Making a Name for Myself: On Academic Naming Policies and their Impact

2026-06-09

AI Summary

This study addresses the fragmentation of scholarly attribution caused by academic name changes—such as those resulting from marriage or gender transition—which undermines citation accuracy and jeopardizes the psychological well-being and safety of transgender researchers. It presents the first systematic evaluation of name-change policies in computer science, integrating large-scale citation analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, and policy document review. Findings indicate that conferences with clear, visible name-change policies exhibit significantly fewer erroneous citations per 1,000 papers (899 vs. 996). Moreover, between 2019 and 2024, the rate of “deadnaming” in citations to transgender scholars declined by 92%. Building on these results, the work proposes concrete recommendations to enhance the inclusivity of scholarly publishing infrastructure, advancing equity and accessibility in the academic ecosystem.

Abstract

In academic publishing, names connect scholars to their work. When scholars change their names, including for marriage, academic recognition, or gender transition, they may lose credit for past publications.However, despite significant impacts on citation accuracy and researcher well-being, no existing studies examine how naming policies in computer science serve researchers who change their names.We use a mixed-methods approach combining surveys, interviews, and large-scale citation analysis of papers from eight major computer science venues from 2019-2025. We document the multi-year advocacy effort that established the first name change policies, identify implementation barriers including incomplete publisher updates and months-long processing delays. Researchers continue being cited with misparsed and incorrect names despite publisher updates. When these citation errors happen, interviewees report significant mental health impacts, including stress, anxiety, and safety risks. Empirically, we find that venues with accessible and visible name change policies have significantly fewer citation errors compared to inaccessible policies (899 vs. 996 errors per 1,000 papers). Our annotation analysis shows that deadnaming of transgender researchers in citations decreased by 92% from 2019 to 2024. Our findings demonstrate the importance of inclusive publishing policies, for which name change policy advocacy led by trans researchers has been a significant driver. We recommend that venues adopt proactive visible name change policies, support queer advocacy groups, and improve publication infrastructure to build an inclusive publishing landscape.

Problem

• academic naming policies
• name change
• citation accuracy
• researcher well-being
• deadnaming

Innovation

• name change policies
• citation accuracy
• deadnaming
• inclusive publishing
• mixed-methods research