Every research paper stands on help that never appears in the author list: a supervisor who read three drafts, a technician who kept the equipment running, a funding body that paid for the fieldwork, and a colleague who shared data. The acknowledgements section is where that help is recorded, briefly and professionally. This guide explains how to write an acknowledgements section for a research paper: who to thank first, what to include, what to leave out, and how to keep it short enough that editors take it seriously.
New authors often write acknowledgements in five minutes just before submission. That is a mistake. A careless section can cause real problems: a missing grant number, a contributor who expected to be named, or a person named without permission who complains to the journal. Writing it well takes little time, but it needs care.
The acknowledgements section is a short paragraph, usually placed at the end of the manuscript before the references, in which authors thank people and organisations that helped the work but did not qualify as authors. It is not part of the scientific argument and not the place for new results. Its job is to give credit honestly, to satisfy funding and ethics requirements, and to show readers who supported the study.
Most journals expect one paragraph in a formal, restrained tone, covering financial support, technical assistance, access to data or facilities, and personal support. Some journals place acknowledgements on the title page or in a separate file during double-blind review, so reviewers cannot identify the authors from the names mentioned. Always check the journal's guidelines first. If you are preparing a manuscript for the Global Journal of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, note that its ISSN and DOI are still in application.
Order matters, because readers treat it as a rough ranking of importance. The usual convention is to begin with funding bodies, since funding disclosure is often a formal requirement, then move to the people who gave the most substantial help, and finish with personal thanks. A sensible order is: funding agencies first; supervisors, mentors, and senior colleagues; people who provided technical help, data, or facilities; colleagues who commented on drafts; and finally family support, if you include it at all.
Within each group, list people by the size of their contribution, not alphabetically and not by seniority alone. Use full names and, where helpful, affiliations, so readers can identify who is being thanked. Avoid vague phrases such as "thanks to everyone who helped", which credit nobody. If a person contributed data or expertise that shaped the study, name them and say what they did.
Include anything a reader, funder, or editor would reasonably expect to see disclosed: funding sources and grant numbers, scholarships, and institutional support. Technical assistance counts too — laboratory staff, statisticians, field assistants, and anyone who supplied samples, equipment, or datasets. So does intellectual help, such as a colleague who read a draft and improved the argument. Permission to use a figure or dataset should also be acknowledged where the licence requires it.
Leave out anything that could embarrass, mislead, or create a conflict. Do not thank people for work they did not do, and do not name someone who has not agreed to be named, since being named can imply endorsement of the conclusions. Do not use acknowledgements to settle scores or to praise or criticise a journal or reviewer. Personal thanks should stay brief: one short clause for family support is normal, but a long emotional passage is not appropriate in a research article.
For most journal articles, between 80 and 150 words is right: enough for a funding statement, three or four named helpers with a few words about what each did, and a short personal note if you want one. Longer papers with many funders may run to 200 words, but beyond that the section looks padded, and editors may ask you to cut it. Thesis acknowledgements are different: a thesis is a personal document as well as an academic one, so a page or two of thanks is normal there. A thesis acknowledgements page should never simply be copied into a submitted manuscript.
The test for length is simple: read the paragraph aloud. If a sentence does not name a helper, a funder, or a specific contribution, it is probably decoration and can be cut. One warm sentence is fine; a whole paragraph of praise is not. A concise, accurate section quietly signals that the rest of the manuscript is equally careful.
Start by listing everyone who helped, while the work is still fresh: who funded it, who supervised it, who collected or analysed data, who provided materials or access, who read drafts, and who supported you personally. Write the list down before drafting sentences, because names are easy to forget under submission pressure. Then check each name against two questions: did this person actually contribute, and have they agreed to be named? Move anyone whose contribution merits authorship into the author list, after discussion with your co-authors.
Then draft in the standard order: funding first, then professional help, then personal thanks. Write one sentence per helper or small group, naming the person and stating the contribution in plain words, such as "for assistance with statistical analysis". Circulate the draft to your co-authors and, where possible, to the people named, so spelling, affiliations, and grant numbers can be checked. Finally, re-check the journal's guidelines for the funding format.
Good acknowledgements wording is plain, specific, and easy to adapt. A strong opening names the funder and the grant: "This work was supported by [funding body] under grant [number]." A second sentence covers advice: "The authors thank [name] for helpful comments on an earlier draft." A third covers technical help: "We thank [name] of [department] for assistance with [specific task]." A closing sentence, if you want one, covers personal support: "The first author thanks [name] for encouragement during the writing of this paper." Every sentence names someone and says what they did. That is the whole formula.
Adapt this wording to your own case, and remember that a funder's required wording always takes priority over any template.
Funding statements deserve special care, because they are a compliance matter as well as a courtesy. Many funding bodies require a particular form, sometimes including the full official name of the body and the exact grant number. Check the award letter or the funder's website, and copy the required wording rather than paraphrasing it. If several grants supported the work, list them all, and if a grant supported only one author, say so. If the work received no external funding, many journals still want a sentence stating that.
