This document summarizes guidelines for writing three key components of biomedical research articles: the title, abstract, and keywords. It discusses how to write an effective title that is concise yet informative. It explains that the abstract should summarize the paper in 200-250 words and include background, objectives, methods, results, and conclusions sections. It also provides tips for choosing 3-7 accurate keywords that describe the main topics of the article to help with indexing and discoverability. The overall goal is to write these components well to attract readers and increase citations that can boost a paper's impact.

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INTRODUCTION
The title and abstract are the first steps toward
publication, communication and dissemination of
results among scientific community and general public
that is imperative for the advancement of science.[1]
They are the most visible parts and are available free
in all online journals. The abstract is the first section
usually read by a researcher and its content can either
attract or repel a reader. Most of the journals have
their own guidelines to authors, but many authors
still find it difficult to write a good abstract that will
compel or entice the readers to read the article. The
most frequently read manuscripts have a better chance
of getting citations and thereby increasing the impact
factor. This article presents in detail how to write a good
title, abstract and keywords for biomedical journals.
TITLE
The title of an article is the first part encountered of
any paper. The title should make it standout from other
literatures in the field.[2]
The editors, editorial board
members, reviewers, as well as organizing committees
of scientific or professional congresses see and decide
whether the paper is going to be peer reviewed, accepted
for publication or not based on the title itself.[3]
Readers
often first scan the titles in the content of a journal
and if found appealing, then they review the abstract
before going to the full article. The title should attract
researchers’ attention; so that the article can be included
in their research and thus provide citations and impact
factors. Sometimes, the database being searched does
not include the abstract of the article; in such cases, the
title becomes more important.
There are indicative and informative titles. Indicative
titles reveal the area of investigation and not the
answers to the paper, whereas informative titles convey
messages of the paper on all its relevant elements. A
Review Article
Three pillars of a biomedical research article:
The title, abstract and keywords
Muktikesh Dash
Department of Microbiology, Sriram Chandra Bhanj Medical College and Hospital, Utkal University, Cuttack, Odisha, India
ABSTRACT
The title is the main advertisement for an article and enables the reader to decide whether they want to read the article or
not. The title should be simple, specific and reflect the article’s content clearly and precisely in 10 – 15 words. The abstract
summarizes the whole article in 200 to 250 words and should be structured for a research article. It includes the problem or
the study objectives, the methods used, the main results obtained and the conclusion reached. Most authors write the abstract
last, so that it accurately reflects the content of the article. Keywords are placed below the abstract and are usually 3 – 7 in
number. Choosing right keywords will enhance the article being found by other researchers as these are used by abstracting
and indexing services. Ultimately, a well‑cited research article depends on how well the title, abstract and keywords are
written.
Keywords: Abstract, keywords, research article, title
Access this article online
Quick Response Code:
Website:
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DOI:
10.4103/2468-6360.186488 How to cite this article: Dash M. Three pillars of a biomedical research article:
The title, abstract and keywords. J Health Spec 2016;4:186-9.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows
others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the
author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com
Address for correspondence:
Dr. Muktikesh Dash, Department of Microbiology, Sriram Chandra
Bhanj Medical College and Hospital, Utkal University,
Cuttack ‑ 753 007, Odisha, India.
E‑mail: mukti_mic@yahoo.co.in

3. Journal of Health Specialties / July 2016 / Vol 4 | Issue 3 187
Dash: The title, abstract and keywords
good title should be made up of the fewest possible
words, typically 10 – 12 words and constitute about
100 characters.[3]
The title should be specific, easily
understandable and not have too many technical terms,
consisting of both independent (set or manipulated at
the beginning) and dependent (observed or measured)
variables that accurately highlight the core content
of the article, i.e., the species studied, specific drug
name, the technology discussed or the literary work
evaluated.[4,5]
Vancouver requirements indicate that
title should be concise and informative.[6]
Therefore,
the title must be accurate, informative, complete but
not declarative.
