If an author changes their name in part or in full, for any reason, they may wish to retroactively change their name on prior publications. Allowing this change to occur is important for trans inclusivity as well as cases where someone changes their name due to marriage, divorce, or other reasons.

Until recently, few journals or publishers had official policies on name changes. Publishers that do now have stated policies for this process include:

• ACM
• ACS
• APA
• Elsevier
• Emerald
• F1000
• IEEE
• SAGE
• Wiley

This list will be updated as more publishers launch policies.

Repository name change policy

If a name is changed on the version of record for an output, it should also change for the repository record for that output. If an author contacts Edinburgh Napier’s repository to inform us that a name has changed on the version of record, then we will update the repository record to reflect the new name.

For authors with a profile in Worktribe, the university’s repository system, the repository displays the author’s name by linking to their profile. The name in the profile is pulled in from the university’s HR system so to update the record, the author should contact humanresources@napier.ac.uk to have their name details updated in the HR system. This name change will then be automatically updated in Worktribe. Please note that HR require official documentation of your new name (e.g. marriage certificate, deed poll) to enable them to update your records.

You should also contact the repository at repository@napier.ac.uk to inform us that a name has changed on the version of record (the official published version), provide a new copy of the manuscript, and we will update the repository record to ensure our data reflects the new name.

It may be the case that an author has not (yet) been able to change their name on a publication but asks us to change their name on the repository record. We will respect the author’s new name and make the change in the repository.

The process for changing a name on Napier-awarded postgraduate theses is slightly different. In the first instance, please contact repository@napier.ac.uk and our team will support you through the process.