Names on posters/presentations/pubs... different forms of names, does it matter?

[StatsNerd]

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Is it a problem if my name appears in different forms on various conference posters and presentations? When submitting stuff myself I always use the full version of my name with my middle initial, but most people in my grad program know me as a shorter version of my first name. I just realized the shortened version of my first name (without the middle initial) was submitted as an author on a poster I'm presenting with some others in my lab next month. The girl who submitted the abstract back in December sent it in without giving me a chance to look it over and tell her to change my name to the full length version (honestly, I just thought she would know to do this... the name she used is an obvious nickname and she knows my real name 🙄). This is not a major poster for me, as I am second-to-last author, but I still worry it's going to look weird on my CV if my name is different from all my other posters and presentations. Is this something I should be at all worried about? I know this discussion has come up in terms of getting married and changing your last name, but does it matter if my first name is different? (and yes, the nickname used on said abstract starts with a different letter than the full version of my name, unfortunately)

I'm in a master's program now... I'm thinking I should just go by my full first name from the get-go in my PhD program to avoid such confusion.

 

[KillerDiller]

I don't think it's a big deal by any means. On your CV you could simply list all your posters and publications in APA format. Since that just includes your first and middle initials, nobody will be able to tell that you used a shortened version of your name....Well, that is, unless the shortened version of your name starts with a different letter. If that's the case, I'd cite it the way it was presented at the conference, but put the name in bold or italics to make it obvious that it is you.

 

[Psychadelic2012]

Can you change the first name on the actual poster and then cite it using your actual first name (since it is then on the poster)?

 

[bcliff]

Is it a problem if my name appears in different forms on various conference posters and presentations? When submitting stuff myself I always use the full version of my name with my middle initial, but most people in my grad program know me as a shorter version of my first name. I just realized the shortened version of my first name (without the middle initial) was submitted as an author on a poster I'm presenting with some others in my lab next month. The girl who submitted the abstract back in December sent it in without giving me a chance to look it over and tell her to change my name to the full length version (honestly, I just thought she would know to do this... the name she used is an obvious nickname and she knows my real name 🙄). This is not a major poster for me, as I am second-to-last author, but I still worry it's going to look weird on my CV if my name is different from all my other posters and presentations. Is this something I should be at all worried about? I know this discussion has come up in terms of getting married and changing your last name, but does it matter if my first name is different? (and yes, the nickname used on said abstract starts with a different letter than the full version of my name, unfortunately)

I'm in a master's program now... I'm thinking I should just go by my full first name from the get-go in my PhD program to avoid such confusion.

I have a secondary question to this - My name has a suffix on the end of it (Jr.) that I hate, and I never mention it in abstracts, or anything professional/academic. So nowhere on my CV is the Jr. mentioned. Should I list this as an alternate name or pseudonym on grad school applications, or indicate the Jr. somewhere on my CV? Is it commonplace to remove a suffix from your 'professional' name?

 

[PsychPhDone]

Just list your name how you like on your vita, especially if it's just a poster. 🙂 You can ask your name to be fixed in a conference program if you want, too.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I'd list it on my CV exactly as it's listed on the poster/abstract, and would just bold it (like I would with any other reference) to let the reader know it was me. Especially for something like a poster, it shouldn't be a problem. If anyone asks, you can just give the explanation you've provided here (i.e., that it's a nickname, and that the person mistakenly used it instead of your legal name).

If it happens again in grad school, I'd definitely recommend emailing the person and (nicely/gently) correcting them. Even if the current poster/pub/whatever can't be changed, it'll hopefully prevent it from occurring again in the future.

 

[Pragma]

I'd list it on my CV exactly as it's listed on the poster/abstract, and would just bold it (like I would with any other reference) to let the reader know it was me. Especially for something like a poster, it shouldn't be a problem. If anyone asks, you can just give the explanation you've provided here (i.e., that it's a nickname, and that the person mistakenly used it instead of your legal name).

If it happens again in grad school, I'd definitely recommend emailing the person and (nicely/gently) correcting them. Even if the current poster/pub/whatever can't be changed, it'll hopefully prevent it from occurring again in the future.

I started bolding my name early on in graduate school because it is just easier on the reader anyways to locate your order in the authorship (very courteous to do especially when you have a lot of presentations and pubs). Do it this way then it should be clear.

I actually have wondered about how this looks for people who change their name after marriage. My understanding has been that people just list what their name was for the older publications and then list the new one for the new ones. On a CV, this is manageable especially if you use the bolding method. But I wonder if it makes it harder to get the H index on Google Scholar or if you can merge both author names.

 

[cara susanna]

I'm changing my name after I get married in a few months, and I'm definitely worried about that. I'm going to bold everything on my CV (I do already), but I'm afraid it could impact my internship/post-doc/faculty job application process if it's harder to find my publications through searching Google Scholar or an academic database.

 

[Pragma]

I'm changing my name after I get married in a few months, and I'm definitely worried about that. I'm going to bold everything on my CV (I do already), but I'm afraid it could impact my internship/post-doc/faculty job application process if it's harder to find my publications through searching Google Scholar or an academic database.[/QUOTE]

I highly doubt that anyone is going to do that. If they actually have time to look at all of the materials in your application, I'd be surprised.

 

[cara susanna]

Oh, good. Then hopefully the bolding on my CV will be enough 🙂

 

[StatsNerd]

Thanks for all the input. I like the bolding my name on my CV idea. 🙂

 

[Doctor Eliza]

I'm changing my name after I get married in a few months, and I'm definitely worried about that. I'm going to bold everything on my CV (I do already), but I'm afraid it could impact my internship/post-doc/faculty job application process if it's harder to find my publications through searching Google Scholar or an academic database.

I have a crazy long complicated maiden name and a crazy mid-sized married name. Both are distinctive and everyone mispronounces them. This made hyphenation out of the question--the resulting hyphenated name would have been 20 letters long! So I legally changed my middle name to my maiden name. I feel that it has helped with some level of continuity. In important places, like the top of my resume or my psychology license, I have my first, new middle, and last names written out.

Thought I'd mention it in case it would be a good option for you. 🙂

Dr. E