How To Write An Abstract By Yazid Jibrel

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By Yazid Jibrel [email protected] Twitter @jibrel http://facebook.com/jibrel

The shortest way to do many things is to only do one thing at once. Samuel Smiles (1812–1904)

Characteristics of an Abstract At the beginning of scientific paper is the ABSTRACT. It is a general synopsis of the entire paper. A short summary and a preliminary report of research results. The abstract should only convey the most important and most interesting parts of the work. It applies for Journal articles, proposal, and reports to a granting agency. Think of it as condensed miniature version of the first draft of the paper?! Why; because in comparison to your full report, your abstract may be read by fifty times as many people this is where you make the positive impression or convey the highest quality information? It should also emphasize the new and important aspects of the study or observation. Some purposes for writing abstracts:  It is the first announcement of the finding.  Access to feedback from one peer.  The stepping-off point for archiving the ultimate aim of a research project.  The writing and publishing of peer reviewed literature.  To tell the reader what you did in most clear informative way possible. The abstract subtitles should include: title, objective(s), study design, settings, material or subjects, method(s), result(s) and conclusion(s). The number of words in an abstract should generally be less than 150 for unstructured abstracts, and less than 250 for structured abstracts.

The abstract purposes can be boiled down to providing the answers to the following questions:

1. Why did you start? 2. What did you do? 3. What did you find? 4. What does it mean? The different sections of the abstract address these 4 questions, and, even though it cannot go into detail, every abstract should answer all of them.

Title The title should be an accurate promise of the abstract's contents. It should convey as much as possible about the context and the aims of the study. Ideally about 10-12 words long, it should include the scope of the investigation, the study design, and the goal. In general it is preferable to make the title a description of what was investigated rather than to state the results or conclusions. The abstract's title should be easy for the reader to understand and should not include jargon or unfamiliar acronyms.

Authors and Affiliations The list of authors should be restricted to those individuals who actually did the study conceived of it, designed it, gathered the data, crunched the numbers, and wrote the abstract. The author who will present the abstract should be listed first. Only

affiliations relevant to the study should be included generally the department and institution at which the work was done.

Introduction or background: "Why did you start?" This should provide a brief context or explanation for doing the study. It should also state the aim of the study, and ideally should include a concise statement of the study's hypothesis. A legitimate scientific study is not done "to prove that something is true" but rather "to find out whether it is true." The difference may seem small, but it makes a huge difference.

Methods: "What did you do?" The methods section of a research paper could well be written before the research itself is begun and any data collected. In an abstract the description of the methods has to be concise, and much of the details of what was done must be omitted. However, in a few short sentences the reader can be given a good idea of the design of the study, the context in which it was done, and the types of measurements and statistics that were included.

study more effectively than text alone. Keep in mind that the abstract will be fairly small when published, and that details may be lost if the table or figure is too small. Do not include a table or figure unless it is necessary to convey your results.

Conclusion: "What does it mean?" Here space limitations generally limit you to a simple statement of why you think your findings are important, and their potential implications. The most common mistake here is to make way more of the data than they deserve. Keep your conclusions reasonable and supportable by the findings of your study.

Keywords Many electronic databases require the keywords selection for your abstract to ease the search and archiving.

Checklist for conducting research/writing scientific abstracts I. Conduct research project • Formulate the research question

Results: "What did you find?"

1. Is it important?

Again, space is limited. Still, it is important to give the main results of the study not just

2. State it as a testable hypothesis

in subjective terms but also in the form of some real data. You will need to choose which findings to report here: it should be the most important data in your study, and the findings on which your conclusions will be based. A table or figure may be included in the abstract if it conveys the findings of the

3. Search literature to see if your question has already been answered 4. Revise if necessary • Determine tools, materials, personnel and time to collect data, do analysis. Change plans according to resources available.

• Choose appropriate subjects and controls if necessary You may need to revise plans according to the kind of patients involved in your practice. • Devise methods to collect data from subjects (e.g. questionnaires) • Discuss your plan with a biostatistician • Collect data - you may do a small pilot study first • Analyze the data with the help of a biostatistician • Write up results for publication • WRITE YOUR ABSTRACT LAST

II. How to evaluate a good abstract • Originality • Scientific Merit • Clinical relevance or significance • Suitability for audience/meeting

Some General Advice for Writing Abstracts Follow the instructions. It is astounding how many people submit work that does not fit the description of what is desired, or abstracts that vary in format or style from th$at specified in the guidelines. Use simple, declarative sentences. Active voice is preferable to passive voice. "We studied 6 hybrids of Fraxinus sp.” is much better than "6 hybrids of Fraxinus sp. were studied..."

Unless they are basic, universally accepted abbreviations, acronyms and abbreviations should be spelled out the first time they are used in the abstract. Similarly, local expressions and jargon should be watched for and eliminated from the abstract. Before the abstract is submitted, it should be double-checked for accuracy, not only of the data reported but of the description of the methods and all other details. Tables and figures should be checked especially carefully. Having one or more colleagues (who were not involved in the study) read the abstract and offer constructive criticism can be extremely helpful. Ideally, your abstract will be added to a public database such as MEDLINE® or PubMed® and will therefore achieve a much wider distribution than the journal article itself.

