Abstract and Keywords

Abstract and keywords are usually the start point for searching materials related to a topic. An abstract is a concise summary of a research study, project, or journal article. If the abstract summarizes a research study, it usually includes the problem statement, the design and methods, the results, and the implications of the findings. If the abstract is based on a project or journal article, key points are identified and described according to a specific format designated by the conference organizers or journal editor (Beyea and Leslie 273)[1]. Whatever the abstract services with the paper, an abstract has to summarize what has been done in the study.

The abstract, although it heads the article, is often written last, together with the title.  It is easier to write an abstract if you remember that all abstracts have a basic structure. Two different forms of abstracts — simple abstracts and structured abstracts— are usually used in academic journal articles, thesis and dissertations. A simple abstract is an undifferentiated paragraph of less than 200 words; while the structured abstracts are typically written with sub-sections in about 200-300 words. The traditional journals usually use simple abstracts, while some other journals use the structured abstracts (Katz 119)[2].

Simple abstracts

A simple abstract, although is often one paragraph and is economic in words, it has four easily identifiable parts. Each of the four parts answers key questions that the reader has: What is the problem? How is the problem solved? What are the specific results? And how useful is this to science or to the reader? (Lebrun 120)[3]

Therefore, a simple abstract should (1) state the principle objectives and scope of the investigation, (2) describe the methods employed, (3) summarize the results, and (4) state the principal conclusions. This type of abstract is often referred to as an informative abstract, and it is designed to condense the paper. Often, the abstract supplants the need for reading the full paper (Day 30)[4]. The following abstract, for example, commence directly with this method.

Figure 5.2: A simple abstract from a report on using question marks in the titles of scientific articles in medicine, life sciences and physics 1966–2005 (Ball 667)[5].

In the above abstract, four-parts are clearly identified. The parts that cover the research scope correspond to the first sentence. The second sentence introduces the research methodology, followed by the third sentence presenting the key results. The abstract covers the contribution in the last sentence but you need to read the whole paper to know the details of findings and conclusion. In many abstracts, it is very common to find that some elements are missing – the background, the method or the results. Nowadays, although most journals conventionally use such simple abstracts in reporting empirical and laboratory studies, case reports and brief communications, many other journals use structured abstracts for full-length papers (Gustavii 58)[6].

            Structured abstracts

The form of structured abstract was introduced into medical research journals in the 1980s and has been widely used in other areas of research (Hartley 31)[7]. Structured abstracts are typically written using sub-headings:

·      BACKGROUND: One or Two Sentence

·      AIM (purpose, objectives): One or two sentence.

·      METHODS: Two or Three Sentence

·      RESULTS: Less Than Ten Sentence

·      CONCLUSION (original contribution, implications): One Sentence or more sentences.

The Abstract is a mini-version of your article. It presents the essence of your Methods, your Results, and your Conclusion. In the structured abstract, you write simply “we did, we found, and we concluded”. Specifically, you state the background of or the reason for your study, tell what methods you used, list your main findings, and end with your conclusion.

The wording of these sections may vary in different disciplines. The following example in Figure 5.3 is a typical structured abstract from an article in Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing. Obviously, this abstract slightly differs from the “five sub-sections” structure, but it shows a clear structure of the article.

Figure 5.3: A structured abstract from a report examining the network legitimacy in China telecommunication market (Low, Johnston, and Wang 97).[8]

The above example illustrates that a structured abstract is a mini-version of your paper. Written with sub-sections that parallel the article, a structure abstract often contains more information and is usually longer (200-350 words) than a simple abstract. Therefore, writing abstract in structured format can ensure that it is informative and complete.

Using the sub-headings and the appropriately spaced typographical layout makes the content clear. It is easier for readers to scan and can facilitate peer review. Generally, the structured abstract is welcomed by readers and authors.

Structured abstracts are adopted by a variety of papers in health science and social science. These include qualitative studies, narrative reviews, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials. However, many people believe that structured abstracts are only suitable for empirical papers, particularly those with ‘methods’ and ‘results’.  Some traditional journals insist on the abstract in simple format. In such circumstance, structured abstract can be written with sub-headings removed. You can write an abstract in a structured format first, and then to adjust it to the format as the journal required (Hartley 33-35)[9]. 

In writing the Abstract, use only the present tense of verbs, as an abstract is about what you do NOW. The present tense is vibrant, lively, engaging, leading, contemporary, and fresh; while the past tense is gone, stale, unexciting, and lagging. You are suggested to avoid the past tense in writing the Abstract since the past tense can create ambiguity. For example, the phrase was studied creates doubt: did the writer publish this before?

To write a quality abstract, you also need to make sure the abstract is coherent with the title. Remember that the purpose of abstract is to make the title clear, to help the potential readers find your article, and to help the reader decide whether the article is worth reading or not. To achieve this, you need to put title words (or keywords) in the abstract.  Specifically, the first sentence of your abstract should contain at least one third of the words in your title. These words are frequently found in the second part of your title, i.e. its context. In addition, you also need to include all the keywords in your abstract to help readers rapidly gather competitive intelligence and assess the levels of difficulty of the article (Lebrun 125)[10].

In summary, two different formats of abstracts — simple abstracts and structured abstracts —are widely used by researchers in reporting their studies. Both formats of abstract can clearly and comprehensively give a brief introduction of your paper, but the you need to choose the abstract format carefully following the guideline of the journal or the academic committee you write for. A quality abstract is complete and informative, includes title words and keywords of the article, concise and stand-alone.

Keywords

Keywords often stand along after the Abstract. They are often used by many readers in searching the materials relevant to their interests. Many editors also use keywords in grouping the articles to issues of the journal or a set of conference proceedings. If a published article cannot be found by readers or editors, it will have little impact. Obviously, choosing effective key words is vital.

Although there is no formal requirement for keywords, no rules for formulating them, there are several ways of choosing keywords in writing academic papers. In practice, the most common method is to supply key words as many as you can choose within bounds. Sometimes the journals or the conference proceeding editors require a special number of keywords (often about six). The next main method is to choose keywords that fit into categories already prescribed by the journal’s ‘instruction to authors’. The number of keywords allowed and the number of categories to choose from often vary in different disciplines. Finally, keywords are sometimes generated automatically at proof stage, by the library information system (Hartley 38)[11].

In choosing the key words, a wide choice of keywords increases the probability that a paper will be retrieved and read, thereby potentially improving citation counts and journal impacts. To ensure your paper can be found and cited by as many as readers, as suggested by James Hartley (39)[12], it might be worth considering selecting keywords from a series of categories such as Discipline (e.g. economic, chemistry, biomedical), Methods (e.g. experiment, case study, questionnaire, grounded theory), Data source (e.g. primary, secondary, tertiary students, senior citizens), Location (e.g. country, city, town, institution), Topic (e.g. air pollution, super-virus, earthquake). Such selection of keywords allows the search engine such as Google Advanced Scholar list your paper in the results no matter which of the above keywords the reader typed in. 

The researchers sometimes have to trade-off between the keywords, particularly when they write for the journals that bound the number of keywords in the limit of 3~5. In this situation, choose the keywords from recent or often-cited titles close to your contribution. If you pick your keywords in this way, the searches that retrieve these articles will also retrieve yours. Consequently, the chances of your paper being read will increase. 

(待续）