Identification of authors without surnames: is ORCID the right way forward?

In January 2016 an interesting discussion on World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) Listserve was initiated among WAME members. The subject of this discussion was a case of Indian author without a surname and his problems during manuscript submission in a journal. This case presented a completely new aspect of authorship issue to us at Biochemia Medica, as until now we have not yet encountered such problem in our Journal. We therefore thought this could be an interesting topic for a discussion in Biochemia Medica, since many other cultures have come across different and specific problems regarding their names. In this issue we thus present contributions by four eminent scientists and editors who have agreed to submit a paper to Biochemia Medica and share with our readers their view on this subject. Our aim with this series of short contributions was to raise awareness of the editors, publishers, authors and readers about this issue and to explore different perspectives and opportunities for the identification of authors.