How to write a scientific abstract

How to write a scientific abstract

Anne E. CareyInterim director, Undergraduate Research Office

August 2, 2011

Anne E. CareyInterim director, Undergraduate Research Office

August 2, 2011

When do you write an abstract?

When do you write an abstract?

Professional meeting

Conference paper

Journal article

Grant proposal

Thesis

Why care about writing abstracts?Why care about

writing abstracts?A good abstract will repay you with increased impact on the world by enticing people to read your publications or come to your poster.

Make sure that all the components of a good abstract are included in the next one you write.

Writing a good abstract is hard work.

Helps you learn to read others’ abstracts effectively

Getting startedGetting started

Questions to ask yourself before you start writing your abstract…

What’s the problem?

Why hasn’t it been done before?

Why and how could you do it now?

What was the purpose of the research?

Parts of an abstractParts of an abstract

1.Introduction

2.Background

3.Why you are doing your research

4.How you did your research

5.Findings

6.Implications

1. Introduction1. IntroductionSet the stage for why your work is important

Was the research difficult?

Does it have major implications?

Make sure you make the work interesting to the reader

Brief introduction to your work

Usually one to two sentences

2. Background2. Background

What have others done?

What has not yet been done?

Identify gaps in the field

Which are the important gaps?

The hook that draws the reader in

3. Why your research

3. Why your research

How were your data collected, compiled, generated, analyzed?

What gaps are you filling?

Is the problem urgent?

What new method or tools became available that you used?

What method from another field are you applying to your field?

4. Methods4. MethodsList, tabulate, mention

Methods

Models

Procedures

Approaches

Avoid detail here (unless your work is about methods development)

5. Findings5. FindingsWhat’s the answer?

What did you learn (or invent or create)?

Give quantitative results (if you have them)

Avoid hand-waving words (very, small, significant…)

Use hedge words if you need them (might, could, may, seem)

Don’t give results that could be mis-interpreted or don’t actually exist yet

6. Implications6. ImplicationsRelate back to the gaps in the field identified in step 2

What are the larger implications of your findings?

How does it add to the body of knowledge?

Is your work going to change the world?

Are your results general, generalizable, or specific to certain cases?

RulesRulesFollow the rules (formatting, language, etc)

Word limit (different for different kinds of purposes)

typically 150–200 words

sometimes it’s character count (with or without spaces matters)

Graphs and figures (are they allowed?)

References (sometimes allowed, sometimes not)

AdviceAdviceRemember you are writing for a general audience

Plan ahead (know what the deadline is!)

Good abstracts are not written at the last minute

Start writing early and revise multiple times

Write short sentences

Avoid abbreviations

Define acronyms except for very standard ones (e.g., DNA)

Other considerations

Other considerations

Title should…

summarize the abstract

convince the reader to read the whole abstract because it will be interesting, informative, important, relevant or innovative

be catchy

Authorship

presenter is usually first author

include affiliations, email, phone numbers

Other sourcesOther sources

American Psychological Association

http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/03/making-a-concrete-abstract.html

American Chemical Society Style Guide

http://www.oup.com/us/samplechapters/0841234620/?view=usa

Modern Language Association

http://library.osu.edu/help/research-strategies/cite-references/mla