I also encountered the same problem with Dr. Chitra here; three parts of my name. 'Mohamad' is my initial name, 'Haris' is my common name and 'Hussain' is my surname. Before this, I am using 'Haris, M. H.' as my citation name. after reading this fruitful discussion, I think I will change it to 'Hussain, M. H.' to avoid confusion in future. I had recommended this question to others. Thank you Dr. Chitra, Dr. Donal and everyone.

This must be the author choice

In text citations should always just be the authors last name - i.e. (Devi, 2018). Reference section references typically begin with your last name, then the initials of your first and (optional) middle name - i.e. Devi, E. C. (2018)... When you use reference management software (eg Endnote) there are seperate sections for first, middle, and last name. Then it is up to the author to check the reference has been created correctly by the software. It only gets confusing when there are double barrel second names.

Thank you so much Dr Donal for the nice explanation.

Yes, I agree with your answer. Please see the typical example below in which i used Mendeley :

Regarding this problem, most important thing I found here in research is in Citation. If one adds references by simple manually typing then there will be no problem. But if one uses reference manager software, then it is likely to be changes in format (order) of the name (depending upon the format given in journal account)(Chitra Devi & Soibam, 2018; Devi & Soibam, 2017a, 2017b). Probably this may be a reason for less number of citations compared to actual one.

References

Chitra Devi, E., & Soibam, I. (2018). Structural and Electrical Studies of MnGdxFe2-xO4 Nanoparticles. Materials Today: Proceedings, 5(1), 2157–2162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2017.09.213

Devi, E. C., & Soibam, I. (2017a). A Facile Low-Temperature Synthesis of MnLa x Fe 2 − x O4 Nanoferrites with Structural and Electrical Characterization. Journal of Superconductivity and Novel Magnetism. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10948-017-4376-y

Devi, E. C., & Soibam, I. (2017b). Effect of Zn doping on the structural, electrical and magnetic properties of MnFe2O4 nanoparticles. Indian Journal of Physics, 91(8), 861–867. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12648-017-0981-7

So, what I observed here is that the format for first reference is different from the second and third reference which was resulted due to the format of giving my name to journals (which I have also mentioned in the question). Yes of course I can edit the first one to desirable format but I have a doubt that every author/ every journal may not.

I notice such differences due to one middle name, I wonder how authors with double barrel middle names manage it !!!!

With best regards

Chitra

Dr. Donal has nicely explained the procedure - citation in text and inclusion in reference section for an author who has three parts in name (first, middle and family name). This is the normal system.

If your family name is "Devi" then simply, citation in text should be as (Devi & Soibam, 2017a) and in reference section, the examples 2nd and 3rd are correct.

Where only 'first name' and 'last name' are to be provided (no option is available for middle name), you may enter as follows:

First name: Elangbam Chitra, and Last name: Devi

Regards

Thank you Dr. Asit Sir for the suggestion. I usually followed the the format you have suggested in almost all the cases, except for the 1st one in which I did a mistake and it got reflected in using mendeley.

Actually, confusion starts with the writing format of Names (which I think vary with different community/ individual). In my case the 1st name is my family name, middle name is my actual name. Last name is almost like a file extension (.doc, html, .xlsx etc ) representing community, gender etc which is in real not the important one, but it became the most important one (at the expense of my actual name) here in academic publications. For academic/ journals the usual format being first name (actual name) followed by last name (family name), opposite in my case.

I post this question for three reasons:

1. to share the idea that reference manager utilizes format of name given in journal account and not with respect to written in article itself.

2. interested to see how formats of peoples names vary.

3. interested to know how it is handled by author with lengthy names (with many words) which becomes sometimes essential for suggesting reviewers to journals.

With best regards

Chitra

It's a good discussion. Others will also be benefited. Thanks

nice information

I also encountered the same problem with Dr. Chitra here; three parts of my name. 'Mohamad' is my initial name, 'Haris' is my common name and 'Hussain' is my surname. Before this, I am using 'Haris, M. H.' as my citation name. after reading this fruitful discussion, I think I will change it to 'Hussain, M. H.' to avoid confusion in future. I had recommended this question to others. Thank you Dr. Chitra, Dr. Donal and everyone.

does anybody have an idea how to change the order of the first name and family name in IEEE format? I need to be written as follows: Elgizawy,S.M., S.M,El-Haggar for example ? it is not done this way when I do the automatic referencing in the word file. thank you

An example of complete style of citation including author name(s).

@ Sally Elgizawy

Mendeley also gives option for changing a referencing style. Please have a look in the following link:

https://www.mendeley.com/guides/csl-editor/03-making-changes-style

While to follow world's most used citation style for references and citations. Description of references at the end of paper you should have to write for example one by one as

Author's last name, then first and middle name is mandatory such as

Kale, S.T.

Thanks for this discussion. I would like to check the citation of my name. My full name is A. P. Felix Arokiya Raj. In my case, for text citation & reference listing, can it be

Regards

Most people of African speaking country have the same problem, My first name is Franck Middle is Ngole and last name is Twite which gives in citation Twite F.N. but as I was saying earlier in African we start with our surname and finish with our given name this must normally bring forth some problem later.