How to Write the Acknowledgment

The Acknowledgment section is where you give credit to those who helped in carrying out and publishing your research. It is one of the two sections that apply after the body of the paper, with the other being the References. 

In the Acknowledgment, you should focus on giving credit to two groups — those who offered technical assistance. For example, help in acquiring special equipment or using lab equipment to collect data and carry out processes or analyses essential to your experiment or research. 

This applies even when your experiment is not lab-based. For field studies where you collect data on human participants, you can acknowledge the efforts of those who arranged to help you collect data. 

Second, you should acknowledge assistance from funding bodies. This includes grants, contracts, or fellowships. In this article, I will discuss tips on how to write a proper acknowledgment. 

What is the Acknowledgment?

The acknowledgment section in a research paper is the part where the authors express their gratitude and appreciation to individuals or organizations that have contributed to the research or the paper itself. This section typically includes thanks to funding agencies, research collaborators, mentors, colleagues, and anyone else who has provided support or assistance during the research process.

The point of the Acknowledgment is to be courteous. Just as in real life where you show gratitude to anyone who provides help, you should do the same for any help you receive in your published scientific paper. 

This also means that you should ask permission from those you acknowledge in your published paper. They need to see the words you use when describing their contribution. If they feel that you were unfair and did not give them the credit they deserve, then they will let you know.

Also, if they feel that your praise of their contribution is too high, they may tell you just as much. In either case, this would provide an opportunity to make the necessary changes to make sure everyone is happy.

This type of simple courtesy would go a long way in preserving and nurturing current relationships and promoting future collaborations. After all, collaboration lies at the heart of successful research. 

Acknowledging Personal assistance

In your Acknowledgment, you should thank those who provide technical assistance in the lab or analysis. This would include:

• Those who helped with using technical equipment in the lab

• Those who helped with showing how to use data analysis software

• Those who helped distribute questionnaires to collect data

• Those who helped secure materials, such as bacterial cultures

 Now, there is a difference between those who deserve to receive acknowledgment and those who deserve credit for authorship of your scientific paper. Authorship should be reserved only for those who have made substantial contributions to:

• Conception and design of the study

• Acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data

• Drafting and revising the article for significant intellectual contributions

• Final approval of the version of the article that will be published

Contributions that qualify for Acknowledgement as opposed to authorship include:

• Acquiring funding

• Collecting data

• General supervision of the research

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Acknowledging Institutional assistance

Institutions that contributed to your research financially should be acknowledged. This means grant funding:

• From non-profit organizations

• Government bodies and institutions

• Private institutions

Often, the acknowledgment may also include declarations of no financial conflict of interest. You should make sure to let it be known whether or not you have any personal benefits from private institutions funding your study. 

Example of Acknowledgment section

Below is an example of a study’s Acknowledgment section: 

The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions in manuscript revision. This study is supported by the National Science and Technology Council in Taiwan under Grant #111–2410-H-005–021. Authors would like to express their appreciation to Mr Melchior Antoine for his support in the early stage of the research development, especially for his creativity in broadening the scope of the study and his endeavor to find the gap in the literature. Authors would like to thank Miss Minh-Trang Vo Nguyen for her help with the analytics. Also, authors would like to express their appreciation to Mr Jer-Ray Hsu for his help with the overall structure of the study.

In short, Acknowledgement is a simple matter of courtesy where you give credit to those who contribute to your study short of qualifying for co-authorship. Make sure you give credit where it's due and that you know how to draw the line between authorship and acknowledgment. Good luck with your research writing. 

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, August 25). How to Write the Acknowledgement. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/how-to-write-the-acknowledgement