In the
creative arts
The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...
and
scientific literature
: ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.''
Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scie ...
, an acknowledgement (also spelled acknowledgment in
American and
Canadian English) is an expression of a gratitude for assistance in creating an original work.
Receiving
credit
Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...
by way of acknowledgement rather than authorship indicates that the person or organization did not have a direct hand in producing the work in question, but may have contributed funding, criticism, or encouragement to the author(s). Various schemes exist for classifying acknowledgements; Cronin et al.
give the following six categories:
#
moral support
Moral support is a way of giving support to a person or cause, or to one side in a conflict, without making any contribution beyond the emotional or psychological value of the encouragement by supporting them.
For example, in a war between two c ...
#
financial support
An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...
#
editorial support
#
presentational support
#
instrumental/technical support
# conceptual support, or peer interactive communication (PIC)
Apart from
citation, which is not usually considered to be an acknowledgement, acknowledgement of conceptual support is widely considered to be the most important for identifying intellectual debt. Some acknowledgements of financial support, on the other hand, may simply be legal formalities imposed by the granting institution. Occasionally, bits of science humor can also be found in acknowledgements.
There have been some attempts to extract
bibliometric
Bibliometrics is the use of statistical methods to analyse books, articles and other publications, especially in regard with scientific contents. Bibliometric methods are frequently used in the field of library and information science. Biblio ...
indices from the acknowledgments section (also called "acknowledgments
paratext
In literary interpretation, paratext is material that surrounds a published main text (e.g., the story, non-fiction description, poems, etc.) supplied by the authors, editors, printers, and publishers. These added elements form a frame for the ma ...
")
of research papers to evaluate the impact of the acknowledged individuals, sponsors and funding agencies.
Spelling
The spelling ''acknowledgement'' is used in
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
,
Australian English, and other English-speaking areas outside North America, whereas the spelling ''acknowledgment'' (without the ''e'' after the ''g'') is often used in
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...
and
Canadian English.
See also
*
Acknowledgment index An acknowledgement index (British English spelling) or acknowledgment index (American English spelling) is a scientometric index which analyzes acknowledgements in scientific literature and attempts to quantify their impact. Typically, a scholarly ...
*
Attribution (copyright)
Attribution, in copyright law, is acknowledgment as credit to the copyright holder or author of a work. If a work is under copyright, there is a long tradition of the author requiring attribution while directly quoting portions of work created by ...
*
Billing (filmmaking)
Billing is a performing arts term used in referring to the order and other aspects of how credits are presented for plays, films, television, or other creative works. Information given in billing usually consists of the companies, actors, direct ...
*
Byline
The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's ...
*
Closing credits
Closing credits or end credits are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to, or at the very end of a ...
*
Credit (creative arts)
*
Opening credits
*
Possessory credit A possessory credit in filmmaking is the use of a film credit which gives primary artistic recognition to a single person, usually (but not always) the film's director. Examples include "A Stanley Kubrick film" ('' The Shining''), "A film by Quent ...
*
Signature block
*
Title sequence
A title sequence (also called an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films or television programmes present their title and key production and cast members, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound (often a opening theme song with vi ...
*
WGA screenwriting credit system
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) credit system for motion pictures and television programs covers all works under the jurisdiction of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW). The WGA, originally ...
References
{{Book structure
The arts
Writing
Academic publishing
Collaboration