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arxiv: 2606.11021 · v2 · pith:NVIZHSRInew · submitted 2026-06-09 · 💻 cs.DL · cs.CY

Making a Name for Myself: On Academic Naming Policies and their Impact

A Pranav , Vagrant Gautam , Martin Mundt , Jordan Taylor , Arjun Subramonian , Franziska Sofia Hafner , Daniel Chechelnitsky , William Agnew
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Anne Lauscher
This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-06-27 10:30 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 💻 cs.DL cs.CY
keywords name change policiescitation errorsdeadnamingacademic publishingtransgender researcherscomputer science venuesinclusive policiesresearcher well-being
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The pith

Computer science venues with accessible name change policies show fewer citation errors and less deadnaming.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper studies how name change policies in computer science publishing affect citation accuracy and the experiences of researchers who change names. It combines surveys, interviews, and analysis of papers from eight venues between 2019 and 2025 to compare error rates. Venues with visible and accessible policies record 899 citation errors per 1,000 papers versus 996 for those without. Annotation of citations shows deadnaming of transgender researchers fell 92 percent over the same period. Interviewees describe stress and safety concerns when errors occur, leading the authors to call for proactive policies.

Core claim

Venues with accessible and visible name change policies have significantly fewer citation errors compared to inaccessible policies at 899 versus 996 errors per 1,000 papers. Annotation analysis shows deadnaming of transgender researchers in citations decreased by 92 percent from 2019 to 2024. These patterns emerged after multi-year advocacy that established the policies, though barriers such as incomplete publisher updates and processing delays remain.

What carries the argument

Large-scale comparison of citation error rates and deadnaming annotations across venues grouped by whether their name change policies are accessible and visible.

If this is right

  • Venues should adopt proactive visible name change policies.
  • Support for queer advocacy groups advances inclusive publishing.
  • Better publication infrastructure would reduce misparsed names.
  • The released toolkit can help authors check bibliographic files for errors.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • The same policy approach may reduce errors in fields outside computer science.
  • Shorter processing times for name changes could lessen reported mental health impacts.
  • Database providers may need coordinated updates to fully realize the benefits of venue policies.

Load-bearing premise

The measured differences in citation errors and deadnaming stem mainly from policy accessibility rather than venue size, author demographics, or database practices.

What would settle it

A follow-up analysis that controls for venue size, author demographics, and indexing practices and still finds no difference in error rates between policy types would undermine the central claim.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2606.11021 by Anne Lauscher, A Pranav, Arjun Subramonian, Daniel Chechelnitsky, Franziska Sofia Hafner, Jordan Taylor, Martin Mundt, Vagrant Gautam, William Agnew.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: A timeline of milestones in name change policies for ACM and ML/NLP venues. Following initial efforts and setbacks [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p002_1.png] view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: The reference checking pipeline: References are extracted from PDFs and author names are validated against [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p011_2.png] view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: Annotation study results. (a) Distribution of name discrepancy types shows 75% stem from compound names, typos, and nicknames. (b) Compound name breakdown reveals multi-part names (61.1%) and hyphenated surnames (22.5%) dominate; First/Last columns show affected name component counts. (c) Deadnaming rates dropped 92%: From 25.3 (2019) to 1.9 (2024) per 1,000 papers. 3.1.3 Annotation Study. Automated detect… view at source ↗
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: Visible and accessible option for authors to correct and fix data of their work in ACL proceedings. [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p023_4.png] view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: Name Change Policy visible in every proceeding of NeurIPS. [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p025_5.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

In academic publishing, names connect scholars to their work. When scholars change their names, including for marriage, academic recognition, or gender transition, they may lose credit for past publications. However, despite significant impacts on citation accuracy and researcher well-being, no existing studies examine how naming policies in computer science serve researchers who change their names. We use a mixed-methods approach combining surveys, interviews, and large-scale citation analysis of papers from eight major computer science venues from 2019-2025. We document the multi-year advocacy effort that established the first name change policies, identify implementation barriers including incomplete publisher updates and months-long processing delays. Researchers continue being cited with misparsed and incorrect names despite publisher updates. When these citation errors happen, interviewees report significant mental health impacts, including stress, anxiety, and safety risks. Empirically, we find that venues with accessible and visible name change policies have significantly fewer citation errors compared to inaccessible policies (899 vs. 996 errors per 1,000 papers). Our annotation analysis shows that deadnaming of transgender researchers in citations decreased by 92% from 2019 to 2024. Our findings demonstrate the importance of inclusive publishing policies, for which name change policy advocacy led by trans researchers has been a significant driver. We recommend that venues adopt proactive visible name change policies, support queer advocacy groups, and improve publication infrastructure to build an inclusive publishing landscape. The accompanied toolkit to check errors in bibliographic latex file is available here https://github.com/pranav-ust/cite-updater.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 1 minor

Summary. The manuscript presents a mixed-methods study on academic naming policies in computer science venues. It combines surveys, interviews, and large-scale citation analysis of papers from eight major CS venues (2019-2025) to document advocacy for name change policies, implementation barriers such as publisher delays, mental health impacts of citation errors, and empirical findings that venues with accessible/visible policies show fewer citation errors (899 vs. 996 per 1,000 papers) while deadnaming of transgender researchers fell 92% from 2019 to 2024. Recommendations include adopting proactive policies and an accompanying citation-error toolkit is provided.

