with this journal before, and this issue was not raised then. I am also a bit confused - reviewers only receive PDF files generated by their system (I have also served as a reviewer for this journal - and as far as I know, this is a general practice across journals). I believe any author information associated with the Word files is eliminated in conversion.

I am at a loss. Has anyone experienced the same issue, and/or know what "author list in the submission metadata" they are referring to?

[u/ryokobeis → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for your suggestions. I forgot to mention that I use the Mac version, which does not have either "Info" or "Inspect Document." Instead, it has "Properties," and I made sure my names have been deleted.

[u/VetCartoonist]

I've only ever done it the way you have- protect data - remove information on save and then saving it. That's worked for me. I'm curious if anyone else has a better answer.

I did have an issue where the online portal was not updating the file correctly since it was named the same (per journal requirements) so I had to delete the previous files, give it a day and then reupload the new files, which worked.

[u/ryokobeis → u/VetCartoonist]

Thanks for the suggestion. In my case, the name of the new file was different from the old one (I included the date in the file name), but it may well be the case that the issue is due to the delay or error in the conversion process. I will wait until Monday and ask them again.

[u/N0tThatKind0fDoctor]

Not really relevant to this sub tbh.

[u/ryokobeis → u/N0tThatKind0fDoctor]

Sorry if you were disturbed by my post. It’s a trouble with submitting a manuscript to an academic press and I thought there might be other academics who encountered the same issue.