Author names:
Choosing the format of your own name is very important. This is
especially the case if you have a common name. While a common name is
inherently useful when ordering a taxi or a pizza over the phone, in
academic publishing having a common name suffers the burden of ambiguity
when attempting to discern ones complete bibliographic record from
databases such as Web of Science, Scopus or PubMed. Including a middle
initial is one way that you can add uniqueness. Another tool you can use
is to align yourself with a researcher or Orcid ID. ORCID is a unique
identifier that distinguishes you from all other researchers and is
recognised in MRC’s Online Editorial Office as well as in grant
submissions \cite{orcid}. These tools
enable researchers to link all of their publications to one perpetual
identifier ensuring the completeness of their entire bibliographic
record.