How to write a funding statement (with examples)

What to declare

A funding statement tells readers who paid for the work and what role, if any, the funder had in it. The ICMJE recommendations ask authors to disclose relationships and activities that could bias their work, and they give funding its own treatment:

• The funding statement covers direct support for the work. Support for an individual's time on the work is reported separately, and general institutional support is distinguished from direct project funding.
• The article should name the sponsors and explain their role, or state that the sponsor had no involvement in the design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing or the decision to submit.
• Authors should not sign agreements with sponsors that limit access to all study data or their ability to analyse, interpret, write up and publish independently.
• The article should say whether the authors had access to the study data.

Declare also when there is no funding. "This research received no external funding" is a valid and useful statement. Employment, consultancy, stock, honoraria, patents and similar ties belong in the separate conflict-of-interest declaration, which uses the ICMJE disclosure form that member journals require. Do not leave a relationship out because you think it is minor; failing to report items the form asks about is treated as misconduct.

Grant numbers and funder names

• Write the funder's full official name, not only an acronym, and write it the way the funder does. For a Turkish programme, give the institution and the programme, for example the TÜBİTAK 1001 programme, together with the project number you were given.
• Copy the grant or project number exactly from the award letter. Never guess or reconstruct it. If you do not have a number, say so rather than inventing one.
• List every funder that supported the work, including your university's BAP unit, and say which author's time or which part of the work each one supported if that is the case.
• If a funder asks for a specific sentence, use it exactly.
• If the funder has an open access policy, state in the statement or the declarations how you comply with it, where the journal allows.

Finding the funder ID in the Crossref Funder Registry

When a publisher registers an article with Crossref, it can deposit funder names, funder identifiers and grant numbers, so that readers, institutions and funders can trace which research a funder supported. The Open Funder Registry (formerly FundRef) holds the identifiers; you can search it by name at search.crossref.org/funding, and it can also be reached through the Crossref REST API. It is open data. If the funder is not listed, the publisher deposits the name only.

Note that Crossref has announced it will use the ROR registry in place of the Open Funder Registry, and its page says that funder names deposited without an identifier are matched to ROR IDs. Existing funder IDs continue to resolve and are mapped to ROR IDs. Authors normally do not need to supply an ID, since the journal handles it, but writing the funder name correctly helps the matching. Check the Crossref pages for current practice.

Examples

The following are templates. Replace everything in square brackets with your own verified information; do not copy a funder or number from here.

• Single funder. "This study was funded by [full funder name] ([programme], grant number [number])."
• Funder with no role. "This study was funded by [funder], grant [number]. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript."
• Time support (ICMJE wording). "This study was funded by A; Dr. F's time on the work was supported by B."
• Several funders. "This work was supported by [funder 1] (grant [number]) and by the Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of [university] (project [number])."
• No funding. "This research received no external funding."
• Funder with an interest. "The study was funded by [company]. [Describe the company's role in design, data, analysis and writing.] The authors had full access to the data and decided on publication."

Put the statement where the journal's template asks for it, usually in the declarations at the end of the manuscript, and make it consistent with the conflict-of-interest declaration and the acknowledgements.

Sources

• ICMJE, disclosure of relationships and conflicts of interest: https://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/author-responsibilities--conflicts-of-interest.html
• Crossref, Open Funder Registry: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/
• Crossref, using ROR in place of the Open Funder Registry: https://www.crossref.org/blog/roring-ahead-using-ror-in-place-of-the-open-funder-registry