Contacting a researcher for academic queries, but he/she may be a potential reviewer? So I have a paper submitted in a conference which requires double-blind review.
But while this paper is under review, I had a query in a paper I was reading of the very same field. Now, the authors could be my potential reviewers.
Is it fine for me to contact them regarding the query ?
PS: My paper is on arxiv as well.
Ignore the &quot;complications&quot;. It is overthinking the purpose of double blind review. If you want to ask them questions about their paper it is perfectly ok to do so.
After all, anyone in your field could be your reviewer in a double blind process. You don't need to be paralyzed just because you submit a paper.
If there are any ethical issues they are on the other side in deciding how and when to respond to you.