Strategic Use of Acquired Surnames Among Female Academics

Strategic Use of Acquired Surnames Among Female Academics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Strategic Use of Acquired Surnames Among Female Academics Tolga Yuret This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8804379/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract It is often more difficult for academics to adopt a new surname after marriage, as they may wish to preserve their established academic reputation. However, adopting a new surname may be advantageous for those who publish in alphabetical author order when the acquired surname begins with an earlier initial than their birth name. In this paper, we analyzed the surname usage of 4,199 female academics from leading institutions worldwide and examined the origins of their multiple surnames. We found that only 6.8% of female academics use an acquired surname, and only 2.8% have changed their surname initial over a median of 20 years of academic experience. Female academics whose publications are mostly alphabetically ordered are more likely to use a surname with an earlier initial (odds ratio: 1.48–2.06). However, this strategic behavior does not differ significantly depending on whether their multiple surnames are culturally inherited or acquired. Alphabetization birth name retention female authorship strategic naming 1. Introduction In some cultures, women must decide whether to adopt their husband’s surname after marriage. This is a complex choice with many social and personal dimensions. Women who change their names after marriage often do so to meet societal expectations or to share the same surname as their children, whereas those who keep their birth surname tend to do so to preserve their identity and maintain their professional reputation (Scheuble & Johnson, 2007). The proportion of women who change their surnames varies across cultures. For instance, more than 80% of women in the United States (Goldin & Shim, 2004 ; Lin, 2023 ), Australia (Garcia, 2016 ), the United Kingdom (Dunn, 2022 ), France, and Germany (Valetas, 2001 ) adopt their husband’s surname after marriage. However, not all cultures follow this convention. For example, women almost universally retain their birth names in China (Qi, 2018 ), as well as in Spain and Italy (Valetas, 2001 ). The incidence of surname acquisition varies even within the same country. For instance, about half of women who are Harvard graduates retain their birth surnames (Goldin & Shim, 2004 ). It is also well established that the rate of birth-name retention is higher among women with doctoral degrees (Gooding & Kreider, 2010 ). Female academics who publish under their birth surname may be reluctant to change it, as doing so could affect their professional reputation, partly because publication indexes often have difficulty handling surname changes (Pellack & Kappmeyer, 2011 ). Another possible factor is that adopting a married surname may be perceived as signaling a shift in priorities from academic objectives to family responsibilities (Stefanova et al., 2023 ). There is an additional consideration regarding surname acquisition for female academics who publish in fields that use alphabetical author ordering. If Professor Z marries Mr. A, she gains the opportunity to appear as the first author on her publications. Therefore, if female academics in alphabetic fields choose their surnames strategically, we would expect them to change their surname initial in their favor after marriage. In this paper, we examine the surnames of female academics from top institutions to pursue three main objectives: To identify the sources of multiple surnames and determine the proportion of female academics who use acquired surnames. To examine whether women with multiple surnames tend to use the more advantageous surname as their effective surname—that is, the surname whose initial is used when authors are sorted alphabetically. To analyze whether the strategic behavior of choosing a more advantageous surname varies depending on the source of the surname—acquired or culturally inherited. 2. Related Literature Weber ( 2018 ) classifies the literature on alphabetization into two categories. The first group of studies shows that researchers with early-initial surnames tend to have better academic outcomes. The second group of studies demonstrates that researchers take strategic actions to benefit from this advantage. Our study falls into the second category, as we investigate whether female researchers are more likely to adopt surnames strategically. However, the first group of studies is also important for interpreting our results. If researchers with early initials are indeed more successful, there is a strong incentive to adopt surnames strategically. 2.1 Academic outcomes of researchers with early initials Some studies that find significant advantages for researchers with early-initial surnames. For instance, researchers with early initials tend to publish more in fields where authors are listed alphabetically (Van Praag & Van Praag, 2008 ). They also receive more citations, as their publications appear earlier in reference lists (Huang, 2015 ; Cai et al., 2025 ). If researchers with early-initial surnames have better academic outcomes, one would expect them to be more successful in their careers. Several studies support this hypothesis. Researchers with early initials are found to be more likely to work at top institutions, become members of the Econometric Society, and receive prestigious awards such as the Nobel and Fields Prizes (Efthyvoulou, 2008 ; Einav & Yariv, 2006 ). However, the link between early-initial surnames and academic success is not without limitations. Researchers with early initials are found to publish more only when the analysis is restricted to those with above-median publication counts (Van Praag & Van Praag, 2008 ). The citation advantage also disappears when individual-level data, rather than publication-level data, is used (Abramo & D’Angelo, 2017 ). Additionally, other studies have found no consistent evidence linking early initials to academic career success (Yuret, 2016 ; Yuret, 2019 ). 2.2 Strategic behavior in alphabetic fields Some studies suggest that authors have incentives to list their names alphabetically in alphabetic fields. For example, alphabetically ordered publications have been found to receive more citations and are more likely to appear in prestigious journals compared to non-alphabetic ones (Laband & Tollison, 2006 ; Li & Li, 2021 ). However, not all studies support this finding (Wohlrabe & Bornmann, 2022 ). Researchers have been found to act strategically when deciding whether to collaborate in alphabetic fields (Ong et al., 2018 ; Kadel & Walter, 2015 ). Specifically, they tend to avoid being listed as second author when their contribution is greater. As a result, individuals with late-initial surnames are less likely to collaborate (Kadel & White, 2015), or they may choose to collaborate only when their contribution is relatively minor (Ong et al., 2018 ). However, this evidence is not always robust. For example, such strategic authorship behavior is observed in economics but not in finance (Kadel & White, 2015). Several studies are directly related to our research. We are interested in the adoption of an effective surname —that is, a surname that appears earlier in the alphabetic order. There is evidence that researchers tend to choose the earlier-initial surname as their effective surname (Efthyvoulou, 2008 ; Öz, 2024 ). However, these studies do not distinguish the source of the multiple surnames. In our study, we differentiate between surnames that are acquired (e.g., through marriage) and those that are culturally inherited (e.g., Slavic naming conventions). We hypothesize that the ease of adopting an effective surname may depend on the origin of the multiple surname. 3. Data 3.1 Sample Our sample is based on three academic fields. Economics and mathematics predominantly use alphabetical authorship, while psychology primarily follows a contribution-based system (Fernandes & Cortez, 2020 ; Waltman, 2012 ; Levitt & Thelwall, 2013 ; Frandsen & Nicolaisen, 2010 ). We identified institutions using the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), compiled by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. Specifically, we selected the top 200 institutions based on the 2023 subject rankings in economics (ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, 2023 ). From these institutions, we collected data on all 4,199 female faculty members holding associate professor (or senior lecturer, in the UK system) and full professor positions. We restricted our dataset to faculty members at the associate professor level or higher, as we aimed to observe individuals with sufficiently long academic careers during which surname changes may have occurred. We collected PhD year information from online sources and retrieved the date of each researcher's first publication from Scopus. The median PhD year in our sample is 2005, and the median year of first publication is 2003. Thus, by the time we collected our data in 2024, the median researcher had approximately 20 years of academic experience. We selected our sample of three academic disciplines from the same set of institutions. The choice of institutions was based on their rankings in economics, but this decision was somewhat ad hoc—we could have equally chosen institutions based on their rankings in mathematics or psychology. However, using general university rankings would not have served our purpose, as many top-ranked universities are specialized in engineering or medical sciences and often lack departments in economics or psychology. To minimize cultural differences, a balanced sample across the three academic fields and countries is desirable. However, national specialization patterns have led to an uneven distribution of female faculty members across disciplines. For example, we see from Table 1 that while 20% of the female mathematicians in our sample are from China, only 4% of the psychologists are. Table 1 Distribution