Contents
Acknowledgements
Scientists and collaborators who make use of the TEA Core Facility should please acknowledge our help in a format similar to the one below for your publications and also for your grant applications:
“…was carried out at the Dartmouth Trace Element Core Facility, which is supported by Dartmouth Cancer Center with NCI Cancer Center Support Grant 5P30 CA023108.”
Authorship
Core facilities must charge for services rendered according to accounting practices set up at each institution. Charging for services does not preclude authorship on manuscripts provided the Core laboratory individual has contributed to the research in a substantial way. If authorship is anticipated, it is preferably established at the beginning of the project so that both the customer and the Core researcher are cognizant of each others criteria.
Guidelines for Authorship on Manuscripts:
Important reasons for acknowledging contributions from core facilities in publications, by co-authorship, or by formal mention in the acknowledgments section, include:
- Core facility personnel are scientists. When they make a substantial intellectual and/or experimental contribution to a publication they deserve to be acknowledged just as any other co-author.
- The existence of core facilities depends in part on proper acknowledgment in publications and in grant writing. These are important metrics of the value of most core facilities. Proper acknowledgment of core facilities enables them to obtain financial and other support so that they may continue to provide their essential services in the best ways possible. It also helps core personnel to advance in their careers, adding to the overall health of the core facility.
Activities for which authorship are recommended:
- Authors should make substantive contributions to the project:
- Conception, design of project, critical input, or original ideas
- Acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, beyond routine practices
- Draft the article or revise it critically for intellectual content
- Write a portion of the paper (not just materials and methods section)
- Intellectual contribution
- Final authority for the approval of article
- Each author should have participated enough to accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript
Activities that do not constitute authorship:
- Collection of data (technical skill but not involved in interpretation of data)
- General supervision of research group, but no intellectual input into the project
All contributors that do not meet the criteria of authorship should be recognized in the acknowledgements section, for example:
- Paid technical help
- Writing assistance
- Financial and material support
- Scientific advice