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PhDs

Question for future/current PhDs: Are you (or did you) changing your name, and if so, are you doing anything special (i.e. moving your maiden name to middle name)? How are you going to write your name for publications? I really don't want to get into a discussion of whether or not to change my name, or why people do what they do, I'm just curious about this particular aspect of the issue. If I change my name, I'm not sure about publishing under it, since a PubMed search under one name won't turn up papers under the other. A girl in my lab changed her name, but moved her last name to her middle name, and continues to publish under her maiden name. This seems sort of weird to me, since you wouldn't normally publish as 'Firstname Middlename', but I don't really know another way around this. Just looking for opinions, advice, knowledge from those who are going through it or have been there.
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Re: PhDs

  • I'm moving my last name to my middle name, taking my husband's name and will go by 'Dr'. Me keeping my maiden name as a middle name is more important to my Dad than me, so I did it for him. And my publications will be First Name, Maiden name middle initial, married last name: instead of Jane Doe Smith: Jane D. Smith.I will have a couple of older publications under my maiden name prior to marriage, but that's no big deal to me. HTH!
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  • Thanks :)So far my older publications are not related to my current field of research, so it doesn't seem like a big deal if they don't show up on the same search.  It's just something people bring up a lot.  I will probably have another one that IS more important before we get married, but I'm not sure if having a different name on that one would even bother me.  I feel like everyone else has stronger opinions about this than I do!In my case, I really have no attachment whatsoever to my last name, but I can see both sides of the argument.
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  • I did change my name and moved my maiden name to my middle name. I haven't published yet but I'm hoping to publish with both last names, so something like: Doe Smith, Jane. I haven't seen this much though so I'm not sure if it will work. If it doesn't, I may add a hyphen...
  • If I'm published by the time we get married, I plan on hyphenating or doing the last-to-middle name shift professionally, and taking his last name legally/personally. If I'm not published yet, it will be his name all the way. It all depends on where I'm at at that point.

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  • I will take my FI's last name legally and personally, but professionally (specifically for publishing purposes), I plan to use both last names so anything predating our marriage will still turn up on a search.
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  • Hey! I'm a grad student pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psych. Fortunately, I will be getting married before anything of mine is ready for publication. But, I have heard that some of my professors who were married after they had some publications hyphenated their maiden name with their new last name. Also, since some publications take awhile to come out after submitting them, maybe it would be possible to change the publications to your new last name if they haven't come out in a journal yet.
  • I've had a couple of minor publications. Personally, I don't plan to change my name at all, but that has more to do with my own feelings about my name. It seems as though if maiden name publications are important to you it would be important to consider keeping/using your previously published name. One thing I haven't seen mentioned here; if you're in a field that requires licensure/state regulation (ie clinical psych, counseling, medical, vet, or even law) there may be ethical/legal issues related to practicing and publishing under different names. For example if you continue to publish under your maiden name, but change your legal name to your FI's, would you practice under your new legal name, or would you practice under the same name you publish under? Clients/patients have a right to know your professional reputation, including publications. Also unethical/ possibly illegal to practice under a name not legally yours. Seems like the hyphen is the easiest solution here, cumbersome as it may be. One of my friends kept her name legally the same, and same for professional publications and practice. Socially however, she took her husband's name. In social situations she goes by Dr. or Mrs. FI. I thought it would be confusing, but actually seems to work for her. Whatever the case, if you have published under your maiden name, I would make sure that last name appears in some form or another on all future publications (middle, hyphen, whatever) so that people can connect the dots. Isn't this annoying??? Ugh.
  • I agree about the licensure/certification/etc, I think you have to be consistent legally.  Luckily that's not an issue - or maybe not-so-luckily, since it would probably help me make my decision.  :)I am just really anti-hyphenating, personally, but I guess if I'm ONLY doing it on publications....sigh.  This should not be so difficult.
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