of Individuals in the Sample by Country and Field (% within field) Country/Field Economics (%) Mathematics (%) Psychology (%) Total (%) United States 272 (24%) 323 (30%) 777 (39%) 1,372 (33%) United Kingdom 176 (15%) 162 (15%) 317 (16%) 655 (16%) China 163 (14%) 212 (20%) 82 (4%) 457 (11%) Australia 91 (8%) 72 (7%) 138 (7%) 301 (7%) Canada 49 (4%) 44 (4%) 150 (8%) 243 (6%) Netherlands 46 (4%) 14 (1%) 92 (5%) 152 (4%) Sweden 28 (2%) 30 (3%) 87 (4%) 145 (4%) Denmark 42 (4%) 25 (2%) 49 (3%) 116 (3%) Germany 37 (3%) 41 (4%) 36 (2%) 114 (3%) Spain 35 (3%) 44 (4%) 35 (2%) 114 (3%) Other Countries 210 (18%) 95 (9%) 225 (11%) 530 (13%) Total 1,149 (100%) 1,062 (100%) 1,988 (100%) 4,199 (100%) 3.2 Acquired vs. Cultural Surnames We reviewed the official web pages, Scopus profiles, and Google Scholar profiles of the 4,199 female academics to determine their surname usage throughout their academic careers. Table 2 presents the distribution by surname usage. Approximately 83% of the academics have used only one surname over the course of their careers. The more challenging task was to decipher the origin of the second surname used by the 17% of academics who did not retain a single surname throughout their careers. A second surname can be acquired—primarily through marriage—or cultural, either inherited or formed from a combination of parents' surnames. To distinguish between these cases, we conducted a thorough internet search, consulting sources such as wedding registries, public biographies, and dissertation acknowledgements to determine whether the second surname was acquired or culturally inherited. We also examined each academic’s Scopus profile to determine her effective surname, which we define as the surname that takes precedence in alphabetical ordering. For instance, if an academic uses her birth surname as a middle name and places her acquired surname last, we consider the acquired surname to be the effective one. Conversely, if she uses a hyphenated form combining her birth and acquired surnames, the effective surname is considered to be the birth surname, as it appears first in alphabetic ordering. As shown in Table 2 , only 6.8% of female academics in our sample use an acquired surname throughout their careers. Among them, 3.8% use the acquired surname as their effective surname. Notably, only 2.8% have changed their effective surname from their original to an acquired one over the course of their careers. Given that the median academic in our sample has around 20 years of experience, effective surname usage appears to have remained stable over time. About 10% of female academics use multiple surnames or include cultural prefixes. Among them, Hispanic scholars typically use their first surname as the effective one, while other cultural groups tend to use their second surname. With the exception of the Anglo-Saxon naming convention, there are very few deviations from these general patterns of effective surname usage. Table 2 Distribution of Female Academics by Surname Usage Category N ( % of Total Sample ) 1. Single Surname Individuals 3,483 (82.9%) 2. Multiple Surnames (Acquired + Original) 285 (6.8%) Acquired surname is currently effective 159 (3.8%) -The effective surname changed over time (from original → acquired). 116 (2.8%) -The effective surname has always been acquired surname 43 (1.0%) Original surname is currently effective 126 (3.0%) -Original surname is used exclusively in early publications 59 (1.4%) -Both surnames are used in all publications 45 (1.1%) -Acquired surname appears only on official web page 22 (0.5%) 3. Multiple Surnames (Cultural) 431 (10.2%) Hispanic 144 (3.4%) Slavic 77 (1.8%) Nordic 53 (1.3%) Anglosaxon 50 (1.2%) Other 48 (1.1%) Prefix 59 (1.4%) Total 4,199 (100%) 3.3 Alphabetic vs. Non-alphabetic Publication Profiles Although economics and mathematics are alphabetic fields, not all academics working in these departments publish alphabetically. Some subfields follow non-alphabetic authorship conventions, and certain faculty members engage in interdisciplinary research involving non-alphabetic publication practices. We identified academics whose majority of publications follow alphabetical author ordering by examining their Scopus profiles. Among the sample, we were able to classify 4,133 academics who had at least one multi-authored publication. As shown in Table 3 , 80% of economists have a majority of publications with authors listed alphabetically. However, the degree of alphabetization varies across countries. For instance, only 27% of economists based in China predominantly publish in alphabetic order. When academics from China are excluded, the overall share of economists with alphabetic publication patterns rises to 86%. About two-thirds of mathematicians have a majority of publications with authors listed alphabetically. In contrast, almost all psychologists follow non-alphabetic authorship conventions. Only 12 psychologists (0.6%) in our sample have a majority of publications sorted alphabetically. Table 3 Number and Percentage of Researchers with a Majority of Alphabetically Ordered Publications, by Field Field Alphabetic Non-Alphabetic Total Economics 880 (80%) 216 (20%) 1,096 (100%) Mathematics 667 (64%) 382 (36%) 1,049 (100%) Psychology 12 (0.6%) 1,956 (99%) 1,968 (100%) Total 1,559 (38%) 2,554 (62%) 4,113 (100%) Note: Percentages in parentheses indicate the share of researchers whose majority of publications have authors listed in alphabetical order within each field. “Alphabetic” and “Non-Alphabetic” columns refer to whether the majority of an academic’s publications follow alphabetical or non-alphabetical authorship conventions, respectively. 4. Empirical Strategy For the rest of the analysis, we use the subsample consisting of 707 female academics who have used multiple surnames during their careers and have at least one multi-authored publication indexed in Scopus. Our goal is to examine whether they tend to use the more advantageous surname as their effective surname, and whether this tendency is stronger among those whose majority of publications follow alphabetical authorship conventions. 4.1 Variable Definitions and coding Adv_Surname This is the dependent variable. It takes the value 1 if a female academic uses the surname with the earlier initial as her effective surname, and 0 otherwise. Acquired This is a independent variable that takes the value 1 if the surname is acquired and 0 if it is cultural. Alpha_Pub This is an independent variable that takes the value 1 if a female academic has a majority of publications with authors listed in alphabetical order, and 0 otherwise. 4.2 Descriptive Statistics Table 4 shows whether female researchers use their advantageous or disadvantageous surname as their effective surname. The statistics show a clear pattern. Female researchers are more likely to use the surname that appears earlier in the alphabet as their effective surname when they have alphabetic publication profiles. For instance, 95 female researchers with acquired surnames who have alphabetic publication profiles use their surname with early initials as their effective surname, which constitutes 55% of all female researchers with acquired surnames who have alphabetic publications. Moreover, this rate is higher than those with non-alphabetic publication profiles not only in main categories but also in subcategories that have few observations. The data reveal another interesting observation. Among those with alphabetic publication profiles, the rate of using advantageous surnames as their effective surname is higher for those with cultural surnames (59%) than for those with acquired surnames (55%). In the next section, we formally test whether the observed relationships among surname choices, publication profiles, and the source of multiple surnames are statistically significant. Table 4 Number and Percentage of Academics Using the Advantageous Surname as Their Effective Surname, by Alphabetic and Non-alphabetic publication profiles. Category Alphabetic (%) Non-Alphabetic (%) Total (%) 1. Multiple Surnames (Acquired + Original) 95 (55%) 189 (49%) 284 (51%) Acquired Surname is currently effective 54 (54%) 105(51%) 159 (52%) Original Surname is currently effective 41 (56%) 84(46%) 125 (50%) 2. Multiple Surnames (Cultural Surnames) 150 (59%) 273 (46%) 423 (51%) Hispanic 61 (56%) 82 (46%) 143 (50%) Slavic 34 (56%) 38 (50%) 72 (53%) Nordic 11 (91%) 42 (48%) 53 (57%) Anglo-Saxon 13 (69%) 37 (60%) 50 (38%) Other 8 (58%) 15 (44%) 23 (48%) Prefix 17 (77%) 40 (48%) 57 (56%) All multiple surnames 245 (57%) 462 (47%) 707 (51%) Note: Percentages in parentheses indicate the share of academics who use the advantageous surname as their effective surname within each category. The “advantageous surname” refers to the surname that appears earlier in alphabetical order when the two surnames are compared. “Alphabetic” and “Non-Alphabetic” columns denote whether the academic’s majority of publications follow alphabetical or non-alphabetical authorship conventions, respectively. 4.2 Regression Specification We estimated three logistic regression models with robust standard errors. In all three models, the dependent variable is whether a female academic uses her advantageous surname as her effective surname ( Adv_Surname ). The key independent variables are whether the multiple surnames are acquired ( Acquired ) and whether the majority of the academic’s publications follow alphabetical author ordering ( Alpha_Pub ). The second model additionally controls for academic field, and the third model controls for both field and country. The equation for the full model is presented below. $$\:{Adv\_Surname}_{i}={{\alpha\:}}_{i}+{{\beta\:}}_{1}{Acquired}_{i}+{{\beta\:}}_{2}\:{Alpha\_Pub}_{i}+{\delta\:}_{f\left(i\right)}+{\gamma\:}_{c\left(i\right)}+{{\epsilon\:}}_{i}$$ where \(\:{\delta\:}_{f\left(i\right)}\) and \(\:{\gamma\:}_{c\left(i\right)}\) ​ denote sets of dummy variables controlling for the country and academic field of academic, respectively. 