Significance. If the empirical comparisons hold after addressing potential confounders, the work would offer concrete evidence that visible name-change policies improve citation accuracy and reduce harms such as deadnaming, with the mixed-methods design and open toolkit providing practical value for the community. The observational data on advocacy timelines and reported mental-health effects add useful context, though significance is limited by the lack of controls in the venue-level comparisons.

major comments (2)
  1. [Citation analysis (results section reporting the 899 vs. 996 comparison)] The central empirical claim comparing citation error rates (899 vs. 996 per 1,000 papers) between venues with accessible versus inaccessible name-change policies does not include venue-level controls, matching, or regression adjustment for factors such as venue size, subfield composition, average author count per paper, or indexing practices. Without these, the 10% difference cannot be confidently attributed to policy accessibility.
  2. [Annotation analysis (section reporting the 92% deadnaming reduction)] The reported 92% decrease in deadnaming from 2019 to 2024 is presented as a direct empirical result, yet the manuscript provides no details on the annotation protocol, criteria for identifying transgender authors across years, inter-annotator agreement, or controls for changes in database coverage or author demographics that could affect the temporal trend.
minor comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] The abstract contains the phrasing 'The accompanied toolkit'; this should read 'The accompanying toolkit'.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 1 unresolved

We thank the referee for the constructive comments on our mixed-methods study. We address each major point below and have revised the manuscript accordingly where feasible.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Citation analysis (results section reporting the 899 vs. 996 comparison)] The central empirical claim comparing citation error rates (899 vs. 996 per 1,000 papers) between venues with accessible versus inaccessible name-change policies does not include venue-level controls, matching, or regression adjustment for factors such as venue size, subfield composition, average author count per paper, or indexing practices. Without these, the 10% difference cannot be confidently attributed to policy accessibility.

    Authors: We agree that the reported comparison is observational and unadjusted. The manuscript presents the 899 vs. 996 difference as a descriptive association across the eight selected major CS venues rather than a causal claim. In revision we have added an explicit limitations paragraph listing potential confounders (venue size, subfield mix, average authors per paper, indexing differences) and included a supplementary table of venue characteristics for transparency. We have also softened language to avoid implying direct attribution. However, performing matched or regression-adjusted analyses would require granular per-paper metadata that was not collected in the original study design. revision: partial

  2. Referee: [Annotation analysis (section reporting the 92% deadnaming reduction)] The reported 92% decrease in deadnaming from 2019 to 2024 is presented as a direct empirical result, yet the manuscript provides no details on the annotation protocol, criteria for identifying transgender authors across years, inter-annotator agreement, or controls for changes in database coverage or author demographics that could affect the temporal trend.

    Authors: We appreciate the referee highlighting this gap in methodological transparency. The annotation was conducted by the research team using a protocol that identified transgender authors via public self-identification (social media, personal sites, or direct correspondence) and tracked name changes post-2019 within a fixed set of indexed records. We have now inserted a dedicated methods subsection that details the full protocol, identification criteria, inter-annotator agreement (Cohen’s kappa), and steps taken to hold database coverage constant across years. Potential shifts in author demographics are acknowledged as a limitation in the revised text. revision: yes

standing simulated objections not resolved
  • Full venue-level regression or matching controls for the citation-error comparison cannot be performed without collecting additional per-paper metadata on subfield and author counts that lies outside the scope of the current study.

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No circularity: purely observational empirical study with no derivations or fitted predictions

full rationale

The paper reports results from surveys, interviews, and direct citation error counts across venues (899 vs 996 errors per 1k papers; 92% deadnaming drop). These are presented as raw empirical measurements without equations, models, or parameters that are fitted then re-labeled as predictions. No self-citation chains, uniqueness theorems, or ansatzes are invoked to justify core claims. The analysis is self-contained against external benchmarks (venue policy documents and citation databases) and does not reduce any result to its own inputs by construction.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

The study is an empirical social-science investigation relying on standard assumptions for statistical comparison of error rates and qualitative thematic analysis; no mathematical derivations, fitted parameters, or new postulated entities are introduced.

axioms (1)
  • standard math Standard assumptions underlying comparison of means or rates between independent groups (e.g., venue policy accessibility as a grouping variable)
    Invoked when reporting 899 vs 996 errors per 1,000 papers as a significant difference.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.1-grok · 5842 in / 1314 out tokens · 24107 ms · 2026-06-27T10:30:45.195451+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

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Reference graph

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