I'm a computer scientist collaborating with colleagues in our medicine faculty, and I'm writing a first draft of a manuscript we'd like to co-author for publication in a medicine journal (actual journal TDB). Looking briefly at similar papers, I notice that it's common for authors to have their qualifications (MD, PhD, etc.) listed along with their names. This isn't a convention common to my own field, and I wondered whether there are standard guidelines for which qualifications to include. I have several, including Masters, and a doctorate (DPhil) equivalent to a PhD, but no medical degree. Which should I use, and is it appropriate to use "PhD" instead of the actual doctorate title to avoid confusion?
1 Answer
If there are guidelines they’ll be in the instructions to authors in the journal you’re targeting.
If there aren’t guidelines, just list the degrees you have.
Definitely don’t substitute PhD for your DPhil. It won’t be as confusing as some, and lets the reader take a view on equivalence.
(The far more common confusion in medical journals would be the MD. In US system medial education that’s a basic medical qualification that almost everyone has (unless they have a DO). In the British system it’s a higher degree equivalent to a PhD, and if someone lists their qualifications as eg MPH MD there’s no quick way to tell which they’ve got).