5. Results The regression results are consistent across the three models. The acquired variable is statistically insignificant, indicating no difference between the source of the surname—acquired or cultural—in the strategic behavior of using the advantageous surname as the effective surname. The alpha_pub variable is consistently positive and statistically significant across all three models, indicating that female researchers with alphabetic publication profiles are more likely to use their advantageous surname as their effective surname. The odds ratios range from 1.48 to 2.06, and the average marginal effects range from 0.10 to 0.18. This means that having an alphabetic publication profile is associated with a 48% to 106% increase in the odds of using the advantageous surname as the effective surname. Moreover, researchers with alphabetic publication profiles are 10 to 18 percentage points more likely to use their advantageous surname as their effective surname. The results in the second model differ from those in the first. Although the selected fields differ in authorship conventions, adding academic-field controls changes the estimates modestly; however, the field dummies themselves are not statistically significant, so we do not find strong evidence that the strategic behavior varies by field. When country dummies are added in Model 3, the joint test for all added controls is not significant. Thus, we do not find evidence that the strategic behavior is driven by the country in which the academic works. 6. Limitations One of the distinctive features of this study is the distinction between the sources of multiple surnames—acquired versus cultural. Although we conducted a thorough internet search, we were not always able to find definitive evidence for this classification. Therefore, our default assumption was that surnames are cultural. As a result, some multiple surnames may have been classified as cultural when there was insufficient publicly available information to determine whether the surname was acquired. We used Scopus to determine the surnames of female academics. However, there is evidence that publication indexes sometimes make errors when recording authors’ surnames. Difficulties in correctly indexing Hispanic (Pérez & Couto, 2021 ; Ruiz-Pérez et al., 2002 ) and Slavic surnames (Gasparyan et al., 2016 ) have been noted in several studies. Moreover, the indexing of female surnames has been reported as problematic, particularly when name changes occur after marriage (Pellack & Kappmeyer, 2011 ; Chaudhary, 2022 ). An additional complication arises from inconsistencies in how prefixes are treated when ordering surnames alphabetically (Öz, 2024 ). Therefore, the accuracy of our analysis is constrained by the correctness of surname data as recorded in Scopus. Table 5 Odds Ratio and Marginal Effects for Use of Advantageous Surname (Dependent Variable: adv_surname) Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Variable Odds Ratio (SE) AME (SE) Odds Ratio (SE) AME (SE) Odds Ratio (SE) AME (SE) acquired 1.03 (0.16) 0.01 (0.04) 1.01 (0.16) 0.00 (0.04) 1.06 (0.17) 0.01 (0.04) alpha_pub 1.48 (0.24)** 0.10 (0.04)** 2.03 (0.49)*** 0.17 (0.06)*** 2.06 (0.50)*** 0.18 (0.06)*** field dummies no yes yes country dummies no no yes constant 0.89 (0.10) 0.62 (0.16)* 0.48 (0.21)* observations 707 707 707 Notes: Robust standard errors are reported in parentheses. Significance levels: 1% (***), 5% (**), 10% (*). Wald χ² = 6.07, 9.13, and 10.05; Prob > χ² = 0.05, 0.06, and 0.18; Pseudo R² = 0.01, 0.01, and 0.01; Log pseudolikelihood = − 487, − 485, and − 485 for Models 1–3, respectively. Country dummies include the three countries with the highest number of female academics using double surnames: the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom. We classified an academic’s publication profile as alphabetic if the majority of her publications listed authors in alphabetical order. This approach may be problematic when an academic has only a few publications and their alphabetical ordering occurs by coincidence, even though authorship order is primarily contribution-based. An alternative approach, following Levitt and Thelwall ( 2013 ), would be to classify a publication profile as alphabetic if authors are listed alphabetically more often than would be expected by chance. However, this method also has a drawback. For example, consider a psychologist who typically publishes in large collaborative teams; even a few alphabetically ordered papers could make her profile appear more alphabetical than by chance. Yet, such a researcher would have little incentive to choose her effective surname strategically if only a small fraction of her publications follow alphabetical ordering. 7. Conclusion We find that very few women use acquired surnames over a median academic career of 20 years. Only 6.8% of women in our sample use an acquired surname, far below the roughly 80% rate reported for many countries (Valetas, 2001 ; Goldin & Shim, 2004 ). To rule out the possibility that this result is driven by women from cultures where retaining one’s birth name is the norm, we focus on two countries—the United States and the United Kingdom—which together account for nearly half of our sample. Even within this subset, the proportion of acquired surnames is only 8.1%. Although it is well established that women with PhDs have higher rates of birth-name retention (Gooding & Kreider, 2010 ), to our knowledge no previous studies have reported the proportion of women in academia who have acquired surnames. Some women may have changed their surnames without any record of it appearing in their academic career. Moreover, there are cases where women officially change their surnames but continue to publish under their birth surnames (Goldin & Shim, 2004 ). Therefore, our estimate of surname acquisition reflects the post-publication period and accounts only for professional surname changes. We find that academics with multiple surnames are more likely to use the more advantageous surname as their effective surname when they have alphabetic publication profiles. This result is intuitive, as considerable evidence highlights the advantages associated with having an early surname initial (Weber, 2018 ). Although academics with alphabetic publication profiles may change their surnames to their advantage, their effective surname initials are not consistently earlier than those of others with alphabetic publication profiles. For example, as shown in Figure A1 in the Appendix, the proportion of individuals with surname initials A–B is lower for those with alphabetic publication profies. We already noted that only a small number of female academics have acquired surnames. Moreover, as Table A1 in the Appendix shows, surname initials do not always become substantially more advantageous by the strategic choice. Only five female academics with alphabetic publication profiles used a surname initial in the A–B range effectively while their other surname initial was in the U–Z range. A surprising finding is that the source of the surname does not appear to matter. Our initial hypothesis was that acquired surnames would be more flexible, as individuals can use their birth surname as a middle name, hyphenate it, or otherwise adjust their effective surname with relative ease. In contrast, we expected cultural surnames to be more rigid—for instance, Hispanic academics typically use their first surname as their effective surname. However, the results do not support this hypothesis: cultural surnames appear to be used just as effectively as acquired surnames in gaining an advantage in the alphabetical ordering of surnames. Future research could refine the analysis presented in this paper. First, because data collection was demanding, our sample included only one non-alphabetic field; the results might differ if additional non-alphabetic fields were incorporated. Second, a more in-depth examination of cultural naming patterns could help explain why cultural surnames appear to be as flexible as acquired surnames in the selection of advantageous effective surnames. Third, a qualitative approach—such as a survey—could provide insights into the importance female academics attach to alphabetization when deciding how to use their acquired surnames. Lastly, we did not examine female academics who have used a single surname throughout their careers. Some female academics may have changed their surnames before earning their PhD. Although such an analysis would be incomplete due to data limitations, future research could explore these cases to determine whether female academics are more likely to adopt their husbands’ surname when it is alphabetically advantageous. Incorporating this additional information would provide a more comprehensive picture of the total number of female academics who acquire surnames. Declarations Ethics declarations Funding and/or Conflicts of interests/Competing interests No funding was received for conducting this study Author Contribution I am the sole author of this paper and am responsible for all the stages. References Abramo, G., & D’Angelo, C. A. (2017). Does your surname affect the citability of your publications?. Journal of Informetrics , 11 (1), 121-127. Cai, Y. L., Wong, K. F. E., & Kwong, J. Y. (2025). Does your surname undermine your research impact?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , 1-18. 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(2008). The benefits of being economics professor A (rather than Z). Economica , 75 (300), 782-796. Waltman, L. (2012). An empirical analysis of the use of alphabetical authorship in scientific publishing. Journal of Informetrics , 6 (4), 700-711. Weber, M. (2018). The effects of listing authors in alphabetical order: a review of the empirical evidence. Research Evaluation , 27 (3), 238-245. Wohlrabe, K., & Bornmann, L. (2022). Alphabetized co-authorship in economics reconsidered. Scientometrics , 127 (5), 2173-2193. Yuret, T. (2016). Does alphabetization significantly affect academic careers?. Scientometrics , 108 (3), 1603-1619. Yuret, T. (2019). A longitudinal analysis of the effect of alphabetization on academic careers. Data and Information Management , 3 (2), 72-83. