Editors need to know! If the answer is “anyone who wants to be called ‘doctor,’” we’ going to have a big communication problem.
Please pardon me for quoting my book The Editor’s Companion, but I can’t think of a better way to say it: “I think the Associated Press style is sensible—refer to people by last name unless further identification is important, and don’t call people ‘doctor’ without specifying the degree unless the person is a medical doctor or dentist, because that’s what most readers take ‘doctor’ to mean. And don’t add ‘Dr.’ in front of a name that is followed by a degree; that would be redundant.”
Naturally, some people disagree—strongly. The Chief Executive Officer of the American Psychological Association wrote in 2008: “The use of the term ‘doctor’ recognizes psychologists’ extensive education and training as well as their positions in medical settings as supervisors and managers of patient care at the highest levels.” I think it’s fair to sum up the argument as “psychologists want recognition.” Please note: it’s not a question of whether their patients or students or colleagues call them “doctor.” It’s whether news stories refer to them as “doctor” without saying what their doctoral degree is in. (By the way, I don’t have the choice here of putting Dr. in front of the CEO’s name, because the name wasn’t given with the commentary. Maybe the Chief Executive Officer of the American Psychological Association was so famous that the person’s name didn’t need to be given. Would “Doctor Who?” be sufficient?)
Another perspective: The Associated Press “rule assumes that people aren’t smart enough to differentiate medical professionals from subject matter experts and that a title alone means you can trust one opinion over another,” wrote Mariana Grohowski in Is There a Doctor in the House? on the Michigan Tech Unscripted Research Blog, March 26, 2018.
You might think she was about to dismiss the Associated Press rule as dumb, but, no, she followed up with informative insights. She gave reasons for using Dr. in news stories involving people who aren’t medical professionals: to “garner respect,” to signify authority, to “acknowledge … hard work and expertise,” and to “illustrate the diversity of PhD holders, which is especially important for women and minorities.” I think it’s fair to say that at least three of those four reasons are about recognition.
“Some doctorate holders see the title as a failsafe for garnering respect from students and colleagues,” said Grohowski, citing Chronicle of Higher Education writer Stacy Patton, but “others consider it a graceless method of asserting an otherwise ignored or devalued status.” In 2007, Judith Martin (Miss Manners) replied to a reader who got a curt correction from a cousin for addressing a Christmas card to Mr. rather than Dr., and Miss Manners answered that “in the higher levels of the academic world, it is taken for granted that one has a Ph.D. and considered silly for anyone not in the medical field to use the title of doctor.”
Grohowski also gave “reasons not to use Dr. for PhD holders”: “so as not to mislead or confuse vulnerable individuals seeking advice,” to avoid “appearing snobby,” to avoid aloofness, or to avoid “exerting authority”; she noted that this “doesn’t matter much outside academia.”
As Grohowski noted, use of Dr. for non-medical doctors could “mislead or confuse vulnerable individuals”; she noted that “physicians in Arizona, Delaware, Florida and New York” were against “individuals with doctorates in nursing introducing themselves as doctor to patients.” So it’s not just that some “people aren’t smart enough.” Not everybody who wants to be called “doctor” ought to be, at least not in all situations.
The Associated Press also stated (my edition is from 1996, but I’m sure the rule still applies): “Do not use Dr. before the names of individuals who hold only honorary doctorates.” I’ve encountered people who wanted to be called “doctor,” and then I learned that their doctorates were honorary. Editors need to beware of that. I personally have a diploma saying I’m a doctor of philosophy in theology; it may be genuine, but I certainly didn’t earn it.
Another trap for editors involves people with Ph.D.’s who want to be called “doctor” when others who have doctorates don’t call attention to their degrees. Accommodating the squeaky wheel could make it appear that the noisy person is the only one in a story who has a doctorate.
And does “a title alone” mean that “you can trust one opinion over another”? I’ve seen doctors cited as authorities with no mention of what their doctorate was in. Having a Ph.D. doesn’t make you an authority on everything. Remember Dr. Linus Pauling? He won two Nobel Prizes, and he also became famous for claiming that large doses of vitamin C could prevent colds. Some people insist that he was right, but he was a doctor of chemistry, not of medicine.
It sounds great that in a school system that has students returning to classrooms during a pandemic, the superintendent of schools is a doctor. In a Feb. 16, 2021, story on the website of WTOP, Washington, DC, “How DC-Area Catholic Schools Are Faring with in-Person Learning,” by Dick Uliano, we are told that “Dr. Joseph Vorbach” is “superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Arlington” in Virginia. Nowhere does this news story say what Vorbach is a doctor of (international relations, according to the diocesan website). I don’t think people read a news story about schools during a pandemic to see the superintendent recognized for his “extensive education,” which is about all the reference to Dr. Vorbach accomplishes; this seems to me like implying greater knowledge of public health than the man actually may have, kind of like giving a placebo to readers.
My suggestions for editors:
- If you have a style guide, follow it
- Keep the reader in mind; maybe in your situation, you have to communicate respect or deference, but make sure you communicate facts
- If something you’re editing mentions a doctor, be sure to specify what the person is a doctor of
- If someone has an honorary doctorate and insists on mentioning it, list it as additional information, not by attaching Dr. or Ph.D. (or anything else that suggests an earned doctorate) to the person’s name.
And take your vitamin C, as Dr. Pauling told you to. Listen to Dr. Dunham! And (seriously) do listen to Miss Manners.
Editor's Companion 