5.8 Acknowledgement

 Acknowledgement is an additional section of the main text of an academic article or research paper. This is usually one short paragraph after the Conclusion and before the References. It is often proposed by the author(s) as a courteous communication to acknowledge various sources of help received during the preparation of the article. 

As to the Acknowledgement, the following ingredients should be considered:

-     Financial (recognition of extramural or internal funding);

-     Technical or instrumental help (providing access to data, tools, technologies, facilities, and also furnishing technical expertise, such as statistical analysis);

-     Conceptual (source of inspiration, idea generation, critical insight, intellectual guidance, assistance of referees etc.);

-     Editorial (providing advice on manuscript preparation, submission, bibliographic assistance etc.); and

-     Moral (recognizing the support of family, friends etc.).

(Cronin, Shaw, & Barre, 2003; as cited in Hartely, 2008, p.54)

To write the Acknowledgement, in simple, is to complete sentences to record who gave the author advise, information, assistance, and materials, as well as all the sources of financial support. Here are some examples to illustrate the range of Acknowledgements found in the academic articles.

This research is supported by Hui Oi Chow Trust Fund, and the field work is conducted in Guniujiang National Geological Park. The authors thank the park managers and staff workers for their hospitability, time and opinions. (Lai et al, 2006, p.1180)

This study was funded by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 project) (No.SQ2007AA10XK140105) and ZhejiangProvince Key Scientific and Technological Project (No. 2006C12051). (Lu et al, 2010, p.1335)

The DISCUS research project was co-funded by the European Commision’s Directorate-General for Research Fifth Framework Programme, 1998-2002, Thematic Programme: Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, Key Action: ‘City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage’, Contract Number EVK-40-2001-00103. (Evans, Joas, Sundback, & Theobald, 2006)

We thank Dr. Shuxia Zheng, Zhen Wang, Tao Bo, Liangliang Zhang, Shuangyang Zhang, Wei He, Qi’er An, Fuguang Gao, Yuanheng Li and Pei Zhou for their help in field measurements and chemical analyses. Comments from Drs. Fangliang He, James Cahill and Edward Bork, all of the University of Alberta, and two anonymous reviewers significantly improved this manuscript. This study was financially supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada grant to SXC, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30590832 and 30860060) and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (2007CB106800). YL was supported by a travel grant from the China Institute, University of Alberta. (Lin et al. 2010, p.291)

                                                                              (本文作者：中国农业大学王志芳）