How to acknowledge funding

Question

This question expands a bit on my previous one Acknowledging funding.

I am unsure how to write proper acknowledgments at the end of a research paper. The wording that I read most often is Author XY is [partially] supported by..., which does not correctly describe my situation unless one stretches the meaning of these words.

More in detail, here are the two sources with which I have trouble:

• a foundation that used to give me a postdoc grant. I did part of the work of this paper while living off this grant, which expired six months ago, and part of it under my new employer. How should I write this? If I write is supported by, I give the impression that I am currently being paid in full by the foundation; if I write partially supported I give the impression that I just got a smaller grant.

• a research institute that paid my travel expenses for a conference. While this funding is not directly related to the paper, I met my co-author there and had a chance to discuss its state. And, besides that, it is basically my only occasion to acknowledge this grant. How should I write this? Is partially supported the correct wording, or is there a better expression?

Answer 1

If I write is supported by, I give the impression that I am currently being paid

"Work by this author was partially supported by the Hitchcock Institute and by the Norman and Norma Bates Foundation."

if I write partially supported I give the impression that I just got a smaller grant

Nonsense. Unless the institute was your sole source of income and equipment during the entire research and writing process, "partially supported" is correct. Also, it's standard idiomatic language; nobody will think twice about it.

Answer 2

First: check if the institution who provided the funding requires a specific sentence for acknowledgment. Some do! Otherwise, read on…

Many large research projects nowadays are supported by more than one funding source, especially if you include the institutions you are affiliated with (although, being already listed as affiliations, they need to be acknowledged specifically). Saying “partially supported by” does not have any negative implication to me, and saying “is supported by” does not imply that this is the only support received.

But if you want to avoid this particular phrasing, it also common to simply say:

Acknowledgements
We thank the John Smith Institute for funding, along with the William and Melinda Bates Foundation for post-doctoral fellowship (to F. P.).

The second part of the sentence makes it clear what was the support, while the first part is more ambiguous. Frankly, noöne cares! That is, except for the funding agencies: they want is their name mentioned for their statistics, but probably don't care how it is written.

Answer 3

"if I write partially supported I give the impression that I just got a smaller grant."

Not necessarily. It can mean different things like one of the co-authors was funded by them or your situation in which they funded some of it before.

I am not sure if I would mention the research institute that provided the travel expenses. If you feel like you want to do it its a different story. Then I would write that the "collaboration between the co-authors would not have been possible with out the financial support from research institute blah blah blah" or "The co-authors would like to acknowledge the support of research institute blah blah which resulted in blah blah blah".