Our funding depends constantly on our users and collaborators acknowledging the efforts and contributions of the Washington Center for Cellular Imaging (WUCCI). Personnel (both faculty and staff) provide essential services for our users and it is important to recognize those contributions to the advancement of scientific research projects. The types of recognition generally fall into two categories (i) acknowledgement of our contribution and (ii) co-authorship of a publication depending on the type of contributions we make.

There are important reasons for recognizing contributions in publications by either a formal acknowledgement or via co-authorship:

  1. The continued existence of the WUCCI as a central technology resource depends, in part, on formal acknowledgement in publications. This is an important metric of the value of the resource. Proper acknowledgement of the WUCCI allows us to continue to obtain financial support from various funding sources. It also serves to help the scientists in the resource continue to advance their careers.
  2. The personnel within the WUCCI are scientists. When they make a substantial intellectual and/or/ experimental contribution to a scientific study that results in publication, they deserve to be acknowledged like any other co-author.

As a technology resource, the WUCCI must charge for services rendered according to the cost accounting practices of our institution. Charging for services such as instrument time or sample preparation services does not preclude authorship provided resource staff contributes intellectually to the research project. If authorship is anticipated, it is our preference that we establish it at the beginning of a collaborative project.

Guidelines for Formal Acknowledgement vs. Manuscript co-authorship

The current guidelines from the Association of Biomedical Resource Facilities (ABRF) published by Angeletti et al. FASEB, 13:595, (1999) state:

“Intellectual interactions between resource and research scientists are essential in the success of each project. When this success results in publication, a citation in the acknowledgements 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 acknowledgement.”


Formal Acknowledgement for the Washington Center for Cellular Imaging

We understand that sometimes acknowledgement sections can become large, thus we ask that the minimum acknowledgement should read as follows:

“Experiments/data/analysis/presentation [include what resources you used microscope / software etc] were performed in part through the use of Washington University Center for Cellular Imaging (WUCCI) supported by Washington University School of Medicine, The Children’s Discovery Institute of Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital (CDI-CORE-2015-505 and CDI-CORE-2019-813) and the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital (3770 and 4642).

If your work was supported by the Diabetes Research Center (DRC), the Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Center (RDRRC) or the Musculoskeletal Research Center (MRC) please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Funding for this project was provided in part by the Washington University Diabetes Research Center (NIH P30 DK020579).
  • Funding for this project was provided in part by the Washington University Rheumatic Diseases Research Resource-based Center (NIH P30 AR073752).
  • Funding for this project was provided in part by the Washington University Musculoskeletal Research Center (MRC) (NIH P30 AR074992).

If your paper contains data that was generated using the X-Ray microscope system please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • XRM data was generated on an Zeiss Xradia Versa 520 3D X-Ray microscope which was purchased with support from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), a part of the NIH Office of the Director under grant OD021694.

If your paper contains data that was generated using the Zeiss LSM 880 II microscope system please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Confocal / super-resolution data was generated on a Zeiss LSM 880 Airyscan Confocal Microscope which was purchased with support from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), a part of the NIH Office of the Director under grant OD021629.

If your paper contains Cryo-Electron Tomography data that used the Thermo Scientific Aquilos Cryo-FIB microscope platform to prepare vitrified lamella please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Vitrified lamella used in Cryo-Electron Tomography data collection were prepared on a Thermo Scientific Aquilos Cryo-FIB microscope platform which was purchased with support from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), a part of the NIH Office of the Director under grant OD025029.

If your paper contains data that was generated using the Zeiss Lightsheet.Z1 microscope system please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Lightsheet data was generated on a Zeiss Lightsheet.Z1 Microscope which was purchased with support from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), a part of the NIH Office of the Director under grant OD025034.

If your paper contains data that was generated using the Zeiss 980 microscope system please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Confocal / super-resolution data was generated on a Zeiss LSM 980 Airyscan Confocal Microscope which was purchased with support from NIMH grant MH126964.

If your paper contains data that was generated using the Nikon AXR microscope system please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Confocal data was generated on a Nikon AX-R Confocal Microscope which was purchased with support from the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (ORIP), a part of the NIH Office of the Director under grant OD030233.

If your paper contains data that was generated using the Zeiss Lattice Lightsheet 7 microscope system please add the following text to the above acknowledgement:

  • Lightsheet data was generated on a Zeiss Lattice Lightsheet 7 Microscope which was purchased through support from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation as part of the Center for Advanced Lightsheet Microscopy Data Science.

Please let us know when you publish, and if possible, send us a reprint of the paper.

This information is essential to sustain the imaging resources that you use. Thank you.