What's my affiliation?

A reader writes with the following question:

I have been wondering about what to list under "departmental affiliation" on a paper that will be published. In my case the paper was written as a grad student as part of my dissertation. But I submitted it when I was an adjunct at one school. It was under review when I was adjuncting at a second. It was finally accepted when I was teaching at a third, and I got the proofs when I am VAPing at a fourth, though it will not likely to get published until next semester when I may be somewhere else. Is there some general rule to follow about who to list? Am I over thinking this? Do departments care if they get credit? Does this matter? Any thoughts?

What do you think, fellow Cocooners?

Comments

[Marcus Arvan]

Hi Moti: I think the normal process is to just list your latest affiliation(s) (i.e. where you're at now). If you're at multiple places now, you can list them all.

[T.M.]

Agreed, it seems to me that affiliation means current institutional affiliation. There is also space to acknowledge, e.g., in a footnote, people you thank for help, institutional support, etc if you'd like.

[Karen Hunt]

I'd recommend asking the editors if you could delay publication a bit, at least until you know where you'll be in the fall. You may end up with a TT job, and this paper will more clearly help your tenure case in several years if it has that institution listed as the affiliation.

"Forthcoming" looks as good on your CV as published. Maybe even better, since publications "go stale." And most editors are fine with putting you in the back of the line; most authors want to move up to the front of the line.

I've done this, and it certainly paid off (or it will, when I go up for tenure). I recommend it.

[Trevor Hedberg]

From what I gather, "affiliation" always means current affiliation. Frequently, your affiliation is supplemented by contact information (e.g., email address), and if someone wanted to contact you regarding your work, you'd obviously want your current affiliation listed so the person could get in touch with you without having to ask around at other universities.