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This week (19-25 October) is Open Access Week, and the theme for 2020 is “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion.” Gates Open Research is committed to listening to researchers and responding to their needs to create a better, more inclusive publishing experience. Here, we introduce a new policy that allows researchers to retroactively change their names on articles and assets.

Gates Open Research introduces a new policy which enables transgender scholars to change their name on publications, a meaningful change for a more inclusive research environment.

Historically, researchers who had transitioned to their true gender identity and legally changed their name had no clear, simple or standardised way of changing the name used on previous publications. This could cause issues in not having their publication record correctly attributed to them, but also having to disclose themselves as trans whenever these publications needed listing, e.g. on a CV or grant proposal.

Furthermore, many trans researchers have spoken about the disconnect they have with their deadname (many trans people refer to their previous name as a ‘deadname’ to highlight the distress that it can provoke) and their body of work published under it, as well as the emotional reaction and constant reminder of having to see their deadname. The difference in name is also more noticeable for researchers from countries that have gendered surnames, giving no space to have these conversations at the researchers’ own pace and on their terms.

This policy addresses this anguish by providing researchers with a simple, fair and unobtrusive workflow for name changing. Once a researcher requests a name change through the editorial office, they are required to provide identification in order to ensure that the researcher is requesting the name change for themselves. To avoid any distress this process may cause, Gates Open Research is keen to work with researchers to enable them to provide identification on their own terms, for example a letter from a supervisor rather than ‘official’ documentation. Once the identification has been verified, the article will be updated online, with the DOI remaining the same. To ensure transparency, a Notice of Change will be posted, stating that a name change has occurred, without disclosing the name of the researcher. Gates Open Research’s production team will be responsible for resending files to indexers to reflect the name change in databases such as PubMed, ensuring that researchers can gain credit for their work.

The policy was developed in response to a call from EDIS, a coalition of organisations working within science and health research committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusion, who asked its members to reach out to their associated publishing arms or publishers they had close relationships with to start the conversation. Our partner, F1000 Research, was one of the first to respond positively to creating a policy that addressed these issues, and we saw this as an important change that supports equality, diversity and inclusion. So, we are pleased to follow our partner and implement the policy on our platform. The workflow for the new policy was assessed and validated by researchers, facilitated by EDIS, who have themselves been (or are) in the complicated process of changing their names on publications, to ensure that it fits their needs.

Ashley Farley, Program Officer of Knowledge and Research Services at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said: “I am very happy to see F1000 Research actively working to ensure Gates Open Research is a truly inclusive and author driven experience – even after the article is published. It’s critical for publishing platforms to adapt to the needs of the community. Most importantly these changes were made with input from the community that would be directly impacted. I believe that this sets a standard for others in the publishing community to follow. We are always open to hearing from the community on how to improve Gates Open Research for both authors and readers.”

Michael Markie, Publishing Director at F1000 Research said “F1000 Research is committed to listening to researchers and responding to their needs to create a better publishing experience. We live in a diverse world and it’s our job to be flexible and supportive in how we can best serve our community. In the digital age, it really isn’t an issue to make clear changes to authorship where necessary, so we were more than happy to collaborate with EDIS and our partner platforms to make this happen.”