"Why should I acknowledge writing assistance if I have

paid for it?" A case study

Under Publication Ethics

Case: Editage provides a writing assistance service to authors of research papers.

Following publication best practices, Editage encourages authors who use this service to
add the following sentence in the acknowledgments section of their manuscript:
Funding for this research was provided by XXXX. All authors met the authorship criteria
set forth by the International Committee for Medical Journal Editors and retained full
control of the manuscript content. Editorial support, in the form of medical writing,
assembling tables and creating high-resolution images based on authors detailed
directions, collating author comments, copyediting, fact checking, and referencing, was
provided by YYYY and ZZZZ of Cactus Communications. This assistance was funded by
XXXX.
Earlier, we would send this template to the author along with the first draft of the
manuscript. Once the author agreed to include this statement, the final draft was
prepared.
However, one author raised objections and refused to include this statement in the
acknowledgments section. She gave two reasons for her refusal:
1. Acknowledging writing assistance service would mean disclosing a weakness and the
journal would probably get the impression that she lacked the skill to write a paper. This
might negatively impact the journals decision.
2. The purpose of the acknowledgments section is to thank people for their help with
the study. Since she has paid for this service, it was not a form of help, and hence need
not be acknowledged.
Action: We explained that most journals prefer complete disclosure, and that taking
editorial assistance or writing assistance is not considered a weakness as long as the
author has complete control over the content. We also explained that the International

Committee for Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends that any writing or editing
support should be acknowledged in the manuscript. We also sent her the ICMJE
guideline that mentioned this. However, she wrote back saying that we had probably
misinterpreted the guideline and that paid services were not meant to be
acknowledged. Finally, we sent an inquiry to the editor of the journal where she had
planned to submit her paper, asking if paid writing or editing assistance needed to be
disclosed. The editor replied that it was mandatory to acknowledge writing assistance
or language editing of any kind, irrespective of whether it was paid or not. The author
was finally convinced and agreed to acknowledge the service.
Post this incident, Editage has started the practice of explaining this to potential clients
at initial stages of discussion, as soon as inquiries come in. However, some clients are
still hesitant to acknowledge writing assistance or editorial support.
Summary: The ICMJE recommends that any writing or editing support needs to be
acknowledged in the manuscript:
Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the criteria for authorship listed under ICMJE
guidelines, should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged. Examples
of activities that alone (without other contributions) do not qualify a contributor for
authorship are acquisition of funding; general supervision of a research group or
general administrative support; and writing assistance, technical editing,
language editing, and proofreading. Those whose contributions do not justify
authorship may be acknowledged individually or together as a group under a
single heading (e.g. "Clinical Investigators" or "Participating Investigators"),and their
contributions should be specified (e.g., "served as scientific advisors," "critically
reviewed the study proposal," "collected data," "provided and cared for study
patients","participated in writing or technical editing of the manuscript").
Acknowledging a writer or editors involvement in manuscript preparation does not
affect the chances of publication of a manuscript. In fact, it makes the paper more
compliant with guidelines that have been set by journal editors themselves.