Name Ambiguity Problem

Definition: An attribution issue arising from two related problems: authors may use multiple names or monikers to publish work, and multiple authors in a single field may share full names. This makes accurate identification of authors on names and specialisms alone a difficult task. This can be addressed through the creation and use of unique digital identifiers that act akin to digital fingerprints such as ORCID.

Related terms: Authorship, DOI (digital object identifier), ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)

Reference: Wilson and Fenner (2012)

Drafted and Reviewed by: Shannon Francis, Tsvetomira Dumbalska, Mahmoud Elsherif, Helena Hartmann, Wanyin Li, Charlotte R. Pennington

We are currently working to link the references directly. For now, the complete reference list can be viewed here.