To support more inclusive publishing environment, AAAS updates author name change policy

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the publisher of the six

Science

family journals, has updated its author name change

policy

to support the privacy of authors who decide to change their name on research previously published across the

Science

Journals. The new policy goes into effect today, February 18, 2021.

“This step demonstrates our ongoing commitment to an inclusive research environment, which must be fostered in order for the publication and dissemination of excellent scientific research to continue,” said

Science

Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp.

Authors may have occasion to change their names for multiple reasons. Recently, outreach by and on behalf of transgender scientists has impressed upon AAAS the importance of respecting authors’ privacy and autonomy in correcting the scientific record.

At the

Science

Journals, authors are invited to email their name change requests to

submit_help@sciencemag.org

, providing citations to the papers where modifications are desired. Changes will be made to the stated papers – including in the acknowledgments section and in email addresses, in addition to in the primary author list. No notifications, either to co-authors or to the public, will be issued. The

Science

Journals will also work with

Crossref

to help ensure that future citations to related papers use the new name.

Science

Journal editorial leadership thanks colleagues and counterparts in the scientific community who advocated for this policy and extends special gratitude to the team at the American Chemical Society for sharing their insights.

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About the American Association for the Advancement of Science

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal

Science

, as well as

Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling

; a digital, open-access journal,

Science Advances; Science Immunology

; and

Science Robotics

. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 260 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement and more.