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8804379","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":596355448,"identity":"d4fecff2-4f6e-425c-ad1f-a31ad5718f58","order_by":0,"name":"Tolga Yuret","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAr0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYPACGyBmbDxAlFoeMJmQBtLSQJKWw2CKOC32EjlmHz7+OG+3tv0w0JYam2jCtkjkGM+ckXA7eduZRKCWY2m5DcRoYeYBajE7ANTC2HCYSC1/Es4lm51/SIoWhoQDdmY3iLblzLNixp605ASzG0BbEojxC3t78maGHzZ29mbn0x8++FBjQ1gLg0ACmEoEq0wgqBwE+A+AKXuiFI+CUTAKRsHIBABCMEPDD4bWewAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Istanbul Techn ical University Macka","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Tolga","middleName":"","lastName":"Yuret","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-06 08:23:19","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8804379/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8804379/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104410176,"identity":"1333792a-66e9-40d7-bcca-3091e952d3bd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 12:49:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":794310,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8804379/v1/b5b2a066-6490-41f6-908a-ee24f5878e9b.pdf"},{"id":104397867,"identity":"d9495e7b-6855-4b75-b442-696ea11e304a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 11:58:22","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":30004,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Appendix.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8804379/v1/32c2f9f94ac3f81507359660.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Strategic Use of Acquired Surnames Among Female Academics","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn some cultures, women must decide whether to adopt their husband\u0026rsquo;s surname after marriage. This is a complex choice with many social and personal dimensions. Women who change their names after marriage often do so to meet societal expectations or to share the same surname as their children, whereas those who keep their birth surname tend to do so to preserve their identity and maintain their professional reputation (Scheuble \u0026amp; Johnson, 2007).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe proportion of women who change their surnames varies across cultures. For instance, more than 80% of women in the United States (Goldin \u0026amp; Shim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e; Lin, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e), Australia (Garcia, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e), the United Kingdom (Dunn, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e), France, and Germany (Valetas, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e) adopt their husband\u0026rsquo;s surname after marriage. However, not all cultures follow this convention. For example, women almost universally retain their birth names in China (Qi, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e), as well as in Spain and Italy (Valetas, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe incidence of surname acquisition varies even within the same country. For instance, about half of women who are Harvard graduates retain their birth surnames (Goldin \u0026amp; Shim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e). It is also well established that the rate of birth-name retention is higher among women with doctoral degrees (Gooding \u0026amp; Kreider, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale academics who publish under their birth surname may be reluctant to change it, as doing so could affect their professional reputation, partly because publication indexes often have difficulty handling surname changes (Pellack \u0026amp; Kappmeyer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e). Another possible factor is that adopting a married surname may be perceived as signaling a shift in priorities from academic objectives to family responsibilities (Stefanova et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR27\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is an additional consideration regarding surname acquisition for female academics who publish in fields that use alphabetical author ordering. If Professor Z marries Mr. A, she gains the opportunity to appear as the first author on her publications. Therefore, if female academics in alphabetic fields choose their surnames strategically, we would expect them to change their surname initial in their favor after marriage.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this paper, we examine the surnames of female academics from top institutions to pursue three main objectives:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cul\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo identify the sources of multiple surnames and determine the proportion of female academics who use acquired surnames.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo examine whether women with multiple surnames tend to use the more advantageous surname as their effective surname\u0026mdash;that is, the surname whose initial is used when authors are sorted alphabetically.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo analyze whether the strategic behavior of choosing a more advantageous surname varies depending on the source of the surname\u0026mdash;acquired or culturally inherited.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/li\u003e \u003c/ul\u003e \u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Related Literature","content":"\u003cp\u003eWeber (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e) classifies the literature on alphabetization into two categories. The first group of studies shows that researchers with early-initial surnames tend to have better academic outcomes. The second group of studies demonstrates that researchers take strategic actions to benefit from this advantage. Our study falls into the second category, as we investigate whether female researchers are more likely to adopt surnames strategically. However, the first group of studies is also important for interpreting our results. If researchers with early initials are indeed more successful, there is a strong incentive to adopt surnames strategically.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.1 Academic outcomes of researchers with early initials\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome studies that find significant advantages for researchers with early-initial surnames. For instance, researchers with early initials tend to publish more in fields where authors are listed alphabetically (Van Praag \u0026amp; Van Praag, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). They also receive more citations, as their publications appear earlier in reference lists (Huang, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Cai et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2025\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIf researchers with early-initial surnames have better academic outcomes, one would expect them to be more successful in their careers. Several studies support this hypothesis. Researchers with early initials are found to be more likely to work at top institutions, become members of the Econometric Society, and receive prestigious awards such as the Nobel and Fields Prizes (Efthyvoulou, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e; Einav \u0026amp; Yariv, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, the link between early-initial surnames and academic success is not without limitations. Researchers with early initials are found to publish more only when the analysis is restricted to those with above-median publication counts (Van Praag \u0026amp; Van Praag, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e). The citation advantage also disappears when individual-level data, rather than publication-level data, is used (Abramo \u0026amp; D\u0026rsquo;Angelo, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e). Additionally, other studies have found no consistent evidence linking early initials to academic career success (Yuret, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Yuret, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e2.2 Strategic behavior in alphabetic fields\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eSome studies suggest that authors have incentives to list their names alphabetically in alphabetic fields. For example, alphabetically ordered publications have been found to receive more citations and are more likely to appear in prestigious journals compared to non-alphabetic ones (Laband \u0026amp; Tollison, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e; Li \u0026amp; Li, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e). However, not all studies support this finding (Wohlrabe \u0026amp; Bornmann, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eResearchers have been found to act strategically when deciding whether to collaborate in alphabetic fields (Ong et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e; Kadel \u0026amp; Walter, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e). Specifically, they tend to avoid being listed as second author when their contribution is greater. As a result, individuals with late-initial surnames are less likely to collaborate (Kadel \u0026amp; White, 2015), or they may choose to collaborate only when their contribution is relatively minor (Ong et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e). However, this evidence is not always robust. For example, such strategic authorship behavior is observed in economics but not in finance (Kadel \u0026amp; White, 2015).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral studies are directly related to our research. We are interested in the adoption of an \u003cem\u003eeffective surname\u003c/em\u003e\u0026mdash;that is, a surname that appears earlier in the alphabetic order. There is evidence that researchers tend to choose the earlier-initial surname as their effective surname (Efthyvoulou, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e; \u0026Ouml;z, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). However, these studies do not distinguish the source of the multiple surnames. In our study, we differentiate between surnames that are acquired (e.g., through marriage) and those that are culturally inherited (e.g., Slavic naming conventions). We hypothesize that the ease of adopting an effective surname may depend on the origin of the multiple surname.