How does the editor know that you are not a friend of the authors?

Does this answer your question? Are reviewers supposed to know each others' identity, after the reviewing process is finished?

And a different perspective from CS: academia.stackexchange.com/q/32181/68109

@Prof.SantaClaus of the "authors"? Apologies, but I didn't understand your question (besides, I gave a very negative review so that should kind of clear up any possible "friendships" with the authors)

@GoodDeeds thank you, but I did not find an appropriate answer in those questions. I know that I'm not "supposed" to know the identity of the other reviewers. But what if I directly ask it to the editor - who could reach out to this specific reviewer and say "One of the reviewers personally expressed their willingness to contact you privately. Can I share your contact information with them?"

The editor may cross you off their list for future work.

@Prof.SantaClaus if the reviewer is a friend of the authors, they would not have been invited to review the paper, would they?

@Allure How would you know? You expect an editor/system to know who is connected to who? good luck with that. I'm not talking about reviewers who have published together or connected on LinkedIn or Facebook.

@Prof.SantaClaus the Journal is a respectable Journal in the field (while not being a "top" one). I have reasons to believe that the assignment of reviewer tasks is done so as to ensure that no conflict of interests (or "friendships") exist between the reviewers and the authors. Regardless, I still do not understand what this matter has to do with my original question.

@SolarMike this is one of my main concerns. Do you mind explaining why an editor would feel that my request to be so much inappropriate so as to lead to the "erasure" of my name from the list of their potential reviewers?

@P.Shark I'm not asserting that the journal is dodgy. I'm giving you a reason why an editor will not give you the identify of other reviewers. You could be a friend of the authors.

Simply because you are breaking the agreement, or trying to.

@SolarMike I respectfully disagree that OP is trying to break an agreement. Their request is unusual, but I see nothing wrong with it. My answer proposes a way to manage the awkwardness and to respect the confidentiality. Also, please note that "double-blind" and "single-blind" peer review, although I agree they are important, are not moral standards. Research was conducted among peers with open peer review for hundreds of years before blinding became best practice. Although I support blind peer review, my point is that when it is slightly compromised, it is not the end of the world.

@Tripartio if the editor has the same (loose) standards then they may well pass on the contact. Why bother with blind peer review - why not just post publicly and just "let it go"? Much like "fake news".

@SolarMike Please note that this is not an author asking to know the identities of the reviewers. A reviewer asking to know another reviewer is completely different. Strictly speaking, blind peer review is about blindness between authors and reviewers, not among reviewers. In fact, editors as reviewers are generally not blind to each other, or only partially so. OP is only asking to be given the same visibility on the other reviewers that an editor would have. I see nothing wrong with such a request and I do not even consider that it violates blind peer review.

@Tripartio You were confused between reviewers contacting reviewers or reviewers contacting authors? I wasn't.

@SolarMike I do not understand your comment, "You were confused between reviewers contacting reviewers or reviewers contacting authors? I wasn't." Could you please be explicit about what you think I was confused about and exactly what I said indicates that confusion?

@Tripartio These are your exact words: "Please note that this is not an author asking to know the identities of the reviewers.". The question, both in the title and body does not want to implement author - reviewer contact. So why would you consider it.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

I think there is no risk that the editor will stop asking you to review, as long as you provide otherwise good and timely reviews. Editors are in desperate need for good reviewers. It is virtually impossible not to get invited to review again.