This presentation describes the fundamentals of writing abstracts for scientific conferences. It specifically addresses the Ayurveda conferences.

1. Writing Abstracts for
Scientific Conferences
Kishor Patwardhan

2. Conference, Symposium, Workshop,
Seminar: What is the difference?
• Conference
– Large event, Research oriented
– Large number of participants
– Pre-planned
– Diverse topics with sub-themes
– Invites abstracts submissions
– Peer-review
– Oral /Poster
– Keynote addresses
– Plenary lectures

3. • Symposium
– Small event (Usually one day)
– Limited number of participants
– Invited lectures by Experts
– Scope for interaction
– No abstracts are invited

4. • Workshop
– Transfers skills along with knowledge
– Hands-on training involved
– Limited participants
– Known Expert groups train participants in a
pre-planned way

5. • Seminar
– Educational
– Transfers knowledge
– Minimum presentations
– Limited audience
– Specific topics

6. • Congress / Colloquium
– Includes almost everything:
• Conference
• Symposium
• Workshop
• Seminars

7. Purpose of a Conference
• Focuses on the current trends of research and
practice in a field
• For a researcher, it is a ‘pre-publication’ event
• Opportunity to receive feedback on your work
• Opportunity to interact with different groups
• You can still improvise upon your work
• Poster Presentations: Provides better
opportunity to have feedback than Oral
presentations

8. Submitting your work to
a conference

9. Kinds of submissions
• Original research
– Experimental studies (In vitro / in vivo
studies, Educational experiments etc)
– Surveys / Observational studies
– Clinical trials
• Discussion / Policy papers
• Reviews /Hypothesis / Meta-analyses

10. Pre-requisite
• You must have done some work before
you submit abstract ! (Original Research)
• You must have given some thoughts on
some policies / debatable issues (Policy /
Discussion papers / Theoretical
submissions)
• You must have developed some new
insights after going through the available
literature on a topic (Review)

11. Principles of writing an abstract
• Transparent, Ethical, Unbiased and
Complete reporting
• Summary of your work / idea
• There must be something ‘New’ in
your work that must be highlighted

12. Parts of an Abstract
(Irrespective of whether it is structured or not)
• Title
• Authorship
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion and Conclusion

13. Title
• Title should be complete, specific and should
cover the central idea
• Should include the key methods like ‘Survey’, or
‘Double blind Randomized placebo controlled
Trial’, or ‘Observational study’ etc.
• Independent and dependent variables should be
mentioned
• Name of species (if not human) to be mentioned
• Do not use abbreviations, jargon, chemical
formulas, series identifiers

14. Title conveys the ‘central idea’
• Identify central topic: be creative
• ‘Immunomodulatory, neuroprotective and
longevity enhancing effect of Emblica officinalis
in mice’ is better than:
‘Evaluating the Rasayana effect of Amalaki’
• “How did Sushruta treat typhoid?” is better than:
“The concept of Jvara in Sushruta Samhita”

15. Title for a work on clinical research must
include
• Setting (location)
• Patients (what was studied)
• Intervention (treatment)
• Comparator (control group)
• Endpoint (outcome of interest)
• Design (study design)

16. Examples for complete titles
• A randomised clinical trial to evaluate the effects of
Plantago ovata husk in Parkinson patients: changes
in levodopa pharmacokinetics and biochemical
parameters
• Six-month effects of integrative treatment,
therapeutic acupuncture and conventional
treatment in alleviating psychological distress in
primary care patients - follow up from an open,
pragmatic randomized controlled trial

17. Avoid:
• Institution’s name / number of cases in the title
• Outcomes of Panchakarma: The Mumbai Ayurveda
Hospital Experience
• Outcomes of Ksharabasti trial in Amavata: A review
of 275 Cases with 5-Year Follow up
• Interrogative titles
• Measurement of colonic polyps by radiologists and
endoscopists: Who is most accurate?
(Usually reserved for editorials/ discussion articles)

18. Avoid:
• Declarative Title:
• Grape seed extract prevents skeletal muscle
wasting
(Results instead of writing what was studied)
• Instead, go for:
• Effect of grape seed extract on skeletal muscle
wasting in interleukin 10 knockout mice

