Policies

Facility Rates

As a UConn COR2E facility, we exist to promote and provide support to the UConn and UConn Health research communities.  An additional goal of the facility is to extend this support to external research labs as well.  In order to provide ongoing research support and maintain financial stability, we are required to charge for our expertise and state-of-the-art technologies.  Please see our Rates page for more information on our current fee structure.  If you require a formal quote for your potential project, contact Facility Director Jeremy Balsbaugh by filling out a Project Request Form.

Grant Acknowledgement

The Orbitrap Eclipse Tribrid instrument was funded by NIH S10 High-End Instrumentation Award number 1S10OD028445-01A1 in 2021.  All publications and presentations that include original research conducted using this instrumentation must cite the award.  An acceptable acknowledgement statement is included below:

“The authors would like to acknowledge the NIH S10 High-End Instrumentation Award 1S10-OD028445-01A1, which supported this work by providing funds to acquire the Orbitrap Eclipse Tribrid mass spectrometer housed in the University of Connecticut Proteomics & Metabolomics Facility.”

Contact Facility Director Jeremy Balsbaugh for more information.

Grant Support

We are happy to provide grant support in the form of letters of support and assistance in writing of the mass spectrometry experimental section of the grant itself.  Contact Facility Director Jeremy Balsbaugh for more information.  Please provide sufficient time for our contribution prior to the grant submission deadline.

Authorship Guidelines

As a core facility that provides both routine and fully customized and innovative mass spectrometry-based analysis, we subscribe to ABRF’s authorship guidelines for fair representation through co-authorship when appropriate.  Please review ABRF’s guidelines below and be prepared to agree to these guidelines prior to analysis in our laboratory.

From ABRF:

Core facilities must charge for services rendered according to cost accounting practices set up at each institution.  Charging for services does not preclude authorship on manuscripts provided the Core laboratory individual has contributed to the research in a substantial way.  If authorship is anticipated, it is preferably established at the beginning of the project so that both the customer and the Core researcher are cognizant of each other’s criteria.

Important reasons for acknowledging contributions from core facilities in publications, by co-authorship or by formal mention in the acknowledgments section, include:

1. Core facility personnel are scientists. When they make a substantial intellectual and/or experimental contribution to a publication they deserve to be acknowledged just as any other co-author.

2. The existence of core facilities depends in part on proper acknowledgment in publications. This is an important metric of the value of most core facilities. Proper acknowledgment of core facilities enables them to obtain financial and other support so that they may continue to provide their essential services in the best ways possible. It also helps core personnel to advance in their careers, adding to the overall health of the core facility.

 The ABRF recommendation was previously published in Angeletti et al. in 1999 (FASEB Journal, 13:595), “Intellectual interactions between resource and research scientists are essential to the success of each project. When this success results in publication, a citation in the acknowledgments 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 acknowledgment.” 

Activities for which authorship are recommended:

1. Author should make substantive contributions to the project

– Conception, design of project, critical input, or original ideas

– Acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, beyond routine practices

– Draft the article or revise it critically for intellectual content

– Write a portion of the paper (not just materials and methods section)

– Intellectual contribution

– Final authority for the approval of article

2. Each author should have participated enough to accept responsibility for the content of the manuscript

The following activities do not represent intellectual contributions to a project and would not constitute authorship:

– Providing funding (department chair who has no intellectual input)

– Collection of data (technical skill but not involved in interpretation of data)

– General supervision of research group, but no intellectual input into the project

All contributors that do not meet the criteria of authorship should be recognized in the acknowledgements section, for example:

– Paid technical help

– Writing assistance

– Financial and material support

– Scientific advice

***If you have questions as to whether or not our contribution to your project warrants co-authorship, contact Facility Director Jeremy Balsbaugh prior to submission of the manuscript.***