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by Alexandra BENHAM
As a professional, you want yourself and your work to be easily
identifiable across the world. In English-language databases of
papers, applications, citations, your work will often be
separated into components, stored in separate files,
and sorted alphabetically by your surname.
How can you ensure that others will easily find you
and identify all your work as yours - over space, across databases,
through time?
1. Select your professional name carefully
2. Always use the same version of your name
3. Indicate your SURNAME
4. Put your name on all components of your work
5. Obtain a user-friendly E-mail address
6. Indicate your gender
7. Help others pronounce your name correctly
DETAILS
1. Select your professional name carefully
Select one complete professional name for yourself in English.
Choose it carefully.
Your name has one moment to make a good first impression.
If transliterating your name into Roman letters,
choose one standard version.
Avoid using diacritical marks whenever possible.
If you have a long set of names, try selecting a subset to constitute
your
professional name.
Do distinguish yourself from others with the same last name.
You want your applications, publications, and citations (on
search engines and in science citation indices) to be linked
correctly and uniquely to you. Use Google to discover who else with
your surname works in your subject area, and who else in the whole
world uses the full professional name you are planning to use.
If many other individuals are already using it, design a less common
version for yourself.
2. Always use
the same exact version of your name
Use
your professional name as an unchanging barcode on everything you
write.
Others can then identify you across contexts, over time.
If you change your name in private life, decide carefully what to do
about your professional name. Remember that your earlier work and
the citations to it will be identified by your earlier name.
If you add a nickname, for example George or Anna to a Chinese name,
decide when you’ll use it and do that consistently. Avoid being
“Anna Chen” in some places, “Chen Mei-Ying” in others. It’s
very hard to keep track of someone who uses different names on
e-mails, CVs, and papers.
3. Indicate your surname - unambiguously
Foreigners trying to decide which is your surname will often rely
on clues: the usual order of names in your country, the properties of
your name such as number of syllables, the context (form of
signature, etc.), and rules for selecting among multiple surnames. These
clues frequently mislead.
Avoid problems. Put your surname – and only your surname - in CAPS.
Start the CAPS at the name to be used when filing alphabetically.
Susan SMITH so
file under S
Pierre DE ROCHEMONT
D
Luis Martin GONZALES DE VILLANUEVA
G
Gili WANG (The indication is clear even if written WANG Gili)
W
4. Then – identify all your work
Whenever journal editors, department chairs, conference
organizers are looking though a set of documents and come upon
yours, you want them to know immediately
who wrote this? your name
what is it? your work’s title or category
(maybe the venue or organization too)
which version? date/time
Of course you must obey journal and conference rules concerning identification of material
you submit to them. Unless it's prohibited,
include your name, the title, and the date prominently. Consider including
your name (perhaps unobtrusively in the footer) on every page that might get
printed out separately.
Work is often sorted by these elements:
your e-mail address
your “sender name”
subject line of your e-mail
your text
filenames of attached files
contents of attached files
In each of these elements, include specific identifiers.
For e-mails, use a brief specific subject line. Then months
later you and the recipient will still know what the message was
about.
Rename your attached files for your recipient’s use. One good
filename format is
your surname, the type of contents, and the date:
smith abstract 2010-03-14.doc
5. Obtain a user-friendly e-mail address
Your e-mail address should be easy to type, easy to associate
with you, and easy to remember. Use your name as
your e-mail address whenever possible:
Mary.Smith@company.com or msmith@company.com.
Utilize the same version of your professional name for your
"sender name" as you do everywhere
else.
6. Indicate your gender
People who wish to address you or otherwise deal with you
correctly will try to infer your gender and will worry about making a
mistake. They will appreciate it if you signal your gender. Many
languages signal this by the endings of given names or surnames. But
these clues can mislead and are often absent.
If your name does not give an unambiguous signal to people across the
world, offer help.
Put Mr or Miss/Mrs/Ms by your name, or include
a photo, or refer to yourself in writing as “he” or “she.”
7. Give clues to pronunciation
People looking at your written name will try to imagine how it
sounds. Pronouncing an unfamiliar name can be challenging,
especially if there are diacritical marks or unfamiliar letter
combinations. Help people who have trouble pronouncing your name.
Write it out phonetically for them in the style of their language,
or tell them what it rhymes with ("rhymes with “sun”"),
or give them other ways to remember it.
When you first meet someone, tell them your name slowly and clearly,
and work it again later into the conversation.
May your good name be known far and wide!
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ALSO SEE
Glossaries for New Institutional Economics
Glossary in English
Glossary in Arabic
Glossary in Simplified Chinese
Glossary in Traditional Chinese
New Institutional Economics Terms
in Many Languages
Reading List - North & Nye 2003
About New Institutional Economics
Links and Resources
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