The Genre of Journal Acknowledgements: Findings of a Cross-Disciplinary Investigation

Recent studies have targeted almost every section and feature of scientific articles, except for Acknowledgements. This gap may be explained by the relatively short life of genre analysis but also by its focus on features such as argumentation and persuasion, which are both lacking in Acknowledgements. Yet the use and construction of such texts and thus their sociopragmatic relevance are a highly sensitive issue for journal authors, editors and readers alike, as signalled by EAP writing manuals and practitioner surveys in the field. They encode highly-prized values like modesty, restraint, gratitude and generosity that no self-respecting academic would overlook without seriously damaging his personal and – what is more – scholarly reputation. The present paper seeks to investigate the sociolinguistic construction and pattern of Acknowledgements sections in the light of genre analysis but also drawing on other areas of knowledge such as politeness theory and bibliometric studies, whose findings may help uncover the motives and purposes implicit in a variety of academic writing where psychological and occupational needs merge with the variably ritualised, impersonal protocol of public interaction enforced by the academic community.