Thursday, May 01, 2008

A Curious Thing

Today I read an article from 1999. The authors have since, of course, moved. So I searched for the last author's last name on PubMed.

After 2004 she did not exist.

I searched on Google. After 2004: nothing. I searched for her and 2007. I paged through several sets of uninformative data. Finally, on page 6, there was a 2007 conference program.

She got married and hyphenated her name. PubMed cannot find B. Godenot when listed as B. Godenot-Anstruther. (I am making this up, but both names are very distinctive and quite uncommon.)

Ladies and gentlemen, do not hyphenate your names, or the world of biology will think you've quit science, joined the circus, or died.


Addendum: You can harass by emailing custserv AT nlm DOT nih DOT gov, or by calling 1-888-346-3656. (See here.) I'm going to write them a vehement letter. And don't even get me started on their problems with Asian names.