Please support the Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Facility, GSAF, by properly acknowledging the services provided in your publications. This recognition is important for our continued funding and support and a measure of our impact on research.  All work performed through GSAF should be recognized in the acknowledgements sections for any work leading to a manuscript. It is also important to consider if the contributions from the core go beyond an acknowledgement and justify co-authorship. Below are some helpful guidelines from the Association for Biomolecular Resource Facilities, ABRF.

Please use the suggested format below in the Acknowledgments section: 

"…[insert name of service provided here]…was performed by the Genomic Sequencing and Analysis Facility at UT Austin, Center for Biomedical Research Support. RRID#: SCR_021713.” 

Authorship Guidelines (Courtesy of the Association for Biomolecular Resource facilities, ABRF)

Recommended Guidelines for Authorship on Manuscripts

Personnel in core facilities provide essential services for their users and it is important to recognize their contributions to the scientific advancement of the projects. The type of recognition that is most appropriate may be different for individual projects, depending on the contribution that core facility personnel provides. Under what conditions is co-authorship warranted?  When is an acknowledgment most appropriate?  What if a user/collaborator refuses to acknowledge core personnel? And more importantly, how to handle situations when you feel it is warranted, but not offered (or offered when you feel it is not warranted)?  Below we offer guidelines that we hope will be useful for establishing your own solutions and provide recommendations for more specific situations.

Core facilities must charge for services rendered according to cost accounting practices set up at each institution.  Charging for services does not preclude authorship on manuscripts provided the Core laboratory individual has contributed to the research in a substantial way.  If authorship is anticipated, it is preferably established at the beginning of the project so that both the customer and the Core researcher are cognizant of each other’s criteria.

Important reasons for acknowledging contributions from core facilities in publications, by co-authorship or by formal mention in the acknowledgments section, include:

1. Core facility personnel are scientists. When they make a substantial intellectual and/or experimental contribution to a publication they deserve to be acknowledged just as any other co-author.

2. The existence of core facilities depends in part on proper acknowledgment in publications. This is an important metric of the value of most core facilities. Proper acknowledgment of core facilities enables them to obtain financial and other support so that they may continue to provide their essential services in the best ways possible. It also helps core personnel to advance in their careers, adding to the overall health of the core facility.

ABRF's recommendation was previously published in Angeletti et al. in 1999 (FASEB Journal, 13:595), “Intellectual interactions between resource and research scientists are essential to the success of each project. When this success results in publication, a citation in the acknowledgments section of a manuscript may be appropriate for routine analysis. However, contributions from resource scientists that involve novel resource laboratory work and insight, experimental design, or advanced data analysis that make a publication possible or significantly enhance its value require co-authorship as the appropriate acknowledgment.”

Activities for which authorship are recommended:

1. Author should make substantive contributions to the project

• Conception, design of project, critical input, or original ideas

• Acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, beyond routine practices

• Draft the article or revise it critically for intellectual content

• Write a portion of the paper (not just materials and methods section)

• Intellectual contribution

• Final authority for the approval of article

2. Each author should have participated enough to accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript

The following activities do not represent intellectual contributions to a project and would not constitute authorship:

• Providing funding (department chair who has no intellectual input)

• Collection of data (technical skill but not involved in interpretation of data)

• General supervision of research group, but no intellectual input into the project

All contributors that do not meet the criteria of authorship should be recognized in the acknowledgements section, for example:

• Paid technical help

• Writing assistance

• Financial and material support

• Scientific advice

Two examples are pertinent: (from Robert A. Day: How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 5th Edition)

Example 1: Scientist A designs the experiments, and tells Technician B exactly how to do the experiments. If the experiments work and a new discovery is made and a manuscript results, Scientist A is the sole author and Technician B is recognized in the acknowledgements section.

Example 2: Scientist A designs the experiments, Technician B carries them out but they do not work. Technician B suggests some changes to the protocol, the experiments then work because of the changes and a discovery results. Scientist A and Technician B are now both authors.