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I changed my name, so that I now have the initials F. A. Lastname. For many years I used F. Lastname. If I now want to refer to a publication where I used F. Lastname, should I respect my change of name, or the name used in the publication?

Sapiens
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  • Use an ORCID iD. – JRN May 28 '22 at 08:47
  • @JoelReyesNoche How, do you mean, in a reference as follows? Lastname, X. 2012. Title of Paper, in Title of Journal, 74/3, 112-122. – Sapiens May 28 '22 at 15:19
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    What I mean is, to tell the world that F. Lastname and F. A. Lastname are the same person, you associate each with the same ORCID iD. (My suggestion was not meant as an answer to your question.) – JRN May 29 '22 at 01:48

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Firstly, the reference should be listed in such a way that it is easy for the reader to find the publication. I would therefore recommend to use "F. Lastname" if this is what is listed on the original publication, to avoid confusion.

There may also be automated systems that are unable to count references correctly, because they may assume that "F. Lastname" and "F.A. Lastname" are different authors.

To give an example: it is common that women who changed their name after marriage still publish under their maiden name to prevent a "split" publication record.

However, if the reference contains enough information to identify the publication and you feel bad every time you need to use your old initial, you may choose to refer to the paper with the new initials. I would not advise this for the reasons given above and probably spend more time checking the reference when looking it up, but I would understand, and so would most of your readers.

Louic
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