An abstract is like a book’s “blurb” but with major spoilers. It tells the potential reader what the paper/poster/talk is or will be about – what’s the question they were looking at & why; what did they do to answer it; and what were their key takeaways. Here, after more about what abstracts are and why they matter, is some advice on writing awesome abstracts.
An abstract is basically is a summary of your work – What was the “unknown” you wanted to figure out? Why did you want to figure it out? How did you go about figuring it out? What did you find out? Why should anyone else care?
That’s a lot of info to squeeze into a single paragraph – and you don’t want to make it too dense. The goal isn’t to cram a whole paper/poster/talk’s worth of stuff into 250 words. Instead, you want to give a concise summary that tells your potential audience the fundamentals of your work – and keeps them wanting more – so they hopefully read your paper or come to your poster and/or talk to learn more!
Abstracts are really important for many reasons including the fact that it’s all most people will see of your work. If your abstract doesn’t really draw them in, they will just skim past it. And even if it does draw them in, they might not have access to the “real thing” because they weren’t at the conference or don’t have access to the journal (if this happens, check with your library).
Note: abstracts for published works are public ally available for anyone to see on PubMed and conference abstracts are often published as journal supplements and/or on the conference or meeting website.
they are typically ~150-250 words (~6-7 sentences) and include (briefly, 1-2 sentences of each):
- introduction
- context/background
- question/problem
- what’s already known
- reason/rationale/goals
- methods
- results
- conclusion & significance
Some journals, etc. require “structured abstracts,” where the individual parts are explicitly laid out in separate sections, often:
- OBJECTIVE
- METHODS
- RESULTS
- CONCLUSIONS
You see that a lot with medical journals and stuff. But most of the time, abstracts aren’t formally structured, and should just be written like a normal paragraph.
Before I get into some practical advice on things to do and things to avoid, a quick note… For papers, the abstract is typically written after the paper, when everything is “done” – but for conference abstracts (for posters or talks) the abstract is often due months before the actual conference, so they can be a bit more “open-ended” and/or vague since you’re still actively collecting the data you plan to present.
Avoiding common problems:
- do not include a ton of details – the abstract is not the place for this! instead, the detail should be in the thing the abstract is for!
- typically, if you find yourself putting in raw data and stuff, step back…
- do not use field-specific jargon – the audience for the abstract will be broader than the audience that ultimately views the whole thing, and you want them to be able to get the gist
- also, in the real thing there will be more background and citations people can go to to get caught up on the lingo if they’re unfamiliar
- do not use abbreviations, especially in the title – except for things like DNA, RNA, etc. that are “common knowledge”
- do not include citations (typically)
- do not use unnecessary words – you have limited space, so make each word matter; use formal language but don’t include words to “sound smart”
- do not over-interpret your results – most people probably will only read the abstract, so you don’t want to give them a false impression that your theories based on your results are “the truth”
- do read the instructions and follow any specific guidelines – on word count, structure, etc.
- doread examples – (past abstracts from that journal, conference, etc.) to get a sense of what’s expected & make sure yours “fits in”
- this also helps you get ideas about what does and doesn’t work well
- do use transition words – help the readers follow your thinking and go with the flow
- do use keywords* in the title and throughout the abstract – basically things that people looking for an abstract like yours might Google to find it
- this will help search engines classify it and help people find it
- do proofread! And ask colleagues for feedback
- and don’t take their constructive criticism personally – instead, it’s a learning opportunity; writing abstracts well takes practice!
A while back for a post on poster abstracts, Dr. Alexandra Newton, president of the International Union for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology sent me some great advice of her’s – Isaac Newton’s laws motion (e.g. the whole object in motion stays in motion while an object at rest stays at rest thing) may get more attention = but Alexandra Newton’s “Laws for Abstract Writing” deserve significant attention too – and can help your abstract (and thus your poster) get more attention! Here they are:
- Newton’s 1st Law: Clear, concise title.
- Newton’s 2nd Law: Use 2 sentences (or fewer) to introduce the background and significance of your work.
- Newton’s 3rd Law: By third sentence say exactly what the point of your study is.
- Newton’s 4th Law: Have a concluding sentence.
- For conference abstracts (this info is typically at the end of papers, rather than in the abstracts), there’s also:
- Newton’s 5th Law: REFERENCE HOW THE WORK WAS FUNDED.
Here’s some more conference abstract advice from the ASBMB: Tips and tricks for writing great conference abstracts, By Martin J. Spiering, ASBMB Today, Sept. 1, 2017 https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/careers/090117/tips-for-writing-great-conference-abstracts
And here’s a great guide to writing paper abstracts: Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper, University of Wisconsin – Madison Writing Center: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/
Remember that, like all things in science, writing effective abstracts takes time and practice. So be patient with yourself, do your best, and know that it will get easier! Best of luck!
More on scientific conferences: https://bit.ly/scientific_conferences ; YouTube: https://youtu.be/hJIM8eRO6Dg
more on reading scientific articles: https://bit.ly/organizing_papers & https://bit.ly/readingsciencearticlesadvice
Here’s a link to the slides from today’s video: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wJAAo3VgurfFzpWi0K4DgCkWjAGq-eLE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110501489579733284162&rtpof=true&sd=true
