Purpose Of Acknowledgment Within A Research Paper:
In all types of academic research, scholars must follow a certain code of conduct. And acknowledgement is one of them. Acknowledgement provides researchers a platform to credit all their contributors. In this part, the scholar should write who contributed to the research’s part. It also includes their designation, as well as a particular task performed.Guidelines For Acknowledging The Contributors
Acknowledgement in the research paper may contain different types of contributors. The Ph.D. scholar must include them all. In general, a list of contributors contains the following entities;
- Supervisor and co-supervisors
- Authors
- Editors
- Lab technicians
- Non-authors (friends, colleagues, research fellows, and family members)
- Other administrative staff
- Funding sources
In particular, if you take help from any government or private sector in research, you should add them as well. So the first step of starting acknowledgment within a research paper is to make a list of contributors. In this list, you can write the name of contributors through this format;
Lucy Wright: Senior Epidemiologist, Unit of Health-Care Epidemiology, Oxford University, England.
Nick Johnny: My research fellow at the Oxford University, England.
Before starting the acknowledgment in a research paper, this list will help make a final draft.
How To Credit Different Contributors?
Authors:
Before acknowledging the author of the research paper, you should know about ICMJE. This is because ICMJE assigns authorship to someone who has the following;- Deep conceptual, as well as designing contributions in a research paper.
- Contributions in drafting, as well as critical revision in the final research paper.
- Helped in final approval for the publication.
- Someone who assisted in the data gathering, as well as finalising aspects.
Acknowledgement in the research paper needs the authors' names (as per the above criteria). This is ensured so that in case of any query, the journal can contact them. These days, many journals demand the writing of each author's role within the acknowledgement section. For example, for each author, you can follow this format in the final draft;
Harry collected the data from 100 participants for this primary research. Smithy is a great statistician; he helped a lot in the statistical analysis for the current research. Elizabeth proofread and edited the final document.
This type of acknowledgement tells about the in-field contribution of each author. It is an act for satisfying the authors as well.
Non-Author Contributors:
In order to start acknowledgement in the research paper, you may contain a long list of the people to acknowledge. Some of them can fit in ICMJE criteria; but, what to do about others who do not? They will be the subject of non-author contributors. Hence, in this case, you can write a few sentences to contribute to the non-author contributor as well. Sometimes, it is not necessary to acknowledge them by name.For example;
I would like to thank the technical staff, housing facility, lab assistant, and juniors…
Still, if you seek help for editing services, you should mention their name. Despite this fact, they charge for their services. But still, according to guidelines, an acknowledgement in the research paper should contain the name of every contributor.
Also Read This: What Are The Most Common Formatting And Referencing Styles?
Apart from these guidelines, the acknowledgement section must remain concise in the research paper. The scholar should thank others in the shortest possible way.
Further, a few guidelines suggest adding a separate section for the funding sources. In this case, you should follow separate guidelines for acknowledging this aspect. I hope this discussion will solve a majority of the acknowledgement-related issues. Especially for PhD level, an acknowledgement in the research paper is vital. In the end, I would like to add that you never need a summary or a conclusion for acknowledgement within the research. You can end this section by simply writing ‘Thank you’. That’s it for today.
Apart from these guidelines, the acknowledgement section must remain concise in the research paper. The scholar should thank others in the shortest possible way.
Further, a few guidelines suggest adding a separate section for the funding sources. In this case, you should follow separate guidelines for acknowledging this aspect. I hope this discussion will solve a majority of the acknowledgement-related issues. Especially for PhD level, an acknowledgement in the research paper is vital. In the end, I would like to add that you never need a summary or a conclusion for acknowledgement within the research. You can end this section by simply writing ‘Thank you’. That’s it for today.