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Normalization Trends of Authors' Names in Scientific Publications Aliaga, Francisco M. & Correa, Ana D. (2011). Normalization trends of authors' names in scientific publications. RELIEVE, v. 17, n. 1, art. 0, p. 1-10 http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v17n1/RELIEVEv17n1_0.htm e-Journal of Educational Revista ELectrónica de Research, Assessment and Investigación y EValuación Evaluation Educativa NORMALIZATION TRENDS OF AUTHORS' NAMES IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS [Tendencias en la normalización de nombres de autores en publicaciones científicas] by/por Article record Ficha del artículo Aliaga, Francisco M. ([email protected]) About authors Sobre los autores Correa, Ana D. ([email protected]) HTML format Formato HTML Abstract Resumen We analyze current normalization trends of authors' na- Se analizan las tendencias actuales sobre normalización de mes. We review the advantages of using a single biblio- los nombres de autores. Se revisan las ventajas de utilizar graphic name as well as the most common naming rec- un nombre bibliográfico único y se revisan las recomen- ommendations so that each author can choose which to daciones más habituales para que se elijan los de cada au- follow.. tor. Keywords Descriptores Academic journals; Internationality; Scientific communi- Revistas académicas; Internacionalidad; Publicación aca- cation; Impact; Citations; Author. démica; Comunicación científica; Impacto; Citas; Autor. Over the last few years, we have been ex- • Various impulses and guidelines which periencing a substantial increase in the inter- favor the improvement and professionali- nationalization of academic production. This zation of the scientific edition, with prac- is particularly true in the Spanish sphere and tical help such as Román’s texts (1981) or specifically in education magazines (Aliaga those of Delgado López-Cózar, Ruiz Péres & Suárez-Rodríguez, 2007; Hernández Pina and Jiménez Contreras, (2007), the last of & Maquilón, 2010). There are many factors these within the ARCE project: (Support that can influence this, which include: for the Scientific Spanish Journals), from the Spanish Foundation for Science and • The regulations for evaluating scientific Technology (FECYT). research staff (ANECA, CNEAI, etc. in Spain or institutions such as CONACYT • The development of new evaluation tools in Mexico, CAICYT in Argentina or Col- of quality and/or impact, such as Latindex ciencias in Colombia, to name a few in the or In-RECS. Latin-American sphere). • The birth and drive of virtual and direc- tory newspaper libraries, all geared to provide the reader with the simultaneous Revista ELectrónica de Investigación y EValuación Educativa [ www.uv.es/RELIEVE ] pag. 1 Aliaga, Francisco M. & Correa, Ana D. (2011). Normalization trends of authors' names in scientific publications. RELIEVE, v. 17, n. 1, art. 0, p. 1-10 http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v17n1/RELIEVEv17n1_0.htm consultation of a large number of journals balization. Thus, a large quantity of dis- (we will cite projects as interesting as Re- agreements and errors which affect the qual- dalyc, e-revistas, DOAJ, etc.). ity and effectiveness of the codification proc- • The negotiations of FECYT with respect esses and the recovery of information are to the unified management of the relations produced. with ISI-Thompson-Reuters about its data One of the principle sources of these errors bases. is the special idiosyncrasy of the author’s In this context, it will produce a much names in certain countries. A well known greater access to journals, even journals with fact, the Anglo-Saxons (and many other Eu- predominately regional interests (such as ropean countries) predominately use the sur- Latinas), to international databases name of the father to name the child, along (Rodríguez Yunta, 2010). On one hand, it is with one, or in some cases, several individual producing an accelerated incorporation to the or given names. This system, although it Web of Knowledge databases (ISI- propitiates overlaps (and therefore identity Thompson-Reuters) that traditionally have confusion), is relatively simple to use. Being ignored the productions of Social Sciences that, the surname or family denomination is from the non-Anglo-Saxon cultural areas. easily identified in any text: one only has to The gradual commoditization of the Institute search for the last word (last name) of the of Scientific Information, created by Gar- name. However, this system presents some field, used to increase the complexity of the problems for the usage, slightly in retrogres- market (with the emergence of competitive sion, when the wife adopts her husband’s initiatives), has substantially modified the surname (generally losing her own), result- commercial policy (therefore affecting the ing in some problems for the identification of scientific) of said institution. On the other the authors (Goldin & Shim, 2004). hand, it has also produced the progressive implementation of some of the emerging Other cultures use specific but different alternatives (SCOPUS, Scholar