May, 2025- Global BioImaging (GBI) is proud to announce a strategic new partnership with the Royal Microscopical Society (RMS), marking an exciting milestone in our shared mission to strengthen the global imaging community. This collaboration brings together RMS’s long-standing leadership in microscopy and GBI’s worldwide network of imaging infrastructures and communities to empower imaging scientists and advance imaging science on a global scale.

Founded in 1839, RMS has been at the forefront of supporting innovation and excellence in imaging across fields like medicine, biology, and materials science. Together, GBI and RMS are launching joint initiatives to advocate for imaging professionals, expand global networks, and promote best practices across the field.

First Joint Action: Acknowledgement Guidelines Roll-Out

Our first major initiative together is the global dissemination of Acknowledgement Guidelines, developed by RMS and BioImaging UK.

These guidelines address a persistent and widespread issue in science: the under-recognition of imaging facility staff and imaging scientists in support roles. Imaging scientists are often indispensable to both research and diagnostics—contributing to experimental design, method development, sample preparation, data interpretation, teaching, and even manuscript writing.

Yet, despite their central role, they are too often left unacknowledged in scientific publications, or incorrectly omitted from authorship. This lack of visibility not only hinders their career progression and professional recognition, but also makes it harder to demonstrate the value of these roles to institutions, funders, and governments.

The Acknowledgement Guidelines were originally drafted by Natasha Stephens following discussions with the RMS EM-UKI community and transformed into a clear, accessible poster by a BioImagingUK working group, including Jemima Burden, Maddy Parsons, Jessica Valli, and Daniel Soong.

These resources provide a practical, standardized approach to ensure proper credit is given—and help strengthen the case for sustained investment in imaging infrastructure and staffing.

Global BioImaging’s Commitment

The Global BioImaging community, including our 13 partner networks and infrastructures across the world, is fully aligned with this mission. We are actively working to translate the guidelines into multiple languages to ensure they reach and resonate with imaging professionals globally.

This marks the beginning of a worldwide campaign to promote better practices in acknowledgement and authorship, and to advocate for fair recognition of facility-based science.

Get Involved: Join the Campaign

We invite everyone in the imaging community to take part in this global effort. Here's how:

✅ Download the Acknowledgement Guidelines from our resource webpage: https://globalbioimaging.org/documents

• You can choose between a poster version with space for your institution's logo and a poster version with logos from the global bioimaging community endorsing the project
• Translations in 10 other languages including Chinese, Japanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Greek, Arabic are already available on demand (contact us at [email protected]) and will be posted on our website soon.

✅ Print and display them prominently at your imaging facility (after reading the "How to Use.." guide)

✅ Take a photo of the poster in action

✅ Share it on social media and tag us on Linkedin: @Global BioImaging, @Royal Microscopical Society and @BioImagingUK; & Bluesky: @[email protected]‬ and @bioimaginguk.bsky.social‬

We'll be reposting your photos and stories across all our channels to amplify your voice and celebrate the critical role of imaging staff worldwide.

Let’s make recognition the rule—not the exception.

Guideline Poster Preview