The Case for Retroactive Author Name Changes

Abstract

Research Libraries (C&RL) is proud to announce an authorial name change policy, which takes effect immediately. This policy supports all requested name changes and applies to all articles published by C&RL, past, present, and future. This policy is the work of a C&RL Editorial Board working group that responded to a name change policy request by Shannon Devlin and Brian M. Watson. In response, C&RL Editor Wendi Arant Kaspar established a small task force composed of Watson, Kristen Totleben, Amy Lazet, and Michelle Demeter. The goal of this group was to examine best practices in alignment with the journal’s standards by designing a comprehensive policy outlining the parameters of responsibilities and expectations of both C&RL authors and the Editor in regard to name change requests. The policy was approved by the C&RL Editorial Board in May 2021 and workflows were then addressed and coordinated in anticipation of the policy’s enactment in April 2022. C&RL hopes that this important policy will implement a more equitable and inclusive publishing practice by supporting all authors—including, but not limited to authors who are trans and gender diverse, who change their name upon marriage or divorce, international authors with misspelt or mistranslated names, and Indigenous, and international authors—who would like their scholarly records to reflect their name changes. To implement this policy for your own name change, please read the policy tenets below and visit C&RL’s “Author Guidelines.” For more information about why this policy is so important, please read Lazet and Watson’s adjoining editorial in this issue of C&RL, which provides a brief retrospective on how name change policies have been developed and how they have positively impacted academic publishing.