Acknowledgement

The existence of core facilities depends in part on proper acknowledgment in publications and in grant writing.  Scientists who have made use of the instruments or immunoassays in our facility should please acknowledge us (DartLab: Immunoassay and Flow Cytometry Shared Resource at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth) for your publications and also for your grant applications, in accordance with NCCC policy.  In addition, if DartLab staff provide significant experimental design, data interpretation, or other intellectual contribution (as evaluated by the PI), then it is expected that these individuals will be coauthors on the publication (see below).  Please e-mail (jacqueline.smith@dartmouth.edu) the reference whenever a paper is published or whenever a grant is submitted that uses data obtained in DartLab.

Support for DartLab

The Shared Resource was established by equipment grants from the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, the NIH Shared Instrument Program, and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and is supported in part by a Core Grant (5 P30 CA023108) from the National Cancer Institute to the Norris Cotton Cancer Center and grants from the National Center for Research Resources (5P30RR032136-02) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (8 P30 GM103415-02) from the National Institutes of Health to Dartmouth's Center for Molecular, Cellular, and Translational Immunological Research.

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 other's criteria.


ABRF Recommended 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:

1. 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.

2. 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:

1. Author 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

2. 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