Modern scientific inquiry is based on transparency. When you send up a manuscript, the editors want to know that there is an outline of the financial interests of the work. However, what is the result when you did your research without any particular grant, institutional requirement or corporate sponsorship? The concern that bothers many young researchers at first and independent scholars is that No Funding means No Value. As a matter of fact, a No Funding disclosure is an effective declaration of independence and integrity.
The Reason Why Disclosures are Important (Even without Grant)
The disclosure of funding in journals will be necessary to determine the possibility of bias. There is a conflict of interest that is created by a tobacco company financing a lung health study. Self-funded or “unfunded” research, on the other hand, can be an indication of the absence of external commercial forces. Nevertheless, the part of funding is not something that can be left blank. The majority of submission systems will designate your manuscript as incomplete, and postpone the peer-review process.
Writing the Statement on No Funding
In case you were not supported externally financially, you have to indicate this clearly. Be active and direct to make certain that there is no ambiguity. The following are the typical expressions which editors like:
- No financial assistance was given to the researchers, authors, and/or publishers of this article.
- No particular grant of funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors was obtained in this research.
- It was a usual institutional employment of the authors without any extra funding of the study.
The Secret Expenses of the so-called Unfunded Research
Although you may not be a recipient of a check by a government agency, you probably consumed resources. Was the laboratory space offered by your university? Was there free access to an owned by another colleague dataset? In such instances, you may not have funding, you have support.
Transparency demands you to make a separation between liquid capital and institutional resources. Even if your university has paid your time in general fund, you still tend to place the name of the university in the list of acknowledgements, not funding, unless otherwise indicated in the Journal Submission Support page of the journal.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
- Do Not Leave it Blank: A blank field will imply that one is not paying close attention.
- Do Not Confound Funding with Conflicts of Interest: These two are different sections even though they are related. You may be unfunded yet have a conflict (e.g., you are a shareholder in a company that is connected with the study).
- Check Funder Policies: There are cases where you are covered under a block grant to a department. Although you may not have been the one applying to the grant, when that money has purchased your equipment or software you must acknowledge the origin.
How Mars Publications Helps
It can be confusing to work through the ethical maze of journal statements. Our Journal Submission Support Team closely inspects the section of the manuscript, that is, the Declarations. Your funding statement gets to high standards by making sure it is customised to the language of the level of your journal, such as Nature, Elsevier, or Taylor and Francis.
Mars Publications serves as your last defence against the so-called technical rejections, when a journal rejects your paper even before a reviewer reads it due to some missing disclosure.
The bottom line: The Best Asset You Got is Integrity
No funding statement does not undermine your work. Rather, it explains the sources of your information. Sharing your resources is the best way to become trustworthy with your readers and the scientific community at large. The disclosures are clear whether you are an independent researcher or a tenured professor.