Writing for Publication

Abstracts are important because indexing services such as Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed use the abstract to help with search and discovery of material, and readers use them to decide if the material is relevant to their topic of interest and worth reading. 

Creating an abstract that represents your work effectively will maximise the chances of your work being found and cited.

An abstract is not an introduction to the main piece of writing.  It is not meant to defend or evaluate the work.   The purpose of an abstract is to give an accurate summary of key aspects of your content. 

Abstracts should

• be 150-250 words long
• state the research problem or hypothesis
• briefly describe how you conducted the research
• summarise the major findings and conclusions
• highlight the significance of your findings
• include keywords that best describe your research question or hypothesis and your methods and methodology (case study, survey, etc)

Some journals may ask for an IMRaD style abstract to match the format of the article.  The IMRaD abstract allocates a percentage of the abstract to each section of the paper.

• 25% of their space on the purpose and importance of the research (Introduction)
• 25% of their space on what you did (Methods)
• 35% of their space on what you found (Results)
• 15% of their space on the implications of the research (information from George Mason University).

Click here for more information on an IMRaD abstract.

You have probably read a lot of abstracts, review one or two of them and see if you can identify the specific parts of their research.  If you are writing an abstract for the first time look at an existing abstract in your target publication or conference to get an idea of what is expected.