For researchers, students, and knowledge teams

Research paper and academic PDF naming convention for researchers

Organize research PDFs with author, year, and short title. Keep papers citation-ready and synced to Zotero, Notion, or Obsidian.

Research naming standard

Name research PDFs as YEAR_FirstAuthor_ShortTitle.pdf for citation-ready filenames and visual search.

Lead with publication year (YYYY) for chronological sorting within topic folders.
Include first author surname so visual search and citation insertion work instantly.
Append short title (2-4 words) for disambiguation when same author published multiple papers in one year.

Proof: 8.3k research papers organized last month at 94.2% confidence across universities and research labs.

Recommended patterns

Standard research paper pattern

Lead with year for topic-based folder sorting. Include first author and short title for visual identification.

Pattern

YEAR_FirstAuthor_ShortTitle.pdf

Example

2024_Smith_Neural-Networks-Review.pdf

Tokens

Required

Publication year

Publication year (YYYY)

Example: 2024

Required

First author

First author surname

Example: Smith

Required

Short title

2-4 word title summary

Example: Neural-Networks-Review

Research paper with DOI

Append DOI for papers needing permanent identifiers. Replace slashes in DOI with hyphens for filesystem compatibility.

Pattern

YEAR_FirstAuthor_ShortTitle_DOI.pdf

Example

2024_Smith_Neural-Networks_10.1234-5678.pdf

Tokens

Required

Publication year

Example: 2024

Required

First author

First author surname

Example: Smith

Required

Short title

Example: Neural-Networks

DOI

DOI without https://doi.org/ prefix

Example: 10.1234-5678

Multi-author paper pattern

Use "etal" for multi-author papers to keep filenames concise. First author plus "etal" matches citation conventions.

Pattern

YEAR_FirstAuthor-etal_ShortTitle.pdf

Example

2024_Smith-etal_Neural-Networks.pdf

Tokens

Required

Publication year

Example: 2024

Required

First author

First author surname

Example: Smith

Required

Short title

Example: Neural-Networks

Research paper with topic tag

Append topic tags in brackets for cross-cutting themes or course assignments when folder structure is insufficient.

Pattern

YEAR_FirstAuthor_ShortTitle_[Topic].pdf

Example

2024_Smith_Neural-Networks_[ML].pdf

Tokens

Required

Publication year

Example: 2024

Required

First author

First author surname

Example: Smith

Required

Short title

Example: Neural-Networks

Topic tag

Research topic or course code

Example: ML

Core principles

Lead with publication year

YYYY prefix keeps papers chronologically sorted within topic folders. Avoids manual sorting and surface recent papers first.

Include first author surname

First author name enables visual search and matches citation conventions (Smith et al., 2024). Omit initials to reduce filename clutter.

Use short title, not full title

Full titles exceed 100 characters and break sync tools. Extract 2-4 key words from title for disambiguation.

Avoid special characters and Unicode

Non-ASCII characters (é, ü, 中) break cross-platform sync and search. Replace accents with ASCII equivalents or omit.

Replace spaces with underscores or hyphens

Spaces break command-line tools and reference managers. Use underscores between tokens, hyphens within multi-word titles.

Never use "download.pdf" or generic names

Browser default names provide no context. Rename immediately after download to avoid losing papers in Downloads folder.

Common mistakes

Using full paper titles in filenames

Why it's wrong: Titles exceed 200 characters and break cloud sync, email attachments, and citation managers. Cause filesystem errors.

Fix: Extract 2-4 keywords from title: "Deep Learning Neural Networks for Image Recognition" becomes "Deep-Learning-Image-Recognition".

Omitting publication year

Why it's wrong: Papers without years lose chronological context. Impossible to surface recent work or track citation timelines.

Fix: Lead with YYYY: 2024_Smith_Neural-Networks.pdf

Including all author names

Why it's wrong: Multi-author papers produce 200+ character filenames that break sync tools and filesystems.

Fix: Use first author plus "etal": 2024_Smith-etal_Neural-Networks.pdf

Leaving DOI slashes in filenames

Why it's wrong: Slashes are forbidden in filenames. Papers with DOIs fail to save or sync.

Fix: Replace slashes with hyphens: 10.1234/5678 becomes 10.1234-5678

Adding version numbers or dates downloaded

Why it's wrong: Downloaded-2024-10-15.pdf obscures actual publication date and author. Causes duplicate confusion.

Fix: Use publication metadata, not download metadata: 2023_Smith_Neural-Networks.pdf

Automate research paper naming with AI

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Frequently asked questions

Should I include journal name in the filename?

Optional. Journal names add clutter. Use metadata fields or folder structures for journal organization instead.

What if the paper has no clear publication year?

Use submission year, arXiv posting date, or "YYYY-Preprint" for working papers. Avoid omitting year entirely.

Can I sync renamed papers to Zotero or Notion?

Yes. Use watched folders for Zotero or Obsidian vault sync. Renamed.to preserves folder structure while applying consistent filenames.

How do I handle conference papers vs journal articles?

Use the same pattern. Optionally append [Conf] or [Journal] tags if folder structure does not separate them.

Should I rename historical papers or only new downloads?

Start with new papers to establish the convention. Batch rename historical papers during literature review or thesis prep when context is fresh.

Related resources

Organize research papers automatically →File naming convention generator →Research solutions →Desktop integration for local papers →Pricing →