Why acknowledging core facilities is important ?
Acknowledging a core facility in scientific publications, including papers, posters, theses, and conference presentations, is a crucial metric for core facility management. This helps in obtaining funding, grants, and showcasing the impact of the facility, as well as proving the effective use of equipment and ensuring high standards of operations. Therefore, it is essential to acknowledge the contributions of core facilities in scientific output.
What is the minimum requirement to acknowledge properly the LMF ?
All publications or any data acquired or processed using LMF MDIBL equipment and/or services must be acknowledged as follows:
“Image collection, processing and analysis for this manuscript was performed with the assistance of Dr. Frederic Bonnet and the MDI Biological Laboratory Light Microscopy Facility (RRID:SCR_019166), which is supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103423“
What are the guideline for Acknowledgments vs Authorship
The Royal Microscopy Society (RMS) has released a generic Core Facilities Publication Policy with baseline recommendations to acknowledge Core facility staff in the appropriate way:
Acknowledgement of facility contributions is expected in publications that include any data generated in the facility. For example, when fee-for-service is performed with no method development and minimum effort by Core personnel.
Co-authorship is generally expected when core personnel have made assistance above the technical or routine level, with any facility staff providing scientific input and expertise in experimental set-up, method development, data acquisition and/or analysis and/or interpretation. Significant can be defined as “the project would not have progressed, or progressed at a substantially slower pace, without the guidance of facility personnel”. In such cases, core personnel should have the opportunity to review and edit the appropriate sections of a manuscript before submission.
Please discuss acknowledgments with facility staff prior to manuscript submission or during the initial meeting.
Contact fbonnet@mdibl.org today to learn more about our policies and procedures and how we can help you achieve your research goals. We look forward to working with you and unlocking the mysteries of the microscopic world together!