Changing my legal name for research

Question

I'm in the process of applying to graduate school.

Previous to this, I published an article under the name "Usama B. Ayasrah". At the moment, I'm working on my second article. My MSc supervisor told me to use my legal name instead of my preferred name.

The problem here is that my full name is "Osama Bassam Mohammad Qasim Omar Ayasrah" and my legal name is "Osama Bassam Mohammad Omar". As it is the name of my extended family, I prefer to use "Ayasrah". This is a matter of personal preference.

I know I wasn't consistent, but I want to fix this right now. Should I use my legal name with a twist, like "Osama Omar (Ayasrah)"? What will I say if someone asks me about my first article?

The case is further complicated by the fact that my email address is (usama.qasim@..) and I refer to it in the last publication.

I'm trying to finish the in-press process for my publication as soon as I can.

I'd appreciate any suggestions that relate the previous article to the current one - taking into account how I feel about the name of my family.

Thanks

Answer 1

There is no need to use your legal name for publication. You can use pretty much any name you like as long as you don't impersonate someone else. It isn't good to fight with your advisor, of course, but you want a long term "name" that will make it easy for people to find your work consistently.

The name you use here and in your first publication is fine. But if you want to use another, make it happen soon so that there is a minimum of confusion. You can put a note on a personal website if there are early publications under a different name, but some confusion is likely no matter what you do.

There have been scholars who have published under a name with no relation at all to their personal or legal name.

Don't be concerned about the email you use. It isn't the same as your "Professional Name".

Answer 2

There are famous examples of people getting spectacular results attributed to their pen name: see, for example, that of William Sealy Gosset. In academia, the default level of trust is, perhaps paradoxically, fairly high, and unless there are serious reasons to doubt one has authored an article, it would not be put under extreme scrutiny.

Most certainly, I do not wander around conferences demanding people present me their IDs to verify that their badges are not deceitful (and conference organizers usually comply with requests about the names/affiliations on the badges, within reason!). This comes from the understanding that we all work towards a shared goal of advancing human knowledge. Providing a fake name when publishing your own result does not benefit one much, and more impactful fraud is severely punished, usually being career-ending.

Also, from your comments - you might need to explain why the name under which you are filing the documents is different from the name on the articles when you apply for funding, but this does not seem impossible in your case. It depends on the agencies you are dealing with. However, I do not see them outright denying your claims to those papers, but it can get annoying very quickly. What universities and funding agencies care about the most is a proper listing of affiliations and funding details.

Answer 3

In addition to all the other remarks that have been made about the use of one name, or another, it is worth noting that many of the citation databases (for example Scopus) allow one to link more than one name to the same identity.

If, for example you have published as Aunt Sally, Sally Anne Worldwanderer and Anne Worldwanderer, Scopus will allow you to link these names together so that a person who searches for you under one name will also be directed to the articles that you have published under a different name ... and the calculation of h-index will also reflect the totality of your publications.

Answer 4

These days people get rated based on scores that have been compiled by bots. These bots struggle to put together all the credit that you are due if your name appears in various forms and spellings.

With ORCID or similar unique identifier this problem should be alleviated and in time dissipate. So making sure you are recognisable to the bots as one and the same person should be your priority.

In the mean time, it remains important that your name appears in exactly the same form on all your publications.

So Usama B. Ayasrah it is, going forward!

If your MSc supervisor has a problem with this, I don't know what that might be. I did MSc supervision at a top uni for decades and I can't really imagine that I would have denied a student the use of their preferred name.