The following recommendations are an adaptation and summary of the Handbook for helping Spanish researchers to standardize the names of authors and institutions in scientific publications.
When you choose how to sign the publications, keep in mind:
- Use always the same signature in all publications.
- Many databases consider the last word of the personal name as a surname and abbreviate the remaining elements to their initial. Example: the name “Andrés García Pérez” is incorrectly indexed under the form “Pérez, AG”. In order to avoid this error, it includes a hyphen among those elements that the database should not separate: Andrés García-Pérez.
Pile names
If you have a compound name (Josep Maria, Anna Maria ...), sign the publications with the first full name and the initial of the second. Thus, the database no longer interprets the initial of the second name as a surname:
If you want to include the middle name, put a hyphen between each of the elements to indicate to the indexing systems that they are all part of the first name, not the last name:
- Josep-Maria
- Anna-Maria
- J.-Maria
- A.-Maria
When your name includes a hyphen between the elements of the compound name (Jan-Suen, Jean-Paul ...), you can preserve it according to the same criteria as before:
- Jan-Suen Porcel
- Jan-S. Porcel
- J.-Suen Porcel
If the compound name is joined by particles, such as articles or prepositions (Maria del Carme, Maria dels Àngels ...), it is better to omit them in the signature, as they generate indexing and retrieval problems. Following the examples, use:
However, if you want to maintain the integrity of the name, put a hyphen between each element to indicate to the indexing systems that they are all part of the name and not the surname:
- Maria-del-Carmen
- Maria-del-C.
- M.-del-Carmen
- Maria-dels-Àngels
- Maria-de-A.
- M.-dels-Àngels
Surnames
If you include both surnames in the signature, a practice we recommend if you have a frequent first surname, add a hyphen between the two surnames to prevent incorrect indexing in the databases by the last surname. Thus the hyphen indicates that the first surname is not the second element of a compound name:
If your last name contains hyphens, do not separate items that are already joined.
For example, with a name like "Amèlia Balcells-Rocha Valero" you must use the form "Amèlia Balcells-Rocha" if you want to sign with a single last name. However, the name "Amèlia Balcells Rocha-Valero" will be used in the form "Amèlia Balcells" to do the same.
To keep the particles of the surnames (articles, prepositions ...), include a hyphen between them:
- Pere de la Vega
- Amelia la-Banda
- Ernest Masó-i-Giner
In this case, the names will be indexed by these particles (de la Vega, la Banda ...). Therefore, if you want to be indexed by the surname without particle (Vega, Banda ...) you have to omit it in your signature:
- Pere Vega
- Amelia Banda
- Ernest Masó-Giner