- Machiavelli's Laboratory is a free ebook that I published on April 13, 2010. It is a satiric discourse on scientific ethics, from the perspective of an unethical scientist. Please don't take any of the advice and opinions in the book (or the excerpts featured in this blog) seriously.
The Acknowledgment section of published papers provides public recognition for those people who contributed to the manuscript. It's a sort of consolation prize for people who weren't included as co-authors.
For those who have never paused to read the Acknowledgment section at the end of a research manuscript, here is a typical example:
"For advice and discussion, we thank L.F. Cai, C. F. Kim, T. Motoi, R. Hobbs, J. Clohessy, T. Yung, A. Carracedo, K. Ito, Pandolfi lab members, B. Clarkson, members of the MSKCC Lung Cancer Oncogenome Group, and members of the DF/HCC Lung Cancer Research Program. We thank M. Asher, T. Matos, and A. Egia for histology services and immunohistochemistry. We thank the MSKCC, University of Iowa, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute flow cytometry core facilities for technical assistance. This work was funded by National Institutes of Health/NCI grants (CA-64593) to P.P.P., and Steps for Breath Fund by the Society of MSKCC and the Thomas G. Labrecque Foundation to M.N." (1)
The authors acknowledged individuals, by name. They listed the laboratories and funding agencies that provided materials, funds, and other tangible support for the project. For their NIH grant, they listed the grant number, CA-64593. NIH expects grantees to reference grant numbers within their manuscripts. This permits administrators to track the research activities of their grantees.
All told, the typical Acknowledgment serves everyone but the authors. Certainly, an evil scientist should be able to turn the acknowledgment section into another opportunity for shameless self-promotion.
Let's look at a few Acknowledgment sections that work for the author.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. I thank students, postdocs, and colleagues for critical discussion and encouragement. I am grateful to the National Center for Biotechnology Information for providing the earliest dates associated with each NR sequence (2).
Here, the author has published an Acknowledgment wherein no person or persons are actually acknowledged. The Acknowledgment gives the impression that many people are vested in the success of the project, without actually giving credit to any individuals. By extending the effort to a large, anonymous group of professionals, the Acknowledgment adds a certain gravitas to the manuscript.
Here's an even better Acknowledgment.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank the patients, physicians, and investigators who have contributed to our understanding of these disorders, and apologize to our colleagues whose work was not highlighted due to space constraints (3).
This Acknowledgment also fails to actually acknowledge any specific person. Instead, it provides an emotionally charged list of anonymous participants that includes every physician and investigator who has ever worked in the field, and every patient who has ever been afflicted by the investigated disease. Well done, but further improvement is possible.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. This work is dedicated to the many colleagues and patients who have contributed over the past several decades to advancing our understanding and treatment of amyloidosis, and to the staffs of the Amyloidosis Foundation and the International Myeloma Foundation whose work is ongoing and so often unheralded (4).
From the first sentence, the authors deftly replace their Acknowledgment with a Dedication. It's brilliant, really. With one bold stroke, the Acknowledgment is transformed from a message of indebtedness to a message of giving. As in the previous examples, no specific persons are actually mentioned in the acknowledgment. The manuscript becomes a gift given selflessly to all of the unnamed little people out there.
The Acknowledgment section has gradually evolved to a point where it's primary purpose is to serve the author and to add credibility to the manuscript. Can we dare hope to raise the level of the Acknowledgment to a higher realm? Yes, with God's help, we can.
Consider this remarkable introduction, wherein the author acknowledges God's role in the manuscript.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. I thank God for His grace and inspiration in this work..... (5).
The Acknowledgment continues by thanking a number of coworkers, by name. It ends by thanking the author's wife and his children "for the years of personal sacrifice that are their contribution to this project (5)". The final sentence of the Acknowledgment is another reference to God:
"May God bless them richly (5)."
How can any reviewer reject a manuscript that was inspired by God? To do so would be an act of heresy. Even the most hardened secular humanist will be moved by the years of personal sacrifice endured by the author's family.
So there we have it. The Acknowledgment section is much more than a simple afterthought, grudgingly included in the publisher's boilerplate. Always remember that a well-turned Acknowledgment can save your next manuscript from rejection.
Jump to tomorrow's blog on the Conflicts of Interest statements that appear in journal articles.
REFERENCES
[1] Berger AH, Niki M, Morotti A, et al. Identification of DOK genes as lung tumor suppressors. Nat Genet 42:216-223, 2010.
[2] Levitt M. Nature of the protein universe. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:11079-11084, 2009.
[3] Levine RL, Gilliland DG. Myeloproliferative disorders. Blood 112:2190-2198, 2008.
[4] Comenzo RL. How I treat amyloidosis. Blood 114:3147-3157, 2009.]amyloid_tx.pdf
[5] Bidgood WD. Documenting the Information Content of Images. Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp 424-428, 1997.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I, Jules Berman, dedicate this blog entry to our universe, whose existence was crucial to the successful creation of this gift to humanity.
- © 2011 Jules Berman
key words: Acknowledgement, Acknowledgements
