Let the Credits Roll: A Preliminary Examination of the Role Played by Mentors and Trusted Assessors in Disciplinary Formation

Many scholarly articles acknowledge input from colleagues, mentors and trusted assessors. This study explores the social function and cognitive significance of acknowledgements. A six category typology was developed and applied to 444 acknowledgements which were carried by research articles in JASIS (1970–1990). It is proposed that acknowledgements and citations should be used conjointly in the assessment of research performance and in disciplinary exegesis.