The document provides information on writing abstracts for research papers and projects. It discusses what an abstract is, what it should include, and how to structure it. The key points covered include that an abstract should be a brief summary, include an introduction, methods, results and conclusions section, and avoid jargon or unnecessary details. It also discusses formatting aspects like title, authors, and length. Overall, the document offers guidance on writing abstracts and highlighting the most essential information from a research paper in a concise way.

1. Writing a Research
Abstract
AIM : To understand the concept of
abstract writing as one of the skills of
scientific communication
•Any reader would first prefer to go
through the abstract and then decide on its
course of study whether to do or not

2. What is an abstract?
 An abstract is a brief summary of a research article,
thesis, review, conference proceeding, or any in-depth
analysis of a particular subject or discipline
 It is often used to help the reader quickly understand
the paper's purpose.
 An abstract acts as the point-of-entry for any given
academic paper or patent application.

3. What does a good abstract do?
 Sparks interest in your project
 Provides a concise description of your research project
 States in a clear and simple way the main points of your
project
 Stands alone
 Targets your specific audience!

4. Components of an Abstract
 Title
 Authors/affiliations
 Objective/background
 Methods
 Results
 Conclusions
 In some cases keywords are written

5. Title
 Describe your most important result/the major
thing you found or did
 Keep it relatively short
 Avoid all abbreviations and technical jargon

6. Authors
 Your name should go first if you are presenting
 Your mentor should generally be an author
(usually last author)
 Additional people who have worked the project
may be authors – be sure to talk to your mentor!

7. Objective
 Motivation – why do we care about the problem?
 What practical, artistical or scientific gap is your
project filling?
 Why were you drawn to this project?
 You will generally need a little background/intro to
explain the objective
 The objective should catch people’s attention – very
important!
 HYPOTHESIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8. Methods
 Procedure or approach to the project.
 How did you go about finding your results?
 What steps were taken to carry out the project?
 Don’t go into too much detail!

9. Results
 A description of your data and observations
– enough detail to make it clear
 Still try to avoid jargon
 As a result of your procedure, what was
found or created?
 Typically does not include actual data (p-
values, survey statistics, gene sequences…)
 NEVER predict your results!!!

10. Conclusions
 What are the larger implications of your
work?
 What is the bigger picture?
 Work on incorporating these implications
into your very last sentence
 “These results suggest that HMPV is unique
among the family members, with the fusion
protein driving attachment and low-pH
induced fusion, likely following endocytic
entry of the virus”

11. Things to Avoid
 Avoid unnecessary phrases including “It is
suggested that…” or “It is known that…”
 These can be omitted without changing the
message
 If possible, do not use acronyms or abbreviations
 Avoid rephrasing or restating the title
 Avoid jargon that will not be understood by all
readers

12. Helpful Hints
 Look at examples of abstracts in your field
 If your abstract is based on a report or paper: 1.
reread your report or paper and summarize the main
points or idea
2. Don’t add any information that is not in your
report or paper
Get your mentor’s approval!!!!

13. KEYPOINTS
 Introduction: 2-3 sentences
 Brief description of materials and methods: 1-2 sentences
 Summary of significant result: 1-3 sentence
 Statement of significance of result/conclusion: 1-2
sentences
 No reference/bibliography/table/figures etc.
 No information from outside
 No abbreviation (unless it is properly introduced)
 Single paragraph
 Simple sentences – short, concise, past perfect tense,
passive voice (since work is done)

14. AIM: TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE
WORKS DONE BY THE
RESEARCHERS THAT ARE CITED
IN A RESEARCH PAPER
Bibliography
Relating to books Denoting something
Synonymous to bookmark or tagging

15. Bibliograpghy
•An alphabetical list of all source material to which
reference has been made while preparing a report or
a text
•Works listed in bibliography may not be cited in the
text
•Some different ways of referencing a book, journal
articles and other documents are as under:

16. Bibliography
Name-Year
Documentation
Citation-Sequence
system
Citation-name
sequence system

17. Name-Year Documentation
•Citations in the name-year
format are referred to in the
body of the paper using the in-
text style.
•The in-text style for citations
includes the author’s name and
the year of publication within
parentheses and the citations
are listed alphabetically by
the author’s surname in
the end references page.

18. Citation-Sequence system
•In the citation-sequence
system, superscripted
numbers are inserted at the
point of reference,
sequentially numbered in the
order in which they first
appear, like this1.
• It is possible to cite more
than one reference within one
sentence by using a
superscript sequence of
numbers2,3. The citations are
then listed numerically in the
end references page.

19. Citation-name sequence system
•In the citation-name
system, superscripted
numbers are inserted at the
point of reference as in the
citation sequence system.
•However, the citations are
numbered alphabetically
(not by order of
appearance) by the author's
last name in the cited works
for the paper.

20. EXAMPLEs:

21. Name-year system
 Also known as Harvard system/Author-date system
 Citation of source – surname of author/last name followed by
year
 Example, (XYZ,2014)
 Authors name listed in Reference section in alphabetical order
 Most widely used as it is simple to use
 Most journals in Life Science and Agriculture follow this system
 Greatest advantage – convenient to both the author and reader
 Time saving (since no need to crosscheck)
 Disadvantage – requirement of more space in the main body of
text

22. Citation-Sequence system
 Also known as Vancover style
 Reference cited in this system is numbered according to
order of appearance in text
 No. is set as superscript 1 or parentheses (1)
 If reference cited indicates more than one source – No.
arranged in series (1,4,7)
 If in sequence (1-3)/if not (1,3)
 When Citations finalized – reference sources listed at the
end in order of position
 BOOK – Author, Year
 ARTICLE – Author, Journal name, Year
 Reader friendly