Research Guides: Publishing Strategies: Author Affiliations

Affiliations in academic papers refer to places (institutions) where authors belong when they are conducting the published research. Given the mobility of faculty, the affiliated institutions may not always be the ones that authors based at the time of paper submission. Publishing with accurate affiliation(s) facilitates not only authorship identification, but also citation tracking for both authors themselves and their affiliated organisations, which prevents scattered citation counts in split profiles.

Note that publishers seldom allow changes on affiliations once the paper is accepted, and it takes time and effort for both authors and publishers to communicate and rectify the wrong data. Authors are therefore advised to check and display correct affiliation data in their publications to minimise problems with authorship misattribution, paper disappearance, citation loss, etc.

What are publishers saying about affiliations?

Taylor & Francis: https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/editorial-policies/defining-authorship-research-paper/#affiliations
Springer: https://www.springer.com/us/editorial-policies/authorship-principles#toc-49266
Elsevier: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/34306/supporthub/publishing/
Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/authors/journals/author-affiliations


Use the official full name of organisations and departments. Check the name information from official sources and avoid using abbreviations Use "school", "college" and "department" according to the official full name, be mindful of the correct position of these words. Include both the official full name of the academic unit and the parent university, just one of them may not be good enough.	School of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hongkong, China Recommended affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Advanced Design and Systems Engineering Department, Hong Kong SAR, China Recommended affiliation: Department of Advanced Design and Systems Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Neurosci. city. Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong Recommended affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Observe the rules of punctuation. List and separate each structural element of an affiliation with proper punctuation marks.	Biomedical Engineering City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong, China Recommended affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Dept. of Biomedical Engineering. City. Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Recommended affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China Dept. of English, City University, Hong Kong, China Recommended affiliation: Department of English, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
When affiliating with multiple units / institutes, write down each affiliation clearly and separate them with proper labels or punctuation. Primary affiliation should go first.	Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Behavior Division of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China Recommended affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China; Mechanical Behavior Division of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Or a. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China b. Mechanical Behavior Division of Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
Pay attention to geographical information and mark the location correctly. Accurate geographical information helps others to find your publications by city, country, or organisation's profile.	Department of Chemistry, CityU. Recommended affiliation: Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China