Hi. I have a contributor who helped me programme something for my project. Now I am writing an abstract about this project to submit to a workshop. The contributor is not going to be involved in writing the paper. In fact, he is not involved in the project really. But I respect his work very much and what he did is very important so I will (and I must) mention him somewhere in the paper. Should I still list his name on the abstract as a contributor, and if yes, how (i.e next to my name, as a footnote etc.)? If not, should I mention his name inside the the abstract (just in case only the abstract gets published but not the paper)?

Hi 404

You could list him as an author and use the following format to show your affiliations (if they differ):

404 (1), Helpful programmer (2)

1 Where 404 works, 2 Where the programming person works

Or you could put an acknowledgement in the abstract, which normally goes after the discussion/conclusions but before the references, something like:

Acknowledgement
The author(s) are grateful for blah provided by blah etc.

Check your conference abstract guidelines, they may not allow an acknowledgements section in which case you could go with the author option (which if you couldn't have done the work without this guy, might be justified, perhaps discuss with your supervisors?).

That's very helpful. Thank you Ann. Supervisors are on holiday. But what you say makes sense. I'll call the organiser tomorrow to ask about the guidelines (although she said in the beginning that there are no guidelines, it might be different for the acknowledgements section)

IMO, metioning them in the acknowledgements section if possible would be preferrable if the help with the programming was of a generic technical nature. If their help directly contributed to the results you are reporting on and was not just technical assistance, they should be listed as an author.

You could also ask said programmer whether they think they did contribute enough to the paper to be a named author.

Thank you mc2006. I've submitted the absract this morning by adding the acknowledgement. But I'll speak to the programmer as you suggested. I might be able to amend that if the programmer wants otherwise.