About short author name

Question

In my ID card, my complete name has the following form : FirstName MiddleName1 MiddleName2 LastName. I will give an example (created name): Ahmed El Mustafa Ali. As you can see there is a space between El and Mustafa. Also, El is not in reality a middle name since it does not make sense if we take it alone (but Mustafa or ElMustafa are meaningful). In this example, I would like to shorten it A.E. Ali instead of A.E.M. Ali

Could I use only the initial letters of my FirstName, MiddleName1 and LastName in my short author name and skip that of MiddleName2 whereas in my complete name I do it correctly as the ID card?

This is the name you intend to use on your publications? You may abbreviate your name any way you like. (It will help the rest of us if you always do it the same way...) The only objection I can see is if you try to get credit for someone else's work by making your author name the same as his. — GEdgar, Jul 05 '20 at 12:12
Does this answer your question? Choosing my name as an author when publishing a scientific paper, can I use my "unofficial" first name? — Arno, Jul 05 '20 at 20:29
I assume you are asking this question in order to fit in to English conventions. Most academics are more-or-less familiar with names with particles like that. Also common are "von" or "de." I think the majority of academic would recognize "El Mustafa" as one unit, especially if you choose to spell it "el Mustafa." — Azor Ahai -him-, Jul 06 '20 at 16:49

Buffy · Answer 1 · 2020-07-05T21:07:57.293

If your chosen abbreviation make sense in your own culture you should feel free to use it.

But I make one recommendation, in case you are new at this. Choose a "public persona name" that you will feel comfortable using throughout your professional life. This will make it easier for people to find your work as your career progresses.

There is one additional consideration, however. You want your chosen name to be relatively unique in your field. In Egypt, for example, I think that the E in El has almost no distinguishing element. (I studied once with someone named ... El Masri: The Egyptian). If you can be confused with others, it won't help in your career.

This is more of an issue for women in some cultures where they may change their names for marriage and such.

But establish a persona, even if you want it to be a pseudonym, and stick with it. I doubt that editors or others will object.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 05 '20 at 20:42

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Yes. In your example A. E. Ali sounds fine to me. It's your name so do it how you want. Just be consistent. Abbreviate it the same way every time.

answered Jul 05 '20 at 20:42

Daniel K

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The OP might want to check to see how many other people use that as their byline as well, and what their reputation is like. I know someone who used their full first name, rather than an initial, precisely to disambiguate themselves from another active author. – Jon Custer Jul 06 '20 at 20:00

About short author name

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