What's the best ways to continue publishing while in hiding?

Question

Asking on behalf of a friend's relative to maximize anonymity. (Most details are left out to protect the identity of this person, and I was also not given much detail to begin with.)

Dr. X is an early career scientist who had to flee his home country due to credible threat for his family. His situation is not unlike those in a witness protection program --- he and his family fled the country, settled in the US, and got new names. And they do not want to be found.

Dr. X got a new research job at University A in the US. But during the hiring process he had to reveal his old identity so that the university could verify his degree and publication records. And he was still hired as Dr. X, his old name (for a variety of additional VISA-related reasons). The university is kind enough not to list him on any publicly accessible website, and within the department, he has a nickname. So there is no problem on this end.

However, Dr. X still wants to continue publishing papers, and be active in his research community. What's the best way to publish under a different name?

Some current suggestions have their weakness:

1. Publish as Y, Ph.D., University A --- This will likely cause problem as anyone looking into this will not find a Dr. Y in University A.

2. Publish as Y, Ph.D., independent researcher --- Dr. Y's Ph.D. cannot be verified. Not acknowledging his affiliation is a tough request for a new-hire, and may cause problems with acknowledging grant funding.

3. Publish as Mr. Y, independent researcher --- He may not be taken seriously (by those who do not actually read his papers). And this also has the problem of not acknowledging his affiliation.

4. Officially change his name to Dr. Y --- This is not easy while he is still in the immigration pipeline, which can take years.

5. Publish as Dr. X from his old university --- This will produce too much searchable mentioning of Dr. X, and it's hard to prevent something leading to his whereabouts from being accidentally leaked. The recommendation (from those who know about this kind of thing) is apparently that Dr. X should appear to be dead on the internet.

Answer 1

I hate to suggest it but there is probably no real solution that guarantees safety. If I understand it correctly, people in (formal) witness protection are strongly advised to break all ties with their former life and, especially, with contacts, any of whom could compromise them unwittingly. And a single mistake could prove fatal.

This is most critical when the potential enemies have power and agency, such as the mob or, I suspect, any foreign government.

Generally, people need to build a completely new identity, unrelated to their former life. That is hard to do and still maintain an academic presence unless an official agency (FBI, say) can construct a new academic identity that won't be questioned. But that requires governmental assistance and minimization of those who know the truth.

That said, with some risk, an academic could continue to collaborate with a (very) few colleagues who publish under their own names without reference to the person at risk. While technically plagiarism, it could be ameliorated by having cached documents revealing the truth until the period of risk ends, perhaps with the death of the person in question (and maybe relatives in extreme cases).

But a combination of government assistance and a (very) few trusted colleagues could find a way to publish under an alias that is updated when the risk ends, which makes the plagiarism problem go away.

In official records, if I understand correctly, people can be disappeared (legally dead) and artificial persons created with complete legal personas. But whether this is sufficiently important to those governmental agencies may be unlikely.

But doing this unofficially is probably impossible, especially if the opposition party has resources and the will to act. The world is too connected now and the opportunities for an inadvertent reveal too frequent and likely.

Answer 2

Assuming "Do not publish" is not an acceptable way to continue publishing:

• Most journals do not include authors' titles in publications. They certainly do not verify titles. They do not even verify the authors' species.
• The consensus is that it's not necessary to include an affiliation with a university. Check with university leadership before proceeding.
• If the old identity is abandoned anyway, you might as well publish under a new name.
• Legal name changes are not relevant to academic publications.