8

Next year I am getting married and plan on changing my surname. Now I am starting to think about publishing my research can I publish under my future married name or shall I keep my maiden name for a year and switch? I don't want to deceive anyone but the appeal is that in the future someone can follow the development of my work without losing the first couple of papers.

cag51
  • 67,924
  • 25
  • 181
  • 247
S Jones
  • 89
  • 3
  • Related posts: here, here, and here. – Richard Erickson Jul 10 '17 at 12:13
  • 5
    Possible duplicate of Indicating a name change after publication – Richard Erickson Jul 10 '17 at 12:13
  • 6
    I would say: if you have no papers already under your existing name, it will be better to use your married name on all your papers. But if you have some papers already, then when you change is unimportant. – GEdgar Jul 10 '17 at 12:55
  • 3
    Also, while I don't mean to cast gloom, you may not want to make career decisions based on something that hasn't actually happened yet. Nothing is certain in love and war. – Ask About Monica Jul 10 '17 at 17:18
  • 2
    Another option is to submit the papers under your current name. Given the time it takes for papers to be reviewed and published it's quite possible they won't be published until next year anyway, so you don't actually need to worry about this question right now. If/when the papers are accepted and their publication is imminent, you can inform the editors that you wish to change the author name by which you are identified. If you're already married by then it'll be an obvious call to make, but even if it happens sooner than that it'll likely be an easier decision, say, 4-5 months down the line. – Dan Romik Jul 10 '17 at 19:46
  • 5
    To the close voters, I don't think this question is a dup. The linked question is about name change after publication while this question is about possible publication before name change. – Nobody Jul 11 '17 at 11:44
  • @RichardErickson No, that's a completely different question. – David Richerby Jul 11 '17 at 12:34
  • Are you forced to change your name in your country? If not, you should accept that changing it will add confusion to anybody following your developments regardless of whether you do it sooner rather than later. – famargar Jul 12 '17 at 09:26
  • I have seen people do "S Jones L," where L. is the first initial of their married name. A bit odd, but it wokrs. – Azor Ahai -him- Aug 30 '18 at 19:58
  • 1
    Reminder to everyone: answer in answers, not in comments. Comments don't have the quality assurance mechanisms that answers do. –  Aug 31 '18 at 04:35

1 Answers1

7

In general, there is no formal regulation about just what name you are allowed to use in your professional life. As such, any reasonable interpretation of your current, past, or future name is acceptable.

I have, in fact, known at least one other person who did this, and it worked out just fine for her: they had a very solidly established relationship and two decades later they are still married. Predicting the future is risky, however, and I know another person still using the name of an ex in her professional work.

There are other solutions that may work for some people as well, since your publication name is not required to match your legal name. For example, you might choose to hyphenate or to keep publishing under your current name, even if you are planning to adopt your spouse's surname legally and socially.

Finally, it may be worth noting that ORCID aims to make these questions obsolete, but has not yet been broadly enough adopted and worked into people's thinking to effect such change.

jakebeal
  • 187,714
  • 41
  • 655
  • 920