There are some tips on writing the titles: Avoid using
abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms, i.e. “Mg”
for magnesium could be mistaken for ‘mg’ which
means milligrams; write scientific names in full,
i.e. Staphylococcus aureus instead of S. aureus; refer
to chemicals by their common names or generic names
rather than the formulas and trade names; avoid use of
roman numerical in the title as they can be interpreted
differently, i.e. Part II could be mistaken for Factor II.[7]
The title should be written with distinct letters,
not underlined and without a full stop at the end.
Subtitles and supertitles should be avoided. The author,
co‑authors and peers may initially consider a number
of titles and finally choose the most appropriate one.
[8]
Some journals ask for running or short titles to be
used at the top or bottom of the journal page. For this
purpose, the title should be shortened to very few
words.
ABSTRACT
Abstract is a short summary containing essential details
of a research article. Almost all journals except for
few sections, i.e., editorials and letters to the editors
or correspondence require abstract. The abstract may
be indicative or informative. Indicative or descriptive
abstracts are usually used in social sciences and
humanities and do not give specific information about
the methods and results.[9,10]
Informative abstracts are
commonly used in the sciences and present information
on the background, objectives, methods, results and
conclusions.[9,10]
This type of format is typically found
in medical literatures and clinical trial reports. The
maximum word count of an abstract varies from 100
to 400 words, but the majority of the journals prefer a
word count of 200 to 250 words. The number of words
and subtitles of the abstract should be written according
to the instruction to the authors. Most journals require
a research or original article to be structured and the
review article and case report as an unstructured free
flowing paragraph.[11,12]
The Ad Hoc Working Group
for Critical Appraisal of the Medical Literature has
suggested that authors of articles with direct clinical
implications should write their abstracts with seven
explicitly defined headings: Objective, design, setting,
patients’ interventions, measurements, main results and
conclusions with a partially‑controlled vocabulary.[13]
Guidelines have also been suggested for review article
abstracts with six headings; purpose, data identification,
study selection, data extraction (including how data
were assessed for quality), results of the data synthesis
(including relevant description statistics) and conclusions
(including future research needs and applications).[14]
Structured abstracts are essentially informative abstracts
that are divided into a series of headings, i.e., background
or introduction, aims or objectives, methods, materials
and methods or subjects and methods, results and
conclusions.[15,16]
This is the standard and preferred
way for original research article.[17]
This format is also
recommended for conference papers. The structured
abstracts were initially proposed to make literature
searches more accurate, more explicit, relevant
and easier to understand the text written in shorter
paragraphs. The structured abstract is intended to
make it easier for the reader to select important details
and to access the value and applicability of the study.
It reminds the readers about the whole paper and it
reveals errors regarding used methodology.[3]
The abstract should not include references to the
literature or to the figures and tables described in the
body of the paper. It should not include any information
that is not mentioned in the article and it should not
contain common abbreviations or acronyms unless
very well‑known. Abstract should be written in the
end after completely editing the article. A good abstract
should be a miniature version of the paper, providing
a brief summary of the main sections of the paper.
The abstract should be self‑contained and able to
stand alone without the need to refer the full text. For
example, if the publishing journal is indexed in Index
Medicus (MEDLINE), the articles will be locatable via
the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM’s) PubMed
search engine[18]
and the abstract will be viewable at
the website.
Different sections of an abstract
Background or introduction or context
This section of the abstract should be shortest part of the
abstract and should outline the following information in
one or two sentences: “What are the facts already known
or unsettled about the subject? What is the magnitude
of the problem and its importance related to the paper
in question?”

4. 188 Journal of Health Specialties / July 2016 / Vol 4 | Issue 3
Dash: The title, abstract and keywords
For example, “antimicrobial resistance of urinary tract
pathogens has increased worldwide. Empiric treatment
of community acquired urinary tract infection (CA‑UTI)
is determined by antimicrobial resistance patterns of
uropathogens in a population of specific geographical
location.”[19]
Objectives or aims or purpose
A single sentence is used to summarize the aims and
objectives of an article. Here, we put forth the study
questions in a summarized form. In some journals,
objectives may be the opening section of the journals.
