I am a Korean with my first (given) name comes last and my last (family) name comes first, just like many other east asians. So, I write my name as "Aaa Bbb Ccc", where "Aaa" is my family name and "Bbb Ccc" is my given name. There are literally several millions of other Koreans who also have "Aaa" as their family name, and many of them spell it in English in the same way. Imagine citing a paper written by a Korean with family name Aaa. How can people possibly distinguish hundreds of Korean researchers with the same name working in same field? For this reason, I want to use my given name (which is still quite common, but far less common than my family name) instead of my family name. For example, I want to be cited as [Bbb Ccc, 2020] instead of [Aaa, 2020]. Is this possible to do? I don't mind to be called as "Dr Bbb Ccc", and actually I prefer that way; imagine being called as "Dr Aaa", where there are 8 other "Dr Aaa"s in the same department! Of course I have to deal with other problems, like being called as "Bbb" or "Ccc" which is just like "von" and "Neumann" instead of "von Neumann"; but I think that is less annoying than being one of those "Aaa"s. Is it possible?
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1How do other Korean researchers and authors handle this?– henningDec 20, 2020 at 8:20
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Also, see first answer of academia.stackexchange.com/questions/78468/…– Anonymous PhysicistDec 20, 2020 at 8:27
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Also related academia.stackexchange.com/questions/125135/…– Anonymous PhysicistDec 20, 2020 at 8:28
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@henning--reinstateMonica As far as I know, almost all Koreans just accept being called as "Dr. Aaa". I don't know anyone who tried what I want to try.– user132994Dec 20, 2020 at 8:30
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1@AnonymousPhysicist I guess you are saying that this is possible to do. How can I do this? Maybe writing my given name as my last name when I submit an article? Is this okay (ethically) even when the submission system of a journal explicitly mentions that the last name means the family name?– user132994Dec 20, 2020 at 8:41
2 Answers
Use a digital identifier such as ORCID - https://orcid.org It would be impossible to address all the different naming conventions so you can distinguish yourself in every subgroup. But with ORCID, it would be easier to track your publications and work compared to sifting through your duplicates on google or a database.
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1That sounds good. I somehow already have one but didn't quite know why one needs it. Thanks! Dec 20, 2020 at 13:28
In my field (computer science) there is absolutely no restriction on the name you publish under. At no point in the publication process have I had to prove I am the person I am publishing as (perhaps some T&Cs contained such terms, but I suspect that's to address fraud etc). A well known professor publishes using his middle name, and I suspect most people don't even realise that's not his first name. As long as you are consistent with the name you use, you shouldn't run into any issues.
