Author Affiliation for Paper Accepted After Leaving University

Question

I submitted a few papers while I was at a university. All major revisions were done while I was still there. Now I've left academia and joined an R&D company and working on totally unrelated subjects. The papers are now accepted with very minor revisions required. I understand that since the papers were done entirely during my position at the university, that's what I use as my affiliation.

But as for author biography, I would like to consider it a courtesy to indicate my current whereabouts. But I would like to do so only if it does not imply that my current company has any interest/invest, or endorses these papers. I wonder what the commonly accepted practice is, since my company could only advise me on the "affiliation" part.

Answer 1

To answer your title question Author Affiliation for Paper Accepted After Leaving University:

Conventions vary by subfield, but typically, authors can list "current affiliation" or similar address as a footnote or second affiliation.

To answer your body question: But as for author biography, I would like to consider it a courtesy to indicate my current whereabouts. But I would like to do so only if it does not imply that my current company has any interest/invest, or endorses these papers. I wonder what the commonly accepted practice is, since my company could only advise me on the ``affiliation'' part.

Some journals include "author biography" (but typical not my subfield). For that section, just list a summary of what you said:

I completed this work while at University X as a post-doc/grad student/research scientist/professor. I am currently a job title here at Company Y.

I also encourage you to browse other articles to see how authors word that section.

Answer 2

Journals usually have the capability of providing more than one affiliation per author. Use that capability, and put "Current Affiliation:" at the start. that's a more common solution than the other way 'round, where you list your current affiliation first, and then specify where the work was done.

FWIW, there was a time, not so long ago, when people who wanted a reprint usually requested it via snail mail to the corresponding author. Reference management software printed out the requests on special postcards with peel and stick labels -- the point being that all the databases used generally had support for more than one affiliation and address.

Answer 3

This may depend on the field and the specific journal, but in general author affiliations aren't regulated, and it is up to the author to use their best judgement. Journals do not usually check affiliations, so you don't even need to be "formally" affiliated (e.g. have an official position, an email account, etc.)

If the time period over which a work is done spans several stages of one's career, it is customary to include all of those institutions, typically in chronological order. People tend to err on the side of listing more rather than fewer affiliations, and this is why it is common to see authors with large numbers (say 4-5) different affiliations.

If there is a biography section, then it would be reasonable to include a comment on where the work was performed at, and which one is the current affiliation. (disclaimer: I don't have experience with publishing in fields where author biographies are the norm, so I'm just speaking from common sense here)