Everyday I go to lab, set up my laptop and type in the usual keywords in Pubmed. Most days, something really boring shows up. But yesterday, my first hit was a paper so awesome, so cool and so related to what we do, that I almost fell of my chair in excitement. For the first time in a long time, I was actually, really buzzed about a paper. I read it through at top speed. And then I showed it to my boss. He saw the title and said "Whoa!" And then we gushed all over it. And how it would impact our studies. Yesterday was a very cool work day.
And then I read this letter in the latest issue of Nature. I'm reproducing it in full, because it is restricted access, and because everyone must read it. And empathize with the plight of us South Indian women! Not only do we have long, unpronounceable names, but also, due to some weird S.Indian quirk...no surname. And then you get unhappy women like these 3. I have to say that while this has occasionally been an issue over the years, I've never had such a beef with it, as these gals seem to have. Usually, whilst in Pune, some poor soul in a government office would gawp at me when I said no surname, just father's name. Then mutter nasty things under his breath about South Indians who chatofied curd rice and didn't have surnames. So, I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to this. Also, I don't particularly care about such blatantly unimportant things because I don't have enough data for a paper yet. So what does it matter how it will be written on a manuscript that is as yet not in existence.
Anyways, read and enjoy. If you have any creative ideas on how to develop a universal nomenclature system for papers, write to Nature.
Give south Indian authors their true names
Nalini Puniamoorthy1, Jeevananthinee Jeevanandam1 & Sujatha Narayanan Kutty1
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Sir
Your recent News Feature 'Identity crisis' (Nature 451, 766–767; 2008) reveals that many Chinese, Japanese and Korean researchers do not receive due credit for their work, owing to inconsistent abbreviation practices and journal requirements regarding names. Many other Asian scientists face similar problems.
We are three female postgraduate students of south Indian ancestry. Indians from the south traditionally do not have surnames. It is only when forced to comply with Western naming standards that they use their father's given name as a substitute. As a consequence, journal rules require them to publish research under the fathers' given names (with which we — Nalini, Jeevananthinee and Sujatha — also sign this Correspondence letter). Obviously, as young south Indian scientists making a contribution to science, we would prefer to be identified with our first names and not by our fathers' given names.
India produces more than 100,000 postdoctoral scientists every year (see Nature India at http://www.nature.com/nindia/about/index.html). We believe that now is the time to introduce a consistent publication system that accommodates Indian names. The universal author-identification that uses contributor IDs, as discussed in your News Feature, is a good start. Such a system could be designed along the lines of the digital object identifier (doi) system used for journal articles. That could be followed by changes to reference rulings in journals to allow for citation of papers with single-name authors who are linked to a contributor ID.
We hope that all of science will take note of the extent of the Asian identity crisis in publishing and will work towards creating a universal system of authorship.
And then I read this letter in the latest issue of Nature. I'm reproducing it in full, because it is restricted access, and because everyone must read it. And empathize with the plight of us South Indian women! Not only do we have long, unpronounceable names, but also, due to some weird S.Indian quirk...no surname. And then you get unhappy women like these 3. I have to say that while this has occasionally been an issue over the years, I've never had such a beef with it, as these gals seem to have. Usually, whilst in Pune, some poor soul in a government office would gawp at me when I said no surname, just father's name. Then mutter nasty things under his breath about South Indians who chatofied curd rice and didn't have surnames. So, I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to this. Also, I don't particularly care about such blatantly unimportant things because I don't have enough data for a paper yet. So what does it matter how it will be written on a manuscript that is as yet not in existence.
Anyways, read and enjoy. If you have any creative ideas on how to develop a universal nomenclature system for papers, write to Nature.
Give south Indian authors their true names
Nalini Puniamoorthy1, Jeevananthinee Jeevanandam1 & Sujatha Narayanan Kutty1
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Sir
Your recent News Feature 'Identity crisis' (Nature 451, 766–767; 2008) reveals that many Chinese, Japanese and Korean researchers do not receive due credit for their work, owing to inconsistent abbreviation practices and journal requirements regarding names. Many other Asian scientists face similar problems.
We are three female postgraduate students of south Indian ancestry. Indians from the south traditionally do not have surnames. It is only when forced to comply with Western naming standards that they use their father's given name as a substitute. As a consequence, journal rules require them to publish research under the fathers' given names (with which we — Nalini, Jeevananthinee and Sujatha — also sign this Correspondence letter). Obviously, as young south Indian scientists making a contribution to science, we would prefer to be identified with our first names and not by our fathers' given names.
India produces more than 100,000 postdoctoral scientists every year (see Nature India at http://www.nature.com/nindia/about/index.html). We believe that now is the time to introduce a consistent publication system that accommodates Indian names. The universal author-identification that uses contributor IDs, as discussed in your News Feature, is a good start. Such a system could be designed along the lines of the digital object identifier (doi) system used for journal articles. That could be followed by changes to reference rulings in journals to allow for citation of papers with single-name authors who are linked to a contributor ID.
We hope that all of science will take note of the extent of the Asian identity crisis in publishing and will work towards creating a universal system of authorship.
No comments:
Post a Comment