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I have a permanent email aliasing from my previous institute. My current academic affiliation (let's pretend it is Horvord University) does NOT give me a permanent email address.

Now, I am going to submit a paper to a journal and I wonder if it is considered professionally appropriate if I list Horvord as my affiliation but list my previous email as the contact?

High GPA
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  • If you're getting the permanent email aliasing, is it because you're a graduate of that institute? That would be the easiest case to explain, and fully professional. (When I was applying for jobs, I did so from my @alumni.Horvord.edu address. Go Horvord Irascible Cows! ;) ) – cactus_pardner May 09 '18 at 23:55

2 Answers2

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Yes, I think it is true to some degree. I received such an email before and it made me wonder what is going on.

Although it is not really prohibited and people understand that situations cannot be generalized, it gives a strange feeling to some people at least.

It is like indentation and font size in a paper submission.

Kay
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    I don't understand the downvote, but I upvoted it to at least make up the downvote. To @HighGPA, I have the same feeling as Kay does. I assume you already left your previous institute. Using their address would probably give people an idea that you're still associated with them. I cannot say it's wrong. But, it just creates an un-necessary misunderstanding. – Nobody May 09 '18 at 06:28
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Yes, using your previous email would be perfectly fine. The few readers who even notice will probably not think twice about it, whereas e.g. a gmail address can look a bit unprofessional, despite being more permanent in many ways. After all, people will move around during a career, and may choose to use an account from a previous institution for a variety of reasons.

However, there are more options. Perhaps you don't need to specify an email address at all, or you can acquire one through a professional organization, or a domain of your own.

Anyon
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    A gmail address is fine. So its a free email service, and? - Unless one has the luxury of a permanent position, academic email addresses are very much disposable and temporary - so a private email address does look better in many ways. What matters more is the style of the email address. - At least that signifies the author may still be contacted in the future. – DetlevCM May 09 '18 at 09:29
  • @DetlevCM I don't have a problem with it myself, and I think the attitude to it is getting more favorable, just due to it becoming more common. Still, you would have to make the choice of using a less official looking address, and potentially dealing with negative views like this. (Some institutions also have policies against third party email services, but it would be quite upsetting if that applies to OP's situation...) – Anyon May 09 '18 at 15:55
  • ...uff... I don't know what to say regarding people like this... And the idea that the e-mail address conveys anything is also a bit meaningless... Heck, one can have a different e-mail address on the paper and in the publishing system. I have my and my superiors institutional e-mail address on a submitted paper draft - while the journal's system holds a persistent private address. An e-mail adress really means very little... Heck, on a previous paper a colleague was denoted the corresponding author... And ironically, my most robust contact method is a private e-mail address. – DetlevCM May 09 '18 at 16:51
  • And while professors often stay at the same institution, even that isn't guaranteed. Sometimes they change institutions and old e-mail addresses go stale... (Though in that case, one often has a better chance of finding a current e-mail address...) – DetlevCM May 09 '18 at 16:52