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To Cite or Not to Cite: Grant Support & Acknowledgements in Publications
Researchers are required to identify the grants that support the work described in their papers. In some cases, however, “over citation” occurs. This happens when an award did not contribute to the project but is cited in the paper, either by mistake, or in the spirit of “covering all the bases,” or intentionally.
Grants should only be cited in a paper if:
- the grant directly supported the work described in the paper, and
- work described in the paper is clearly within the scope of the grant award.
Sometimes an author may cite a grant to disclose a potential or perceived conflict of interest. In those cases, the author should keep in mind that grant funds are awarded to institutions and not individuals, and therefore may not represent an inherent conflict of interest. Conflicts that have been identified by UF as a research conflict of interest should be disclosed in accordance with UF Policy on Research Conflicts of Interest.
Accurate citation of support is important not only for transparency in research, but to allow funding agencies to accurately assess award outputs and make decisions about future research directions. Below are some examples of appropriate acknowledgements.
Acknowledgment of NIH Grant Support
According to NIH grants policy, all grantee publications must include a specific acknowledgment of NIH grant support, formatted as:
“Research reported in this [publication/press release] was supported by [name of the Institute(s), Center, or other NIH offices] of the National Institutes of Health under award number [specific NIH grant number(s) in this format: R01GM987654].”
Acknowledgment of NSF Grant Support
The grantee is responsible for ensuring that an acknowledgment of NSF support is made in any publication (including web pages) of any material based on or developed under this project, unless otherwise provided in an NSF grant. NSF support also must be orally acknowledged during all news media interviews, including popular media such as radio, television and news magazines. The statement should specifically acknowledge NSF support, formatted as:
“This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (NSF grant number).“
Acknowledgment of Funding Support for Multiple Authors
When there are multiple authors with separate funding sources on a publication, each author should acknowledge the funders and grants which provided direct support of the work.
A distinction should be made between general institutional support for an author’s time and the direct overall funding of the work. ICMJE recommends the following format:
“A.B.C. discloses support for the research of this work from Funder [grant number xxxx] and D.E.F. discloses support for the research of this work from Funder [grant number xxxx]. G.H.I.’s time on the work was supported by Institution of XYZ.”
Financial Conflicts of Interest Related to Research
Publications and presentations must include a statement of the individual or institutional financial interests. The following are suggested formats. Contact the Research Conflict of Interest (RCOI) program for more information.
“Dr. ___________ serves as [type of relationship, e.g., a paid consultant, on the advisory board, a paid speaker] for the sponsor, [inset entity name]. Additionally, Dr. ___________ is the [research role, e.g., principal investigator, co-investigator] of UF research sponsored by the company.
“Dr(s). ___________ is/are the [founder/CTO/CEO/etc.] of [name of entity described in publication], a company which [describe activities, e.g., markets, develops, licenses] the technology [described, utilized, evaluated] in this research, and which could potentially benefit from the results of this research.
“Dr(s). ___________ has/have a financial interest in [insert entity name], a company which [describe activities, e.g., markets, develops, licenses] the technology [described, utilized, evaluated] in this research, and which could potentially benefit from the results of this research.
“Dr(s). ___________ and the University of Florida have a financial interest in the technology [described, utilized, evaluated] in this research, and which could potentially benefit from the results of this research.”