I learned about signing documents, so that we can assure integrity and the author attribution. In my company, we already use SharePoint which assigns documents to their creators, and also track last modifications by other people. In the case of tool-kits, How-To documents and whitepapers, I thought it would be useful to sign my documents.

I would like to point that this has nothing to do with security but with author attribution (which can be slightly rewarding if those documents are for the good of colleagues; and to show some extra work).

I would like to hear from your know-how, and how this could affects work experience in general and specifically, How this practice is perceived by colleagues.

  • What does your manager say? – aaaaaa Jun 2 at 17:38
  • 1
    Please could you tell me what you hope to achieve in a document being signed by yourself? In a working environment there is some trust involved. – Ed Heal Jun 2 at 17:39
  • the first aim as I mentioned, is to put my name their. and to sum up the question, how could this be perceived by colleagues ? knowing it is not common practice AFIK in my working environment. – Curcuma_ Jun 2 at 17:46
  • Do you not just have a table in the document that gives the documents history? – Ed Heal Jun 2 at 17:49
  • If documents are already assigned to creators and changes are tracked, what would be the point of signing as well? Or do you mean documents that aren't in SharePoint? If yes, wouldn't it then make more sense to just also put those documents in SharePoint or some other version control? – Dukeling Jun 2 at 19:41

It is kinda depends on company regulations, practices, and legacy. You should follow what is expected, your manager will know for sure.

In my own practice, I prefer documents to be signed by people who contributed to them, highlighting "primary" author. In science/academia those people also called "corresponding authors". These are the people you have to address all your questions about given document. This doesn't prevent from having multiple authors, just single point of contact.

I would warn you that signing your name on document should be done carefully, so that you don't appear to take too much credit. If someone helped you draft something, it is better to make sure their name is on it. It is better to over-credit.

You say:


You probably will not reap any immediate benefit from it. In my experience people don't care. But you will definitely make life of someone easier when they will look at X, asking "who should I contact about it?"

tl;dr Yes, documents should be signed, but you just taking extra responsibility without much reward.

Your Answer

