Call for abstracts

Deborah E. A. Lockhart MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowdealockhart@dundee.ac.uk

How to write an abstract

Call for abstracts!

What is an abstract?

• A means of communicating a summary of research / audit.

• Scientific or “lay”.

• Standalone (conference).• Precede a paper (indexed

on MEDLINE).

Before you can write…

General points

• Write in sentences using formal scientific English.

• Use “did not” instead of “didn’t” etc.

• Write in the 3rd person (usually).

• Use present tense for existing facts and past tense for completed research.

• Define specialised terminology / abbreviations e.g. Streptococcus pneumoniae then S. pneumoniae.

• Numbers – when to spell out or use numerals?• www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp

General points

• Do not expect it to be easy!

• “A good writer will always find it hard to fill a singe page. A bad writer will always find it easy”.

• The skeleton is the hardest part!!

Abstract format

• Title

• Introduction

• Methods

• Results

• Conclusions

• Words: 100 – 500.• Structured or continuous.

Title• Clear informative title describing key elements of your work

(consider the audience / reader).

• Consider a title and subtitle separated by a colon.

• Catchy and inviting!

Genes and pockets

Hot competition in meningococcal immune evasion

Aspergillus fumigatus GNA1: fragment screening gets groovy

Targeting K-Ras signalling in cancer

Introduction• Answer the ‘WHY’ question!

• Introduce the field and set the scene by briefly describing the current knowledge (couple of sentences).

• What “gaps” are you trying to address?

• What is your aim or research question?

Methods and results• Main focus of the abstract.

• All about what you did and what you found out!

• Style and format dependent on area e.g. clinical or laboratory research.

• Brief details on the study / key methods.

• Detailed description of the main research findings.

Discussion & conclusion• Discuss the main findings of your work.

• Put into context and relate back to the introduction and your research question.

• Any limitations?

• What are the implications, future directions?

References ??• May be applicable for standalone abstracts.

• Limit to select key references.

• “Classic” and “cutting-edge”.

• Format and correctly cite any reference.

Good luck!