Changing your account name
You can edit your name in a few easy steps:
- Go to your profile and click on Edit next to your name
- Click on the Edit name button at the bottom of the box that appears
- Update your name and click Save to confirm your changes.
Note: For security reasons, you can only change your name three times within a 30-day period.
Have you published under a different name or multiple names? If your author name (the name you've published under) doesn't match your account name exactly, your publications can sometimes be put into a queue while we manually verify authorship. To avoid this, you can either edit your account name or add an 'alternative name'.
Why can't I add my academic title to my name?
Our name matching algorithm, which is responsible for automatically attaching publications to the correct profile, works best by matching just a person's name without their academic title. For this reason, we don't allow the addition of titles such as Dr. or Prof. to your name on ResearchGate.
What's the difference between my name and my alternative name?
Your name is the name you are known as professionally. It's displayed on your profile and helps your co-authors, colleagues, and peers recognize you and your contributions on ResearchGate.
Your alternative name represents any other name you've published under.
When adding publications to your profile, you may have trouble confirming authorship of your work if the name you published under doesn't match your account name. Adding an alternative author name can simplify this process.
How do I add an alternative author name?
You can add an alternative name by following these steps:
- Go to your profile and click on Edit next to your name
- Click on the Edit name button at the bottom of the box that appears
- Fill out the Alternative name fields and click Save.
Note: For security reasons, you can only change your name three times within a 30-day period.
You're all set! Now it's much easier to confirm authorship of publications that don't match your account name.
