Asking for details of an algorithm developed in an article in review Recently, I have reviewed an article for the IEEE (a very good article too).  Within the article, the authors place great emphasis on a particular algorithm they developed and used, without disclosing any actual code - but explained very well that it could be replicated (which I won't do)..

Now, after I have provided an anonymous review, it occurred to me that I could further test their algorithm in my similar field of research (giving due credit of course).

How would one go about asking for details of an algorithm developed in an article in review?
In a similar situation, I have sent an email to the editor asking to pass on a message and giving permission to reveal my name and contact details to the authors if they wish to respond.

Alternatively, but more problematic, you state that you may be able to replicate it. You could go ahead and do that and by the time your work is complete, the original article is likely to be available to be cited. If you were to go down this path, though, you should still be discussing this with the editor as part of your agreement as a reviewer is that you don't do this.