Dear Metabrain: choosing an academic name
September 7, 2010 – 2:25 pmI’d like to use “Mel Chua” as my academic name [0] – that is, the nom de plume I publish under for academic papers, conferences, and whatnot. How do I check to make sure there aren’t any collisions of other people publishing under that name, aside from the obvious IEEE/ACM/Google searches (which haven’t found anything yet)?
Mel isn’t my legal name, but it’s what my friends and colleagues call me, and the name I prefer to be addressed by – and the academic world is ultimately where I want to end up, so I want to make a conscious decision to be called what I want to be called in a community that is important to me (and will likely get more important as time goes on). Whatever name I start publishing under is what I’m likely to continue publishing under for the remainder of my academic life (that is to say, “the remainder of my life”).
Is there a way people are supposed to do this?
[0] I might not be using the correct terminology for this.
2 Responses to “Dear Metabrain: choosing an academic name”
Mel,
Register on EDAS (http://edas.info) and check the site for name conflict.
It would be great to use your real name though.
By Michael Adeyeye on Sep 8, 2010
I don’t know how common it is to use a pen name in academia, but it should be possible. I know there are some security people who strictly go by their online identity in public. Maybe you should think about having your name changed?
By Gary on Sep 8, 2010