BIOET 533
Ethical Dimensions of Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems

3.2 Providing Acknowledgment

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3.2 Providing Acknowledgment

When credit as a co-author is not appropriate for a given publication, extended collaborators and external advisors will often be given credit in an acknowledgment section, usually at the beginning of a paper and at the end of a book. Robert Day provides a helpful description here which provides some excellent rules of thumb for how to approach an acknowledgments section in a publication. These rules of thumb are proper to consider for a variety of contexts which require extending the social courtesy of acknowledging the contribution of another's input.

Significant Principles

First, you should acknowledge any significant technical help that you received from any individual, whether in your laboratory or elsewhere. You should also acknowledge the source of special equipment, cultures, or other materials. You might, for example, say something like "Thanks are due to J. Jones for assistance with the experiments and to R. Smith for valuable discussion."

Second, it is usually in the Acknowledgments wherein you should acknowledge any outside financial assistance, such as grants, contracts, or fellowships.

A word of caution is in order. Often, it is wise to show the proposed wording of the Acknowledgment to the person whose help you are acknowledging. He or she might well believe that your acknowledgment is insufficient or (worse) that it is too effusive. If you have been working so closely with an individual that you borrowed either equipment or ideas, that person is most likely to be a friend or a valued colleague. It would be silly to risk either your friendship or the opportunities for future collaboration by placing in public print a thoughtless word that might be offensive. An inappropriate thank you can be worse than none at all, and if you value the advice and help of friends and colleagues, you should be careful to thank them in a way that pleases rather than displeases.

Furthermore, if your acknowledgment relates to an idea, suggestion, or interpretation, be very specific about it. If your colleague’s input is too broadly stated, he or she could well be placed in the sensitive and embarrassing position of having to defend the entire paper. Certainly, if your colleague is not a coauthor, you make them a responsible party to the basic considerations treated in your paper. Indeed, your colleague may not agree with some of your central points, and it is not good science and not good ethics for you to phrase the Acknowledgments in a way that seemingly denotes endorsement." Day, Robert. “How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper: 5th Edition” Oryx Press, 1998.

Remember, there is nothing really scientific about the Acknowledgments section, it is simply about courtesy.