Resources for Authors

This section includes resources for authors: A list of publishers and journals with existing name change policies, links to articles and editorials we’ve written, as well as email templates for reaching out to publishers.

Existing Policies

We have created a public spreadsheet of publishers or journals with existing name change policies. It includes links to the full policy as well as at-a-glance information on whether each policy is compatible with the guiding principles described in our guest post for the Committee on Publication Ethics. If you are aware of any policies missing from that spreadsheet, please let us know!

Articles & Editorials

Email Template for Authors to requesting name changes

This template might be used to advocate to a publisher with no known stated policy. Amy J. Ko drafted it to reach out to IEEE, and B.M. Watson edited it to be more generic but feel free to edit or adapt it for your own use.

Dear JOURNAL Editorial Board/Editor’s Name, etc.,

I’m an author of a publication in JOURNAL/publications going back to the year 2000 in JOURNAL. Recently, I changed my first name and my pronouns, and I’m contacting all of the publishers of my published works to have them fixed, replacing my deadname with my correct name, fixing any pronouns, and correcting all papers citing publications using my deadname, which follows the COPE guidance on author name changes. Here’s a link: https://publicationethics.org/news/vision-more-trans-inclusive-publishing-world

I couldn’t find any guidance on the JOURNAL website about a process for correcting my name and pronouns in my publications and in publications that cite them. Does JOURNAL have such a process? If so, can you tell me who to contact about correcting my name and pronouns in my NUMBER of JOURNAL publications? If it does not have a process, who should I ask at JOURNAL to create one, in line with COPE’s guidance? I’d like to stop the researchers who cite my JOURNAL work monthly from spreading my deadname further, ideally as soon as possible.

For background on this request, I recommend the following articles:

Thank you for your help!

(your name/info)

Email Template for reaching out to publication to request a name change policy

Dear JOURNAL Editorial Board/Editor’s Name, etc.,

Recently, a number of scholars published an editorial in COPE (the Council on Publishing Ethics) calling for publishers to introduce, amend, or fix their name change policies for trans authors, who (are still) facing a lot of impacts from publisher policies that are more than a little harmful. Here’s a link: https://publicationethics.org/news/vision-more-trans-inclusive-publishing-world

These policies have also harmed married women who change their names, indigenous authors with name changes, or international authors with misspellings. It’s exciting that the COPE editorial had a big impact on science journals—Science, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, some of Elsevier and others have introduced or begun implementing changes. Here’s Wiley’s page: https://authorservices.wiley.com/ethics-guidelines/index.html and I can provide you some more examples

Some universities have also taken action. For example, here is UF’s: (https://librarypress.domains.uflib.ufl.edu/resources-for-authors/).

As a LIBRARIAN/STUDENT/STAFF/FACULTY MEMBER at INSERT UNI HERE that subscribes to your journal OR that enjoys reading issues of your journal, I was hoping that you might have one too but I was not able to find any sort of policy on INSERT JOURNAL NAME HERE’s website.

Do you have a name change policy that I could take a look at? If not, is the press interested in introducing a policy? If so I could put you in touch with a working group of librarians who are helping to implement these policies.

All the best!

(your name/info)