When you are getting ready to submit your manuscript you will need to include the author names, their credentials, and their affiliations - but with so many institution names and affiliations, what do you do? UHN Research has developed guidance to help you with listing affiliations, find that guidance as a PDF document and in the text below.
December 21, 2022
This document provides guidance to UHN researchers on best practices for listing their names, UHN affiliations, and funding in publications to ensure consistency, maximize traceability and publicity.
There is an increased push towards increasing accountability for scientists, research institutes, and funding agencies through more effective data collection of research outputs.
As a researcher, you can better showcase your scientific output by ensuring that your publications are correctly attributed to you, your institution(s), and your funders in various databases.
The guidance is as follows:
It is recommended that you publish under a consistent name format, and that you try to make that name format as unique as possible. Ensure that all future publications list your name in the same format, including those in which you are a co-author.
For example, including a middle name or initial such as “H. C.” can help differentiate “Robert H. C. Chen” from the approximately 30 other “Robert Chen”s in the Web of Science database. This becomes particularly important in journals that only list the initials and last name of authors (e.g. ~15 “R. H. Chen”s vs ~235 “R. Chen”s in Web of Science).
It is recommended that you do not publish under diminutive names (e.g. “Bob” instead of “Robert”) as analysts and database programs may not be aware of these aliases. If you prefer to go by an alias or diminutive name, it is recommended that you use that specific name in all your publications, including those in which you are a co-author.
Whenever possible, it is recommended that you submit an author identifier when you submit a manuscript. A popular identifier is the Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID; https://orcid.org/).
When journal publishers send article information to the various databases (e.g., Web of Science, Scopus) for indexing, they also provide ORCID information. This guarantees that the publication will be included in the search results when someone searches for you using your ORCID in the database.
Many major publishers now require that authors’ ORCIDs be submitted along with the manuscript. By including your ORCID when submitting a manuscript, the publication will automatically be added to your ORCID profile—ensuring that the publications in your profile are always up to date.
Most of the major publication databases can update your ORCID profile with their data, but only a select few (Web of Science/Publons and Europe PMC) allow synchronization in the reverse direction (i.e. permit your ORCID profile to update their database). This can lead to your publications not being properly attributed to you in databases.
For more information on what ORCID does and how to manage yours, visit the Research
Intranet ORCID service page.
It is recommended that “University Health Network” (fully spelled out) is part of your affiliation listing, as well as your Research Institute or hospital site. Your UHN affiliation does not have to take precedence over other, more-direct affiliations such as a clinical unit, but it should be present.
Affiliations are important because many external organizations will identify your publications based only on the listed author names and affiliations. Failure to list all your affiliations may lead to you, your group, your Research Institute, or UHN not being credited with your work. This can impact the accuracy of reviews.
The recommended formats for listing the Research Institutes at UHN are as follows:
KITE - Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network.
[Krembil Brain Institute / Donald K Johnson Eye Institute / Schroeder Arthritis Institute], Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network.
McEwen Stem Cell Institute, University Health Network.
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network.
Techna Institute, University Health Network.
The Institute for Education Research, University Health Network.
Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, University Health Network.
Here are some common errors in listing affiliations at UHN:
|
Incorrect |
Correct |
|
Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) |
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre |
|
Toronto Western Research Institute |
Krembil Research Institute |
|
Toronto General Research Institute |
Toronto General Hospital Research Institute |
When you acknowledge the funding sources for your work, it is recommended that you include the grant identifiers (IDs).
Databases, such as Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions, index almost all information in a publication—including the acknowledgement section. They offer the option of searching for publications associated with specific grant IDs. Granting agencies may track these IDs to assess their return on investment.
To demonstrate your productive track record and the benefits of funding your research, include the agency/sponsor-assigned grant ID of the grants that supported the research that you are submitting for publication.
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre also recommends that their researchers use the following template text for citing funding in their published work:
Funding for this work was provided by [other sources of funding citing specific grant sponsors to the published work in order of magnitude of contribution], Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, and Ontario Ministry of Health.