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"3. Data","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.1 Sample\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eOur sample is based on three academic fields. Economics and mathematics predominantly use alphabetical authorship, while psychology primarily follows a contribution-based system (Fernandes \u0026amp; Cortez, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Waltman, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Levitt \u0026amp; Thelwall, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Frandsen \u0026amp; Nicolaisen, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe identified institutions using the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), compiled by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. Specifically, we selected the top 200 institutions based on the 2023 subject rankings in economics (ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e). From these institutions, we collected data on all 4,199 female faculty members holding associate professor (or senior lecturer, in the UK system) and full professor positions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe restricted our dataset to faculty members at the associate professor level or higher, as we aimed to observe individuals with sufficiently long academic careers during which surname changes may have occurred. We collected PhD year information from online sources and retrieved the date of each researcher's first publication from Scopus. The median PhD year in our sample is 2005, and the median year of first publication is 2003. Thus, by the time we collected our data in 2024, the median researcher had approximately 20 years of academic experience.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe selected our sample of three academic disciplines from the same set of institutions. The choice of institutions was based on their rankings in economics, but this decision was somewhat ad hoc\u0026mdash;we could have equally chosen institutions based on their rankings in mathematics or psychology. However, using general university rankings would not have served our purpose, as many top-ranked universities are specialized in engineering or medical sciences and often lack departments in economics or psychology.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo minimize cultural differences, a balanced sample across the three academic fields and countries is desirable. However, national specialization patterns have led to an uneven distribution of female faculty members across disciplines. For example, we see from Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e that while 20% of the female mathematicians in our sample are from China, only 4% of the psychologists are.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDistribution of Individuals in the Sample by Country and Field (% within field)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCountry/Field\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEconomics (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMathematics (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePsychology (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnited States\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e272 (24%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e323 (30%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e777 (39%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,372 (33%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eUnited Kingdom\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e176 (15%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e162 (15%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e317 (16%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e655 (16%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eChina\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e163 (14%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e212 (20%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e82 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e457 (11%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAustralia\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e91 (8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e72 (7%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e138 (7%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e301 (7%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCanada\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e49 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e44 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e150 (8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e243 (6%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNetherlands\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e46 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e14 (1%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e92 (5%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e152 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSweden\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e28 (2%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e30 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e87 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e145 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDenmark\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e42 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e25 (2%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e49 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e116 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGermany\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e37 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e41 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e36 (2%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e114 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSpain\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e35 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e44 (4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e35 (2%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e114 (3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOther Countries\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e210 (18%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e95 (9%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e225 (11%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e530 (13%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,149 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,062 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,988 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4,199 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.2 Acquired vs. Cultural Surnames\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe reviewed the official web pages, Scopus profiles, and Google Scholar profiles of the 4,199 female academics to determine their surname usage throughout their academic careers. Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e presents the distribution by surname usage. Approximately 83% of the academics have used only one surname over the course of their careers.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe more challenging task was to decipher the origin of the second surname used by the 17% of academics who did not retain a single surname throughout their careers. A second surname can be acquired\u0026mdash;primarily through marriage\u0026mdash;or cultural, either inherited or formed from a combination of parents' surnames. To distinguish between these cases, we conducted a thorough internet search, consulting sources such as wedding registries, public biographies, and dissertation acknowledgements to determine whether the second surname was acquired or culturally inherited.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe also examined each academic\u0026rsquo;s Scopus profile to determine her effective surname, which we define as the surname that takes precedence in alphabetical ordering. For instance, if an academic uses her birth surname as a middle name and places her acquired surname last, we consider the acquired surname to be the effective one. Conversely, if she uses a hyphenated form combining her birth and acquired surnames, the effective surname is considered to be the birth surname, as it appears first in alphabetic ordering.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, only 6.8% of female academics in our sample use an acquired surname throughout their careers. Among them, 3.8% use the acquired surname as their effective surname. Notably, only 2.8% have changed their effective surname from their original to an acquired one over the course of their careers. Given that the median academic in our sample has around 20 years of experience, effective surname usage appears to have remained stable over time.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAbout 10% of female academics use multiple surnames or include cultural prefixes. Among them, Hispanic scholars typically use their first surname as the effective one, while other cultural groups tend to use their second surname. With the exception of the Anglo-Saxon naming convention, there are very few deviations from these general patterns of effective surname usage.