Be careful with two common errors: omitting a funder, which can breach the terms of the grant, and naming a funder that did not support the work, which is a form of misrepresentation. Both are avoidable by checking the award documents before submission and asking co-authors to confirm the funding list.
The boundary between acknowledgement and authorship is a common source of dispute, so it is worth stating clearly. Authorship is for substantial intellectual contributions: conceiving or designing the study, collecting or interpreting data in a way that shaped the findings, drafting or critically revising the manuscript, and approving the final version. Acknowledgements are for help that was real but did not reach that level: technical assistance, routine data collection, proofreading, or providing materials. The distinction is about the nature of the contribution, not how hard someone worked or how senior they are.
When the boundary is unclear, discuss it openly with everyone involved before submission and record the agreement. Guidance such as the ICMJE recommendations and the CRediT taxonomy for contributor roles can help a team describe contributions precisely instead of arguing about labels. If someone believes they should be an author and the team disagrees, resolve it before submission, because changing authorship afterwards requires a formal correction. Our guide on how to write the methodology section also discusses describing each contributor's role transparently.
Several mistakes recur in acknowledgements sections, and all are easy to prevent. The first is naming people without their permission, which can imply endorsement and embarrass the person named if the paper is later criticised. The second is forgetting a funder or grant number, which creates a compliance problem that is harder to fix after publication. The third is thanking a reviewer or editor by name while the paper is still under review, which can compromise the anonymity of peer review. The fourth is copying acknowledgements from an earlier paper without checking that every name and grant still applies.
A related mistake is inconsistency between the manuscript and the submission system: some journals collect funding information in an online form as well as in the manuscript, and the two versions must match. Check both before you submit, and update both if anything changes during revision.
Thesis acknowledgements and journal acknowledgements serve different purposes, and confusing them is a common error. A thesis is examined as a personal record of a long project, so its acknowledgements may run to a page or more and may thank supervisors, examiners, friends, and family in a warm, personal tone. A journal article is a public, concise scientific record, so its acknowledgements must be short, formal, and limited to contributions directly relevant to the published work. When you turn a thesis into an article, rewrite the acknowledgements from scratch and keep only the funders and professional helpers who contributed to the specific study reported.
This rewriting step also matters for anonymity. Under double-blind peer review, acknowledgements naming a supervisor, institution, or funding body can identify the authors, so many journals ask for acknowledgements to be withheld or placed in a separate file until after review. Our guide on how to write a thesis or dissertation explains how thesis acknowledgements are normally structured, and our guide on converting a thesis into a journal article covers the other changes that conversion requires.
Before you submit, run through this short checklist. Every funder and grant number is included, in the funder's required wording. Every person named has agreed to be named, and every name is spelled correctly with the right affiliation. The order follows the usual convention: funding first, then professional help, then personal thanks. No author-level contributor has been left in the acknowledgements instead of the author list. The wording matches the journal's guidelines, and the manuscript version matches any information entered in the submission system.
A well-written acknowledgements section does quiet, useful work: it credits helpers honestly, satisfies funders, protects you from disputes, and signals to editors that the manuscript has been prepared with care. For more guidance on preparing a complete manuscript, see our GAP Insights guides, browse our journals, or return to the Global Academic Publishers home page.
| Order | Who to thank | Example wording |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Funding bodies | This work was supported by [funding body] under grant [number]. |
| 2 | Supervisors and mentors | The authors thank [name] for guidance throughout this study. |
| 3 | Technical and field staff | We thank [name] for assistance with data collection. |
| 4 | Colleagues who reviewed drafts | The authors thank [name] for comments on an earlier draft. |
| 5 | Providers of data or facilities | We thank [organisation] for access to [facility or dataset]. |
| 6 | Family and personal support | The first author thanks [name] for encouragement during this work. |
These authoritative external resources explain the standards mentioned in this guide:
Where does the acknowledgements section go in a research paper?
Usually at the end of the manuscript, after the discussion or conclusion and before the references. Some journals place it on the title page or in a separate file during double-blind peer review, so always check the journal's author guidelines first.
Should I thank my supervisor in the acknowledgements?
Yes, if your supervisor advised the work but is not a co-author. Name them and state the help they gave, for example guidance on the study design or comments on drafts. If your supervisor qualifies as an author, they belong in the author list instead.
Do I need permission to name someone in the acknowledgements?
Yes. Always ask before naming a person, because being named can imply endorsement of the paper's conclusions. Confirm the spelling of their name and their affiliation at the same time.
What should I write if my research had no funding?
Many journals expect an explicit statement such as "This research received no external funding." Do not leave the section blank; a clear statement avoids questions from editors and readers.
Can acknowledgements be changed after publication?
Only through a formal correction, which is a slow and public process. That is why funders, grant numbers, and names should be checked with co-authors and the people named before submission, not after.
How are acknowledgements different from authorship?
Authorship is for substantial intellectual contributions such as designing the study, interpreting results, or drafting the manuscript. Acknowledgements are for real but supporting help, such as technical assistance, data collection, proofreading, or providing materials.
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