Standards for Writing Abstracts By Ben H. Weil

· Introduction

The growing volume of scholarly, scientific, technical, and other informational and instructional documents makes it increasingly important that the basic content of each document be quickly and accurately identifiable by readers. This ready identification is aided if the author of the document begins it with a meaningful title and a well-prepared abstract. Indeed, authors must bear in mind that many people will read no more than the titles and abstracts of their documents.

For these reasons, a proposed American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for writing abstracts has been drafted primarily to assist authors as well as the editors who guide them to prepare abstracts with maximum usefulness. The specialized knowledge of an author together with the wide view of a field provided by an editor can be expected to yield a good abstract if the proposed standard is followed.

· Definitions and Scope

In the proposed standard the term abstract signifies an abbreviated, accurate representation of a document without added interpretation or criticism and without distinction as to who wrote the abstract. Thus, an abstract differs from a brief review of a document in that, while a review often takes on much of the character of an informative-indicative abstract, its writer is expected to include suitable criticism and interpretation. While the word synopsis was formerly used to denote a resume prepared by the author, as distinct from an abstract (condensation) prepared by some other person, this distinction no longer has real meaning.

An abstract should be as informative as is permitted by the type and style of the document; that is, it should present as much as possible of the quantitative and/or qualitative information contained in the document. Informative abstracts are especially desirable for texts describing experimental work and documents devoted to a single theme. However, some discursive or lengthy texts, such as broad overviews, review papers, and entire monographs, may permit the preparation of an abstract that is only an indicative or descriptive guide to the type of document and what it is about. A combined informative-indicative abstract must often be prepared when limitations on the length of the abstract or the type and style of the document make it necessary to confine informative statements to the primary elements of the document and to relegate other aspects to indicative statements.

Abstracts should not be confused with the related, but distinct, terms annotation, extract, and summary. An annotation is a note added to the title or other bibliographic information of a document by way of comment or explanation. An extract signifies one or more portions of a document selected to represent the whole. A summary is a restatement within a document (usually at the end) of its salient findings and conclusions, and is intended to complete the orientation of a reader who has studied the preceding text. Because other vital portions of the document (e.g. purpose, methods) are not usually condensed into this summary, the term should not be used synonymously with “abstract”; i.e., an abstract as defined above should not be called a summary.

· Use of Abstracts

A well-prepared abstract enables readers to identify the basic content of a document quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interests, and thus to decide whether they need to read the document in its entirety. Readers for whom the document is of fringe interest often obtain enough information from the abstract to make their reading of the whole document unnecessary. Therefore, every primary document should include a good abstract. Secondary publications and services that provide bibliographic citations of pertinent documents should also include good abstracts if at all possible.

The following recommendations are for authors and editors of specific documents and publications.

Journals

Include an abstract with every formal item, such as research, methods, and theoretical papers; speculative articles; essays; discussions; and review articles. Notes, short communications, editorials, and Letters to the Editor that have substantial technical or scholarly content should also have brief abstracts.

Reports and Theses

Include an abstract in every separately published report, pamphlet, or thesis.

Monographs and Proceedings

A single abstract may suffice in a book or monograph that deals with a homogeneous subject. However, a separate abstract is also necessary for each chapter if the volume covers many different topics or is a combination of articles by different authors.

Patents

An abstract is now included in every patent.

Secondary Publications and Services

Secondary publications and services can often make verbatim use of the abstracts provided in primary documents if these abstracts have been carefully prepared and are free from copyright restrictions. Such authors’ abstracts can also provide suitable bases for the secondary service that orients its abstracts to a group of users different from those envisioned by the authors.

· Treatment of Document Content

Readers in many disciplines have become accustomed to an abstract that states the purpose, methodology, results, and conclusions presented in the original document. Most documents describing experimental work can be analyzed according to these elements, but their optimum sequence may depend on the audience for which the abstract is primarily intended. Readers interested in applying new knowledge may gain information more quickly from a findings-oriented arrangement in which the most important results and conclusions are placed first, followed by supporting details, other findings, and methodology.

Purpose

State the primary objectives and scope of the study or the reasons why the document was written unless these are already clear from the title of the document or can be derived from the remainder of the abstract. Refer to earlier literature only if it is an essential part of the purpose.

Methodology

Describe techniques or approaches only to the degree necessary for comprehension. Identify new techniques clearly, however, and describe the basic methodological principle, the range of operation, and the obtainable accuracy. For documents concerned with nonexperimental work, describe data sources and data manipulation.

Results

Describe findings as concisely and informatively as possible. They may be experimental or theoretical results obtained, data collected, relationships and correlations noted, effects observed, etc. Make clear whether numerical values are raw or derived and whether they are the results of a single observation or of repeated measurements. When findings are too numerous for all to be included, some of the following should receive priority: new and verified events, findings of long-term value, significant discoveries, findings that contradict previous theories, or findings that the author knows are relevant to a practical problem. Limits of accuracy and reliability and ranges of validity should indicated.

Conclusions

Describe the implications of the results and especially how these relate to the purpose of the investigation or document. Conclusions can be associated with recommendations, evaluations, suggestions, new relationships, and hypotheses accepted or rejected. Results and conclusions may be abstracted jointly to avoid redundancy, but conjecture must be differentiated from fact.

· Presentation and Style

Location of the Abstract

Place the abstract as early as possible in each document. Publish it prominently on the title page of a paper or a separately published report or thesis. If a brief foreword is deemed necessary to supply background information in a report, the abstract should follow the foreword and should not repeat its background information. In a book or monograph, place the abstract on the back of the title page or on the right-hand page following it. Place separate abstracts of chapters on or preceding their first pages.

Completeness, Accuracy, and Length

Since an abstract must be intelligible to a knowledgeable reader without reference to the document, make the abstract self-contained. Retain the basic information and tone of the original document. Be as concise as possible while still fulfilling requirements as to content, but do not be cryptic or obscure. Cite background information sparingly if at all. Do not include information or claims not contained in the document itself.

For most papers and portions of monographs, an abstract of 250-300 words will be adequate. For notes and short communications, fewer than 100 words should suffice. For long documents such as reports and theses, an abstract generally should not exceed 500 words and preferably should appear on a single page.

Style

Begin the abstract with a topic sentence that is a central statement of the document’s major thesis, but avoid repeating the words of the document’s title if that is nearby.

In abstracts specifically written or modified for secondary use, state the type of the document early in the abstract when this is not evident from the title or publisher of the document or will not be clear from the remainder of the abstract. Explain either the author’s treatment of the subject or the nature of the document, e.g., theoretical treatment, case history, statement-of-the-art report, historical review, report of original research, literature survey etc.

Paragraphing and Complete Sentences

Write a short abstract as a single, unified paragraph, but use more than one paragraph for long abstracts, e.g., those in reports and theses. Write the abstract in complete sentences, and use traditional words and phrases for coherence.

Use of Active Verbs and Personal Pronouns

Use verbs in the active voice whenever possible; they contribute to clear, brief, forceful writing. The passive voice, however, may be used for indicative statements and even for informative statements in which the receiver of the action should be stressed. For example:

Say: “Iron-containing bauxites sweeten gasolines in the presence of air.”

Not: “Gasolines are sweetened by iron-containing bauxites in the presence of air”

But: “The relative adsorption coefficients of ether, water, and acetylene were measured by …”

Use the third person to avoid cumbersome sentence constructions.

Nomenclature

Avoid unfamiliar terms, acronyms, abbreviations, or symbols; or define them the first time they occur in the abstract.

The Journal of the American Society for Information Science

Date: 2014-12-21; view: 1297