About first initial/first name choice for women, I would just like to
point out that people knowing that a women published a paper can work for
women.
First, other women may be encouraged by seeing women actively
publishing in the field. Also, women may be discouraged by their absence.
Second, the National Science Foundation, for example, looks very
sceptically at proposals for meetings that have no or very few invited
women speakers. Publishing using your first name might get you an
invitation you might otherwise not get.
Third, when I write papers, I'm bummed at how much I cite guys. I
would like to cite more women. For almost any citation, the choice
between a half dozen possibilities is often pretty arbitrary. Lot's of
folks say the same stuff. If I have the choice of citing a woman, I'll
take it. There's far too few women in my field and I like to do as much
as I can to encourage more of their contributions...
There's definately some negatives with women publishing using
their first name but there's some positives too!
enjoy,
-neo
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Neo D. Martinez email ndmartinez at ucdavis.edu
Research Fellow Phone 707-875-2043
Bodega Marine Laboratory
University of California, Davis FAX 707-875-2089
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