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDistribution of Female Academics by Surname Usage\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"2\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCategory\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eN ( % of Total Sample )\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1. Single Surname Individuals\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3,483 (82.9%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2. Multiple Surnames (Acquired\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;Original)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e285 (6.8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcquired surname is currently effective\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e159 (3.8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-The effective surname changed over time (from original \u0026rarr; acquired).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e116 (2.8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-The effective surname has always been acquired surname\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e43 (1.0%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOriginal surname is currently effective\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e126 (3.0%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-Original surname is used exclusively in early publications\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e59 (1.4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-Both surnames are used in all publications\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e45 (1.1%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-Acquired surname appears only on official web page\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22 (0.5%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3. Multiple Surnames (Cultural)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e431 (10.2%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHispanic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e144 (3.4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSlavic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e77 (1.8%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNordic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e53 (1.3%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnglosaxon\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e50 (1.2%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOther\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e48 (1.1%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrefix\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e59 (1.4%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4,199 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e3.3 Alphabetic vs. Non-alphabetic Publication Profiles\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough economics and mathematics are alphabetic fields, not all academics working in these departments publish alphabetically. Some subfields follow non-alphabetic authorship conventions, and certain faculty members engage in interdisciplinary research involving non-alphabetic publication practices.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe identified academics whose majority of publications follow alphabetical author ordering by examining their Scopus profiles. Among the sample, we were able to classify 4,133 academics who had at least one multi-authored publication.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs shown in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e, 80% of economists have a majority of publications with authors listed alphabetically. However, the degree of alphabetization varies across countries. For instance, only 27% of economists based in China predominantly publish in alphabetic order. When academics from China are excluded, the overall share of economists with alphabetic publication patterns rises to 86%.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAbout two-thirds of mathematicians have a majority of publications with authors listed alphabetically. In contrast, almost all psychologists follow non-alphabetic authorship conventions. Only 12 psychologists (0.6%) in our sample have a majority of publications sorted alphabetically.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNumber and Percentage of Researchers with a Majority of Alphabetically Ordered Publications, by Field\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eField\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlphabetic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNon-Alphabetic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEconomics\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e880 (80%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e216 (20%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,096 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMathematics\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e667 (64%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e382 (36%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,049 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePsychology\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12 (0.6%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,956 (99%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,968 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1,559 (38%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2,554 (62%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4,113 (100%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"4\"\u003eNote: Percentages in parentheses indicate the share of researchers whose majority of publications have authors listed in alphabetical order within each field. \u0026ldquo;Alphabetic\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Non-Alphabetic\u0026rdquo; columns refer to whether the majority of an academic\u0026rsquo;s publications follow alphabetical or non-alphabetical authorship conventions, respectively.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"4. Empirical Strategy","content":"\u003cp\u003eFor the rest of the analysis, we use the subsample consisting of 707 female academics who have used multiple surnames during their careers and have at least one multi-authored publication indexed in Scopus. Our goal is to examine whether they tend to use the more advantageous surname as their effective surname, and whether this tendency is stronger among those whose majority of publications follow alphabetical authorship conventions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec10\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.1 Variable Definitions and coding\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eAdv_Surname\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is the dependent variable. It takes the value 1 if a female academic uses the surname with the earlier initial as her effective surname, and 0 otherwise.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eAcquired\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is a independent variable that takes the value 1 if the surname is acquired and 0 if it is cultural.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eAlpha_Pub\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is an independent variable that takes the value 1 if a female academic has a majority of publications with authors listed in alphabetical order, and 0 otherwise.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.2 Descriptive Statistics\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e shows whether female researchers use their advantageous or disadvantageous surname as their effective surname. The statistics show a clear pattern. Female researchers are more likely to use the surname that appears earlier in the alphabet as their effective surname when they have alphabetic publication profiles. For instance, 95 female researchers with acquired surnames who have alphabetic publication profiles use their surname with early initials as their effective surname, which constitutes 55% of all female researchers with acquired surnames who have alphabetic publications. Moreover, this rate is higher than those with non-alphabetic publication profiles not only in main categories but also in subcategories that have few observations.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe data reveal another interesting observation. Among those with alphabetic publication profiles, the rate of using advantageous surnames as their effective surname is higher for those with cultural surnames (59%) than for those with acquired surnames (55%).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the next section, we formally test whether the observed relationships among surname choices, publication profiles, and the source of multiple surnames are statistically significant.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 4\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNumber and Percentage of Academics Using the Advantageous Surname as Their Effective Surname, by Alphabetic and Non-alphabetic publication profiles.