For example, “this study was conducted to determine
the prevalence of CA‑UTI in rural Odisha, India and
the effect of gender and age on its prevalence as well
as etiologic agents and the resistance profile of the
bacterial isolates.”[19]
Methods or material and methods or subject and methods
This section provides a concise description of the
study design and methods used. The reader should
understand what and how the study was done. This
section is usually longer consisting of 30 – 35% of
the whole abstract. The methods should highlight the
important issues such as research design, research
setting, sample size required and how they were
selected and a brief description of techniques or
interventions used in the study.
For example, “consecutive clean‑catch mid‑stream urine
samples were collected from 1670 adult patients. The
urine samples were processed and microbial isolates
were identified by conventional methods. Antimicrobial
susceptibility testing was performed on all bacterial
isolates by Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion method.”[19]
Results
The results section is usually the longest and most
important part containing about 35 – 40% of the
whole abstract. Results begin with the total number
of respondents and a description of subjects that
were included or excluded from the study. It can be
presented as a comparison of the outcome variables
between various subgroups, within the study (i.e., male
vs. female, young vs. old, diagnosed vs. undiagnosed,
treated vs. untreated, etc.). Numerical results also
include standard deviations or 95% confidence limits
and the level of statistical significance.[20]
For example, “the prevalence of UTI was significantly
higher in females compared to males (females 455
[45%], males 122 [18%], odds ratio = 2.04, 95%
confidence interval = 1.64 – 2.52, P < 0.001). Young
females within the age group of 18 – 37 years and
elderly males (≥68 years) showed high prevalence of
UTI. Escherichia coli (69%) were the most prevalent
isolate followed by Enterococcus spp. (10%). Amikacin
and nitrofurantoin were the most active antimicrobial
agents, which showed low resistance of 6% and 10%,
respectively.”[19]
Conclusion
The conclusion should be written concisely, stating
the implications of the study and if applicable, making
recommendations for action to the general public quite
often in one or two sentences. The first line summarizes
the results and the second states the interpretation or
clinical implications. The conclusion must be supported
by the data presented in the abstract. It should answer
the research questions that are put forth in the form of
objectives.[21]
For example, “our study revealed E. coli as the
predominant bacterial pathogen and nitrofurantoin
should be used as empirical therapy for uncomplicated
CA‑UTIs. In the Indian setting, routine urine cultures
may be advisable, since treatment failure is likely to
occur with commonly used antimicrobials. Therefore,
development of Regional Surveillance Programs is
necessary for the implementation of national CA‑UTI
guidelines.”[19]
KEYWORDS
Keywords should be provided below the abstract of the
article. It describes the medical contents, which are
the characteristics for the whole article. Most standard
journals usually ask for 3 – 10 keywords. Journals,
creators of databases and search engines and indexing
and abstracting services classify articles using keywords.
Thus, accurately chosen keywords will ensure correct
cross indexing and help wider visibility of the research
among the interested communities. This will in turn
increase the article’s chances of being cited. Authors
should read the article thoroughly and list down all
the key terms or phrases that are used repeatedly in
the text. It may include the variant of a term or phrase
(i.e., kidney and renal), drug names, procedures, etc.,
and common abbreviation of terms, i.e. HIV. After that,
common vocabulary or term list or indexing standard
(GeoRef, ERIC Thesaurus, ChemWeb, PsycInfo, BIOSIS
Search Guide, Medical Subject Heading [MeSH]
Thesaurus) are referred to ensure that the terms used
in the research matches those terms used in these
resources.[5,22,23]
For biomedical research, the thesaurus
of the American National Library of Medicine (NLM)
MeSHs is accepted as a standard for vocabulary/term
listing or indexing.[18]
MeSH terms used as keywords are
followed by biomedical libraries and journals all over

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Dash: The title, abstract and keywords
the world. The MeSH thesaurus is available in Index
Medicus, in MEDLINE on CD and on the American
National Library of Medicine website.[24]
CONCLUSION
Ultimately, a good research article depends on how well
the title and abstract is written. Some authors usually
write the title and abstract instantly at the time of
submission of article in a journal without giving much
importance. The title, abstract and keywords should be
written at the end after thoroughly reading the article
several times.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
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