An abstract is a concise summary of a research paper which highlights briefly all the important information. The abstract should be written only after the entire paper has been completed. Many journals where original research, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses are submitted require structured abstracts. The abstract should include the background and state the study’s purpose, methods (selection of study participants, settings, study design, interventions/treatments, measurements, analytical methods), results (outcomes, giving specific effect sizes and their statistical and clinical significance), and conclusion. It should highlight any new or important aspects of the study, important limitations, and not over-interpret findings.

Abstracts are usually required for:

1. submission of articles to journals
2. submission of proposals for conference
3. application for research grants

Abstracts are an important part of the research paper, as many journal editorial boards screen manuscripts only on the basis of the abstract. Abstracts help the researchers to quickly retrieve are also important for both selection and indexing purposes.

Selection: Abstracts allow readers who may be interested in the paper to quickly decide whether it is relevant and whether they need to read the full text paper.

Indexing: Most journal databases enable you to search abstracts and allow for quick retrieval by users. Abstracts must incorporate the key terms that a potential researcher would use to search.

There are two types of abstracts:

Structured abstracts structure the data into different sections like Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion

Unstructured abstracts usually cover the same information but are written as a continuous paragraph.

Tips to write a good abstract:

1. Check the style (structured vs unstructured) journal requirements.
2. Abstract should be written as a standalone document.
3. A good abstract should be representative of the whole paper, and contain all key important points in precise language.
4. Include only information included in the original document.
5. Abstract should not contain a discussion of previous literature or reference citations.
6. Abbreviations that are occurring twice or more should be expanded at first instance.
7. Check the abstract word limit according to journal requirements (200 to 250 words is common).
8. Some publications request “keywords”. They are used to facilitate keyword index searches.
9. Check completed abstract against article for consistency of purpose, results, and conclusions and revise.
10. The ICMJE recommends that journals publish the clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract.
11. Clinical trial abstracts should include items that the CONSORT group has identified as essential.
12. Funding sources should be listed separately after the abstract to facilitate proper display and indexing for search retrieval by MEDLINE.