The Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL), the Library Leadership & Management (LL&M), and the Library Resources & Technical Services (LRTS) have implemented a new policy regarding name changes on an author’s previous publications. In recognition that authors may change their names for many reasons, including—but not limited to—gender identity, marriage, divorce, or religious conversion, the Core journals have established this policy out of respect of the sensitivities surrounding name changes and to reduce or remove any barriers to inclusion, professional mobility, and author credit.
According to this new policy, authors may request to change any or all of their first, middle, and last names, initials, honorifics, and salutations, as well as other references to the author throughout the paper such as pronouns, captions, acknowledgements, and email addresses that contain names/initials in the full text (online HTML), PDF, and metadata records of those papers. In addition, there will be no acknowledgement in the article that this change has been made.
The editorial boards of all three journals, will continue to work with other ALA publications and divisions to develop a Recommended Practice to Update Author Name Changes in the Academic Publication Record after Publication as a Result of Identity Change to refine and improve the policy.
The Core Journals Name Change Policy for each of the Core journals can be found on the respective websites for each journal. Please visit the Core Journals web page to access these sites and view the Core Journals Name Change Request Form.