Towards higher standardization of funding acknowledgements in scientific publications: Current status in the case of a national and a European research fellowship scheme

Abstract

Abstract Acknowledgement of funding sources in scientific publications is becoming mandatory in science. As funders' instructions are often vague, there is great variability in the way authors acknowledge funding, this hindering the linking of grants to their subsequent publications. The aim of this study is to analyse how funding is acknowledged in scientific publications in two important research fellowship schemes: the Spanish Ramón y Cajal programme (RyC) and the European Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Actions (MSCA). WoS publications in 2017 by Spain-based researchers that include funding acknowledgements from either of the two programmes are identified. Firstly, compliance with funders’ recommendations in terms of the elements included in acknowledgements is analysed. Secondly, the degree of comprehensiveness in the authors’ description of the grants is studied by focusing on how often different items are reported (funding agency, programme, grant number, grantee, year of the call, etc). Thirdly, the use of normalized structured notations in acknowledgements is examined. Around 78% of RyC vs. 84% of MSCA grants comply with funders’ recommendations regarding the elements to be included in the acknowledgements. A comprehensive description of grants is unusual in both programmes. Structured notations are included in two-thirds of RyC vs. one-third of MSCA grants. Advantages of using structured notations are highlighted, since they provide unique identification of grants, improve the comprehensiveness and normalization of funding data, facilitate automatic data processing and could be compatible with global grant identifiers. Further standardization of funding data in acknowledgements is needed to optimize their use in science policy studies.