Can I use an accented Chinese name when publishing a paper in academia?

Question

My name is in Chinese. When it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet, a lot of other names come out the same. Despite some journals accepting Chinese character names, most journals don't. In this case, instead of a plain Latin alphabet transliteration, I'm considering adding a diacritic (the tone of the character in Chinese). Is this acceptable? Would it cause any issues? I know about ORCID, but a unique name is still valuable.

e.g., instead of Hong I want to use Hóng.

I think this is a great idea. As an ignorant American, however, I will note that this may not achieve the goal you wish, as I have no idea how to pronounce Hóng differently from Hong. — jakebeal, Feb 09 '16 at 11:27
@jakebeal It doesn't matter: the visual difference is more important. — xuhdev, Feb 09 '16 at 18:56

profmartinez · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-09T04:47:01.223

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I always list myself in all my papers as José F. Martínez. Some people are better than others at replicating the accents in citations. Search engines have become much better at matching papers to names with accents even if citations won't include them, so in terms of missing citations (e.g., Google Scholar) I don't think it should be an issue.

My students definitely know how to write the accents :)

edited Feb 09 '16 at 04:47

answered Feb 09 '16 at 04:42

profmartinez

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The issue I'm concerned is that this name is not my legal name (no accent on passport). – xuhdev Feb 09 '16 at 04:46
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People use author names that are slight variations of legal names all the time: Joe, Doug, etc. Maybe you can put a guide to pronunciation on your web page and list yourself with your "normal" (unaccented it seems) name? – profmartinez Feb 09 '16 at 04:47
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@xuhdev A related question Pen name similar with real name: Zu Yangzu instead of Zu Yang for papers – Nobody Feb 09 '16 at 04:52
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If you use a variation of the legal name, what name do you fill in the copyright form? The legal name or the variation? – xuhdev Feb 09 '16 at 05:25
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@xuhdev Your comment sounds another good question: If my name on the published paper is different from my legal name, what name do I fill in the copyright form? – Nobody Feb 09 '16 at 05:30

Can I use an accented Chinese name when publishing a paper in academia?

1 Answers1