Although funding acknowledgements (FAs) have been around for nearly three decades, there are not yet enough theoretical and practical studies of them to enable FAs to be considered a consolidated area of research. Fortunately, newly published findings and promising data sources presented in recent years have helped better our understanding of the process of scientific creation and communication and provide evidence of the importance of FAs. This paper seeks to help demonstrate the crucial role FAs play in evaluating research funding’s performance. A methodology based on the use of linked open metadata from diverse sources is presented for this purpose. The methodology highlights the important work analysts do to increase the accuracy, solidity, and diversity of the results of FA-based quantitative studies by gathering and analysing the data furnished by funding organisations. Lastly, the projects funded by the Spanish National Science and Research Agency from 2008 to 2020 are evaluated to verify the method’s usefulness, robustness, and reproducibility. Also, a new unit of analysis is introduced, funders, to create a new type of co-occurrence network: co-funding. In conclusion, funding agencies’ experts and analysts will find that this methodology gives them a valuable instrument for boosting the quality and efficacy of their activities, complying with transparency and accountability requirements, and quantifying the scope of funding results.

尽管资助致谢（FA）已经存在了近三十年，但对其的理论和实践研究还不够，无法使 FA 被视为一个综合研究领域。幸运的是，近年来新发表的研究结果和有前景的数据源帮助我们更好地理解科学创造和传播的过程，并为 FA 的重要性提供了证据。本文旨在帮助证明 FA 在评估研究经费绩效方面发挥的关键作用。为此目的，提出了一种基于使用来自不同来源的链接开放元数据的方法。该方法强调了分析师通过收集和分析资助组织提供的数据来提高基于 FA 的定量研究结果的准确性、可靠性和多样性所做的重要工作。最后，对西班牙国家科学研究机构2008年至2020年资助的项目进行了评估，以验证该方法的有用性、稳健性和重现性。此外，还引入了一个新的分析单位，即资助者，以创建一种新型的共现网络：共同资助。总之，资助机构的专家和分析师会发现，这种方法为他们提供了一个宝贵的工具，可以提高其活动的质量和效率，遵守透明度和问责制要求，并量化资助结果的范围。