Google), that forms of identification, which implies com- include a number of noticeably superior plications not considered (or resolved) with journals compared to their competitor Web of the system that we have previously made Knowledge. These and other international reference to and that we have termed, in or- databases, the majority of which have an der to simplify, Anglo-Saxon. Thus, in the Anglo-Saxon origin, are key elements to case with countries such as Korea, 22% of its propitiate the spread of knowledge, thus citizens have the surname Kim (as their only promoting the diffusion of its journals and surname). Therefore, it is not unusual to find authors. They are therefore essential to in- identity names between hundreds and even crease the measured impact of the scientific thousands of people (according to data from activity. 2004 from the National Statistical Office of the Republic of Korea). In the case of China, However, the relative inexperience of even prestigious magazines like Nature have many academics in this new international shown, alarmingly, the serious problems of context propitiates some problems that affect identification resulting from the current nam- the visibility of their work in these databases. ing system. Thus, 85% of the Chinese popu- Furthermore, the difficulties caused by the lation (about 1,100 million people) share the cultural differences must be taken into ac- 129 most common surnames, which gives a count between the creators of these databases small idea about the huge amount of overlaps (like we have said, fundamentally Anglo- that are produced (cfr. Nature, 2008). The Saxon) and the diverse national contexts to variations between name-surname and sur- those that protect the expression of their glo- name-name, as well as the syllabic separa- Revista ELectrónica de Investigación y EValuación Educativa [ www.uv.es/RELIEVE ] pag. 2 Aliaga, Francisco M. & Correa, Ana D. (2011). Normalization trends of authors' names in scientific publications. RELIEVE, v. 17, n. 1, art. 0, p. 1-10 http://www.uv.es/RELIEVE/v17n1/RELIEVEv17n1_0.htm tions (or not) of the names, are added to affects the authors´ visibility and identifiabil- these problems, among others, according to ity, which is very important in regards to the different customs. Other related problems dispersion and recognition of their work. The occur in zones such as the south of India (in necessity to properly establish the author´s which they don’t use a surname, substituting name (in the past called the ´pen name´) is a it instead for the first name of the father) or relevant decision for the authors. This topic the Slavic countries (where the children use a is so important that the Spanish Foundation patronymic name, taken from the father’s of Science and Technology (FECYT) pub- first name, and to which is added an ending). lished a manual (FECYT, 2007), ask EC3 group (which was responsible, for example, In the case of the Hispanic or Iberian de- for In-RECS), a manual about "Recommen- nomination (which also includes the Portu- dations for help in the standardization of guese cultures), the majority of cases are authors´ names and institutions in scientific inherited as much from the surname of the publications” . These recommendations are father as from that of the mother, in addition applicable to all authors that use Hispanic or to having one, or more frequently several, Iberian names, especially in Latin American personal or given names. This system causes countries. In RELIEVE, we choose to sup- frequent confusion when it is included with port the FECYT manual recommendations, the authors in databases created with an An- which favor a suitable cataloging index and glo-Saxon mentality. The last name in the create a greater impact for our publication sequence is taken as the identifying surname and its authors. However, in the end, we will (when looking for the surname and identify- always respect the authors´ wishes. ing it as the surname of the subject), which in our case is not the used surname, but ra- To begin, we have to make an initial ob- ther the secondary one. Therefore, it is nor- servation that this topic would not be neces- mal for the same text to appear to have dif- sary to stress if the problem did not show up ferent authors depending on whether we look so frequently. We´re trying to make a system for them in ‘Hispanic’ databases or the ‘An- in which it is not necessary to search the full glo-Saxon’ databases, being that in the for- and exact name as it appears in the civil reg- mer the first surname is used to identify the isters. The researchers can choose between authors and in the latter the second is used. searching one or both last names (as is done in everyday life, according to how the author So that we can calibrate the importance of uses their name). The researcher can also this topic, we will keep various studies (Co- search the first name or several names. The stas y Bordons, 2007; Ruiz-Pérez, López- purpose of this is to properly identify au- Cózar y Jiménez-Contreras, 2002) in mind thors, not directly follow the birth certificate.
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