Can I choose the initials I want to use when publishing a paper? I am about to publish my first paper, but there is a little question bothering me. I have two middle names and I've noticed that most authors with two middle names choose only one to use as a initial. So their abbreviated names become "Last AB", not "Last ABC" (which apparently doesn't look so good).

However, I've read the "instructions for authors" of many journals, and none of them says anything about choosing the initials you want to use, you just have to put your full name and (I suppose) they abbreviate it by themselves.

Can someone please clarify for me how it works and how people manage to choose the way journals publish their initials?
I have two middle names, and have faced a similar dilemma, since there is a great deal of inconsistency not just with journals and citations but in how pretty much all bureaucratic systems choose to handle names.

In making your decision, there are three main cases to consider about how your name will be used:


How your name appears on your own papers: With pretty much any reasonable publication, you should be able to specify your name precisely as you wish it to appear.  Just be consistent from publication to publication.
How you are identified in databases: This is important because this helps guide other people's discovery of your related works, but you are at the mercy of whoever coded up the database and how many bad assumptions they made about names.  Fortunately, this is why ORCID was created, because names aren't very good unique identifiers in the first place.  An ORCID, however, provides an easy hook for programmers to organize your publications correctly.
How people write your name in citations: This is (hopefully) the most common usage, but also the one you have least control over, since people and style guides may mutilate your name in any number of creative ways, especially if your name contains non-English characters.  Even closely related languages like French, Spanish, and German often get mangled in transliteration (e.g., losing their diacritics).  Fortunately, it matters somewhat less in this case, as the citation is really just a pointer to your own paper.


My personal solution has been to simply use no middle names, since I did not want to end up with one being picked over the other.  That works for me partly because my name is relatively unusual to begin with---somebody with more common first and last names might be much more motivated to include one or both of their initials.