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCategory\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlphabetic (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNon-Alphabetic (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal (%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1. Multiple Surnames (Acquired\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;Original)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e95 (55%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e189 (49%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e284 (51%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAcquired Surname is currently effective\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e54 (54%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e105(51%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e159 (52%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOriginal Surname is currently effective\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e41 (56%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e84(46%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e125 (50%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2. Multiple Surnames (Cultural Surnames)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e150 (59%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e273 (46%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e423 (51%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHispanic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e61 (56%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e82 (46%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e143 (50%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSlavic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e34 (56%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e38 (50%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e72 (53%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNordic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11 (91%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e42 (48%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e53 (57%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnglo-Saxon\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13 (69%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e37 (60%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e50 (38%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOther\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8 (58%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15 (44%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e23 (48%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrefix\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17 (77%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40 (48%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e57 (56%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAll multiple surnames\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e245 (57%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e462 (47%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e707 (51%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"4\"\u003eNote: Percentages in parentheses indicate the share of academics who use the advantageous surname as their effective surname within each category. The \u0026ldquo;advantageous surname\u0026rdquo; refers to the surname that appears earlier in alphabetical order when the two surnames are compared. \u0026ldquo;Alphabetic\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Non-Alphabetic\u0026rdquo; columns denote whether the academic\u0026rsquo;s majority of publications follow alphabetical or non-alphabetical authorship conventions, respectively.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.2 Regression Specification\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe estimated three logistic regression models with robust standard errors. In all three models, the dependent variable is whether a female academic uses her advantageous surname as her effective surname (\u003cem\u003eAdv_Surname\u003c/em\u003e). The key independent variables are whether the multiple surnames are acquired (\u003cem\u003eAcquired\u003c/em\u003e) and whether the majority of the academic\u0026rsquo;s publications follow alphabetical author ordering (\u003cem\u003eAlpha_Pub\u003c/em\u003e). The second model additionally controls for academic field, and the third model controls for both field and country. The equation for the full model is presented below.\u003cdiv id=\"Equa\" class=\"Equation\"\u003e\u003cdiv format=\"TEX\" class=\"mathdisplay\" id=\"FileID_Equa\" name=\"EquationSource\"\u003e\n$$\\:{Adv\\_Surname}_{i}={{\\alpha\\:}}_{i}+{{\\beta\\:}}_{1}{Acquired}_{i}+{{\\beta\\:}}_{2}\\:{Alpha\\_Pub}_{i}+{\\delta\\:}_{f\\left(i\\right)}+{\\gamma\\:}_{c\\left(i\\right)}+{{\\epsilon\\:}}_{i}$$\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ewhere \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\delta\\:}_{f\\left(i\\right)}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e and \u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\gamma\\:}_{c\\left(i\\right)}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e​ denote sets of dummy variables controlling for the country and academic field of academic, respectively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5. Results","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe regression results are consistent across the three models. The \u003cem\u003eacquired\u003c/em\u003e variable is statistically insignificant, indicating no difference between the source of the surname\u0026mdash;acquired or cultural\u0026mdash;in the strategic behavior of using the advantageous surname as the effective surname.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003ealpha_pub\u003c/em\u003e variable is consistently positive and statistically significant across all three models, indicating that female researchers with alphabetic publication profiles are more likely to use their advantageous surname as their effective surname. The odds ratios range from 1.48 to 2.06, and the average marginal effects range from 0.10 to 0.18. This means that having an alphabetic publication profile is associated with a 48% to 106% increase in the odds of using the advantageous surname as the effective surname. Moreover, researchers with alphabetic publication profiles are 10 to 18 percentage points more likely to use their advantageous surname as their effective surname.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe results in the second model differ from those in the first. Although the selected fields differ in authorship conventions, adding academic-field controls changes the estimates modestly; however, the field dummies themselves are not statistically significant, so we do not find strong evidence that the strategic behavior varies by field. When country dummies are added in Model 3, the joint test for all added controls is not significant. Thus, we do not find evidence that the strategic behavior is driven by the country in which the academic works.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"6. Limitations","content":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the distinctive features of this study is the distinction between the sources of multiple surnames\u0026mdash;acquired versus cultural. Although we conducted a thorough internet search, we were not always able to find definitive evidence for this classification. Therefore, our default assumption was that surnames are cultural. As a result, some multiple surnames may have been classified as cultural when there was insufficient publicly available information to determine whether the surname was acquired.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe used Scopus to determine the surnames of female academics. However, there is evidence that publication indexes sometimes make errors when recording authors\u0026rsquo; surnames. Difficulties in correctly indexing Hispanic (P\u0026eacute;rez \u0026amp; Couto, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Ruiz-P\u0026eacute;rez et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e) and Slavic surnames (Gasparyan et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e) have been noted in several studies. Moreover, the indexing of female surnames has been reported as problematic, particularly when name changes occur after marriage (Pellack \u0026amp; Kappmeyer, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Chaudhary, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e). An additional complication arises from inconsistencies in how prefixes are treated when ordering surnames alphabetically (\u0026Ouml;z, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, the accuracy of our analysis is constrained by the correctness of surname data as recorded in Scopus.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab5\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 5\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOdds Ratio and Marginal Effects for Use of Advantageous Surname (Dependent Variable: adv_surname)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"7\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eModel 1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eModel 2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eModel 3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariable\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOdds Ratio (SE)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAME (SE)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOdds Ratio (SE)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAME (SE)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOdds Ratio (SE)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAME (SE)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eacquired\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.03 (0.16)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.01 (0.04)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.01 (0.16)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.00 (0.04)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.06 (0.17)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.01 (0.04)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ealpha_pub\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.48 (0.24)**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.10 (0.04)**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.03 (0.49)***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.17 (0.06)***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.06 (0.50)***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.18 (0.06)***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003efield dummies\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eno\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eyes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eyes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecountry dummies\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eno\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eno\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eyes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003econstant\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.89 (0.10)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.62 (0.16)*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c7\" namest=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.48 (0.21)*\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eobservations\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e707\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e707\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e707\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003ctfoot\u003e \u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"7\"\u003eNotes: Robust standard errors are reported in parentheses. Significance levels: 1% (***), 5% (**), 10% (*). Wald χ\u0026sup2; = 6.07, 9.13, and 10.05; Prob\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;χ\u0026sup2; = 0.05, 0.06, and 0.18; Pseudo R\u0026sup2; = 0.01, 0.01, and 0.01; Log pseudolikelihood = \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;487, \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;485, and \u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;485 for Models 1\u0026ndash;3, respectively. Country dummies include the three countries with the highest number of female academics using double surnames: the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom.