Hi everyone,

I know this should be further down the line of write up but if I can get one page completed it would be a start!

In the acknowledgements should one thank the participants who helped with the research (it was questionnaire based research)?

Aside from supervisors, friends and family, should anyone else be included?

Thanks.

Hi Delta

I think it's nice to thank participants; afterall where would we be without them?? I have often seen them acknowledged and intend thanking mine. Less is probably more with acknowledgements but I think it's good form to thank the admin staff, as well, often the unsung heroes of research.

BTW: a friend of mine wrote her acknowledgements during her first year - as you say it was a start to writing!! Probably a good idea to revisit pre-submission!

I'd recommend thanking everyone who was essential/helpful. So in your case, yes, the participants should be thanked (anonymously). I was a history PhD student and thanked lots of archivists and librarians who'd helped me get access to records I needed, singling out a couple who were particularly helpful. I also thanked my funding council. And I gave a big thank you to my secondary school history teacher who caused me to catch the research bug.

Thanks Ady and Bil. I intend to keep it short but don't want to overlook anyone and so thanks for the pointers.

Have just finished reading a 2 page acknowledgement - YES.

Mine is a couple lines, then a small para, then a couple lines. People in this order -

1. Supervisor who is my mentor
2.Parents

**

3. Para with - gran who raised me, friends and family unnamed one sentence, project I worked on, thesis committee, funding bodies, departmental folk, participants, academics who provided useful criticims

**

4. Two sentences on my lovely friend, co-author, sounding board, philosopher. Without him, this thesis would truly not have been written, tacky as that sounds.

I kept my acknowledgements to one page only and thanked everyone that played a part in helping to ensure my PhD could be completed, including patients, clincians, supervisors and other researchers from around the world. Perhaps contentious, but I omitted friends and family. I really wasn't sure how to word their 'support', which included 'have you finished yet?', 'what you gonna do with it anyway?' and 'yer, gonna be a stoodant foreva!' positively. So, I agree with the other posters: just make reference to the people, whether subjects, supervisors or friends and family, that really made a difference to your work.