Acknowledgements for a research paper or thesis: what to include, with examples

NIH (United States)

The NIH Grants Policy Statement (8.2.1) requires publications from NIH-supported work to acknowledge NIH support, name the institute or center and the award number, and carry a disclaimer that the content is the authors’ responsibility. NIH writes award numbers without spaces or hyphens, for example R01GM012345.

Horizon Europe (European Union)

Article 17.2 of the Model Grant Agreement requires results to show the EU emblem and a funding statement. The European Commission accepts “Funded by the European Union” or “Co-funded by the European Union”, written in full next to the emblem.

Our own wording; replace everything in brackets.

Acknowledgements

We thank [Name, affiliation] for [specific contribution, e.g. collecting field samples in 2025], [Name] for [statistical advice], and the staff of [facility] for [access to equipment]. Language editing was provided by [person or service]. All people named here have agreed to be acknowledged.

Funding statement — NIH

Opening as suggested by NIH; check your notice of award.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the [full name of NIH institute or center] of the National Institutes of Health under award number [R01XX000000]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Funding statement — Horizon Europe

Use with the EU emblem; check your grant agreement for the exact disclaimer.

Funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe grant agreement No [number] ([project acronym]). Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union.

Generative AI disclosure

Where it goes depends on the journal — see the table above. At Elsevier it sits under its own heading, “Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the manuscript preparation process”.

During the preparation of this manuscript the authors used [tool name, version] to [purpose, e.g. improve the readability of the Discussion]. The authors reviewed and edited the output and take full responsibility for the content.

Short and formal

I thank my supervisor, [Name], for [guidance on what], and [Name] and [Name] of [lab/department] for [help with what]. This research was funded by [funder] under grant [number]. I am grateful to [family/friends] for their support throughout.

Longer and personal

This thesis would not exist without [supervisor’s name]. Thank you for [two or three specific things].

I am grateful to my committee, [names], for [what they changed in the work], and to [technician/librarian/collaborator] for [specific help].

The work was supported by [funder, grant number]; [fieldwork/data access] was made possible by [organisation].

To my colleagues in [group] — [one specific memory or debt]. And to [family/partner], for [what they made possible].

Specific beats grand: name what each person actually did.

What should I write in the acknowledgements of a research paper?

Name the people who helped but do not meet authorship criteria and say what each did, plus any writing or editing help. Put funding in the journal’s separate funding statement unless the journal says otherwise.

Do I need permission to thank someone?

PLOS requires that everyone named agrees to be named, and ICMJE advises journals to ask for written permission, because an acknowledgement can imply endorsement.

Are thesis acknowledgements required?

Usually not. At MIT, Michigan, Tennessee Tech and Bristol they are optional; check your own university’s regulations.