\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tfoot\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe classified an academic\u0026rsquo;s publication profile as \u003cem\u003ealphabetic\u003c/em\u003e if the majority of her publications listed authors in alphabetical order. This approach may be problematic when an academic has only a few publications and their alphabetical ordering occurs by coincidence, even though authorship order is primarily contribution-based. An alternative approach, following Levitt and Thelwall (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e), would be to classify a publication profile as alphabetic if authors are listed alphabetically more often than would be expected by chance. However, this method also has a drawback. For example, consider a psychologist who typically publishes in large collaborative teams; even a few alphabetically ordered papers could make her profile appear more alphabetical than by chance. Yet, such a researcher would have little incentive to choose her effective surname strategically if only a small fraction of her publications follow alphabetical ordering.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"7. Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eWe find that very few women use acquired surnames over a median academic career of 20 years. Only 6.8% of women in our sample use an acquired surname, far below the roughly 80% rate reported for many countries (Valetas, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2001\u003c/span\u003e; Goldin \u0026amp; Shim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e). To rule out the possibility that this result is driven by women from cultures where retaining one\u0026rsquo;s birth name is the norm, we focus on two countries\u0026mdash;the United States and the United Kingdom\u0026mdash;which together account for nearly half of our sample. Even within this subset, the proportion of acquired surnames is only 8.1%.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough it is well established that women with PhDs have higher rates of birth-name retention (Gooding \u0026amp; Kreider, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e), to our knowledge no previous studies have reported the proportion of women in academia who have acquired surnames. Some women may have changed their surnames without any record of it appearing in their academic career. Moreover, there are cases where women officially change their surnames but continue to publish under their birth surnames (Goldin \u0026amp; Shim, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e). Therefore, our estimate of surname acquisition reflects the post-publication period and accounts only for professional surname changes.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWe find that academics with multiple surnames are more likely to use the more advantageous surname as their effective surname when they have alphabetic publication profiles. This result is intuitive, as considerable evidence highlights the advantages associated with having an early surname initial (Weber, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAlthough academics with alphabetic publication profiles may change their surnames to their advantage, their effective surname initials are not consistently earlier than those of others with alphabetic publication profiles. For example, as shown in Figure \u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003eA1\u003c/span\u003e in the Appendix, the proportion of individuals with surname initials A\u0026ndash;B is lower for those with alphabetic publication profies. We already noted that only a small number of female academics have acquired surnames. Moreover, as Table A1 in the Appendix shows, surname initials do not always become substantially more advantageous by the strategic choice. Only five female academics with alphabetic publication profiles used a surname initial in the A\u0026ndash;B range effectively while their other surname initial was in the U\u0026ndash;Z range.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA surprising finding is that the source of the surname does not appear to matter. Our initial hypothesis was that acquired surnames would be more flexible, as individuals can use their birth surname as a middle name, hyphenate it, or otherwise adjust their effective surname with relative ease. In contrast, we expected cultural surnames to be more rigid\u0026mdash;for instance, Hispanic academics typically use their first surname as their effective surname. However, the results do not support this hypothesis: cultural surnames appear to be used just as effectively as acquired surnames in gaining an advantage in the alphabetical ordering of surnames.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFuture research could refine the analysis presented in this paper. First, because data collection was demanding, our sample included only one non-alphabetic field; the results might differ if additional non-alphabetic fields were incorporated. Second, a more in-depth examination of cultural naming patterns could help explain why cultural surnames appear to be as flexible as acquired surnames in the selection of advantageous effective surnames. Third, a qualitative approach\u0026mdash;such as a survey\u0026mdash;could provide insights into the importance female academics attach to alphabetization when deciding how to use their acquired surnames.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLastly, we did not examine female academics who have used a single surname throughout their careers. Some female academics may have changed their surnames before earning their PhD. Although such an analysis would be incomplete due to data limitations, future research could explore these cases to determine whether female academics are more likely to adopt their husbands\u0026rsquo; surname when it is alphabetically advantageous. Incorporating this additional information would provide a more comprehensive picture of the total number of female academics who acquire surnames.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics declarations\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFunding and/or Conflicts of interests/Competing interests\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo funding was received for conducting this study\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eI am the sole author of this paper and am responsible for all the stages.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAbramo, G., \u0026amp; D\u0026rsquo;Angelo, C. A. (2017). Does your surname affect the citability of your publications?. \u003cem\u003eJournal of Informetrics\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e11\u003c/em\u003e(1), 121-127.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCai, Y. L., Wong, K. F. E., \u0026amp; Kwong, J. Y. 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A longitudinal analysis of the effect of alphabetization on academic careers. \u003cem\u003eData and Information Management\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e3\u003c/em\u003e(2), 72-83.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Alphabetization, birth name retention, female authorship, strategic naming","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8804379/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8804379/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"It is often more difficult for academics to adopt a new surname after marriage, as they may wish to preserve their established academic reputation. However, adopting a new surname may be advantageous for those who publish in alphabetical author order when the acquired surname begins with an earlier initial than their birth name. In this paper, we analyzed the surname usage of 4,199 female academics from leading institutions worldwide and examined the origins of their multiple surnames. We found that only 6.8% of female academics use an acquired surname, and only 2.8% have changed their surname initial over a median of 20 years of academic experience. Female academics whose publications are mostly alphabetically ordered are more likely to use a surname with an earlier initial (odds ratio: 1.48–2.06). However, this strategic behavior does not differ significantly depending on whether their multiple surnames are culturally inherited or acquired.","manuscriptTitle":"Strategic Use of Acquired Surnames Among Female Academics","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-02-26 17:55:48","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8804379/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"ea641cd1-8171-44d8-b4f0-1b44869ec07a","owner":[],"postedDate":"February 26th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-26T17:55:48+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-02-26 17:55:48","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8804379","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8804379","identity":"rs-8804379","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}