Post submission Once you have submitted your abstract start thinking and planning the presentation. Ensure you have booked your place at the conference and have travel arrangements in place. If accepted you should stick to the original abstract and not introduce new or different work. As both oral and poster presentations require significant work you might consider writing an article on the subject, that way you get two means of spreading the word. Good luck and now get writing!

Examples for writing Abstracts Sample Abstract (1) Example of a well-structured abstract by BMJ Randomised controlled trial of specialist nurse intervention in heart failure2 Objectives To determine whether specialist nurse intervention improves outcome in patients with chronic heart failure. Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting Acute medical admissions unit in a teaching hospital. Participants 165 patients admitted with heart failure due to left ventricular systolic dysfunction. The intervention started before discharge and continued thereafter with home visits for up to 1 year. Main outcome measures Time to first event analysis of death from all causes or readmission to hospital with worsening heart failure. Results 31 patients (37%) in the intervention group died or were readmitted with heart failure compared with 45 (53%) in the usual care group (hazard ratio =0·61, 95% confidence interval 0·33 to 0·96). Compared with usual care, patients in the intervention group had fewer readmissions for any reason (86 versus 114, P ≤0·018), fewer admissions for any reason (86 v 114), fewer admissions for heart failure (19 v 45, P ≤0·001) and spent fewer days in hospital for heart failure (mean 3·43 v 7·46 days, P ≤0·0051). Conclusions Specially trained nurses can improve the outcome of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure.

Sample abstract (2) Mori et al. Circadian clock protein KaiC forms ATP-dependent hexameric rings and binds DNA. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 99:17203-8. Introduction KaiC from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 (KaiC) is an essential circadian clock protein in cyanobacteria. Previous sequence analyses suggested its inclusion in the RecA/DnaB superfamily. A characteristic of the proteins of this superfamily is that they form homohexameric complexes that bind DNA. Methods & Results We show here that KaiC also forms ring complexes with a central pore that can be visualized by electron microscopy. A combination of analytical ultracentrifuation and chromatographic analyses demonstrates that these complexes are hexameric. The association of KaiC molecules into hexamers depends on the presence of ATP. The KaiC sequence does not include the obvious DNA-binding motifs found in RecA or DnaB. Nevertheless, KaiC binds forked DNA substrates. Discussion These data support the inclusion of KaiC into the RecA/DnaB superfamily and have important implications for enzymatic activity of KaiC in the circadian clock mechanism that regulates global changes in gene expression patterns.

Let’s break this abstract down into the characteristics mentioned above. 1. Length. This abstract is 143 words long. This is short of the 250 word limit, but in an abstract it is better to be shorter than longer (within reason). This is about the absolute shortest an abstract should be. 2. Introduction. The abstract begins with three sentences of introduction. KaiC from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 (KaiC) is an essential circadian clock protein in cyanobacteria. Previous sequence analyses suggested its inclusion in the RecA/DnaB superfamily. A characteristic of the proteins of this superfamily is that they form homohexameric complexes that bind DNA. Notice that the information is specific to the work being done. General information about the organism or overall field of research is in the Introduction section of the paper. The purpose of the abstract is the give the maximum amount of pertinent information in the minimum amount of space. 3. Methods/Results (data). The data is given in individual segments. We show here that KaiC also forms ring complexes with a central pore that can be visualized by electron microscopy. A combination of analytical ultracentrifuation and chromatographic analyses demonstrates that these complexes are hexameric. The association of KaiC molecules into hexamers depends on the presence of ATP. The KaiC sequence does not include the obvious DNA-binding motifs found in RecA or DnaB. Nevertheless, KaiC binds forked DNA substrates. Notice that individual pieces of data are given usually in 1 sentence. The end result of the experiment is given (depends on the presence of ATP) without details (numbers, band on gel, etc.) Also notice that often the technique used is mentioned but not described in detail. (electron microscopy, ultracentrifugation, chromatographic analyses) 4. Discussion. The meaning of the results in relation to the hypothesis/topic is given. These data support the inclusion of KaiC into the RecA/DnaB superfamily and have important implications for enzymatic activity of KaiC in the circadian clock mechanism that regulates global changes in gene expression patterns. The end result of the data is summarized and the importance of it is involved with the overall topic of “circadian clock mechanism”. 5. Importance. Why the work was done. and have important implications for enzymatic activity of KaiC in the circadian clock mechanism that regulates global changes in gene expression patterns. The last sentence leaves the impression that this work has “important implications” on the clock model “that regulates global changes in gene expression patterns”. Though a statement of purpose, it is a fairly weak one. A stronger one would have stated why the study of the circadian clock mechanism is important to the world.

Works Cited A Practical Guide for health researchers [Book] / auth. Fathalla Mahmoud F. Fathalla and Mohamed M.F.. - [s.l.] : WHO regional publications. - Eastern Mediterranean Series; 30) : pp. 131-132. How to Write a Scientific Abstract [Online] / auth. Curtis by Patrick // University of Windsor. - july 21, 2007. - july 21, 2009. - http://web3.uwindsor.ca/. Scientific Writing - easy when you know how [Book] / ed. Peat Jennifer. - [s.l.] : BMJ books, 2002. - pp. 38-51.