19. How can these titles be improvised?
• Anxiolytic, sedative, and hypnotic activities of aqueous
extract of Morinda citrifolia fruit.
• in rodents in comparison to diazepam
• Does copper enhance the antihypertensive effect of
Elaeocarpus ganitrus in experimentally induced
hypertensive rats?
• additive effect of copper
• Central nervous system activity of an aqueous acetonic
extract of Ficus carica L. in mice
• CNS depressive activity

20. Authorship
• First Author:
(Usually the corresponding author too)
– The one who has carried out the actual work and
the one who wrote the abstract
• Last (Senior) Author:
(Corresponding author for publication in a journal)
– The one who originally conceived the study,
planned it and approved the final manuscript to be
published
• Second/ third/.. authors:
– Who helped in carrying out the work and also in
manuscript preparation

21. Abstract:
• Reader should get the central idea of your work by
reading the abstract
– Should be brief
– Should state the problem and the hypothesis
– Should state the methods (e.g., Random Control
Trial)
– Should summarize the results
– Should include inferences of the study
– Avoid known/ generally accepted facts

22. Abstract
• Introduction/background: what was the purpose
(10%)
• Material and methods: what was the study design,
techniques, and statistical methods (30-35%)
• Results: what are the most important findings (35-
45%)
• Conclusions: why are the results important (20-
25%)
Cornett, 2001

23. IMRAD: a mirror of your research process
Introduction
Material & Methods
Results
And
Discussion
Ask a question
Attempt to answer the question
Obtain and compile data
Answer the question

24. Introduction
• Based on what was known and unknown,
why did you do the study?
• What was the research question? What
was the tested hypothesis? What was the
purpose of the research?
24

25. Methods
• When, Where and How did you do the
study?
• What materials were used?
• Who was included in the study groups
(patients, animals etc)?
• What statistical methods were used?

26. Results
• What answers did you get?
• Was the tested hypothesis true?

27. Discussion
• What does it mean in the context of the existing
knowledge?
• How does it fit in with what other researchers
have found?
• What are the perspectives for future research?

28. Goal of an abstract:
“maximum info in minimum space”
Structured
• Uses headings to
identify
• Follows IMRAD format
• 250 -300 words
Unstructured
• Arranged in 1
paragraph
• Follows IMRAD format
• 150 – 200 words

29. What makes a good abstract?
• Follows guidelines of the conference
• ‘Stands alone’ : it is an independent unit of
information
• Is accurate (check for inconsistencies and
omissions)
• Is readable and coherent
• Includes specific data
Cornett, 2001

30. 6 steps for writing your abstract
• Identify guidelines of the conference
• Highlight key features of your work
• Insert sentences into abstract format
• Write, revise, and condense
• Edit sentences and words
• Check final

31. Do you find this abstract alright?
Ayurveda is one of the most ancient healthcare systems in
the world. The term Ayurveda consists of two words: ‘Ayu’
and ‘Veda’. ‘Ayu’ means life and Veda means knowledge.
Therefore, Ayurveda means the science of life. In Ayurvedic
literatude, immunity has been described as ‘Ojas’. This is of
two kinds: ‘Para’ and ‘Apara’. In the recent years, immune
system related disorders are being increasingly recognized
and the role of immunomodulatory drugs is being explored.
In Ayurveda, ‘Rasayana’ drugs are described to have
immunomodulatory effect. The present study aims at
evaluating the role of Amalaki as an immunomodulatory
agent in animal model. Details are explained in the paper.

32. Do you find this abstract alright?
Ayurveda is one of the most ancient healthcare systems in
the world. The term Ayurveda consists of two words: ‘Ayu’
and ‘Veda’. ‘Ayu’ means life and Veda means knowledge.
Therefore, Ayurveda means the science of life. In Ayurvedic
literatude, immunity has been described as ‘Ojas’. This is of
two kinds: ‘Para’ and ‘Apara’. In the recent years, immune
system related disorders are being increasingly recognized
and the role of immunomodulatory drugs is being explored.
In Ayurveda, ‘Rasayana’ drugs are described to have
immunomodulatory effect. The present study aims at
evaluating the role of Amalaki as an immunomodulatory
agent in animal model. Details are explained in the paper.

33. Review: abstracts
• Accepted only if they are exceptionally
good
• Provide new insights
• Rejected if repetitive and contain known
information
• There has to be ‘something new’

34. Do NOT submit:
• Already published work
(It is already there in the public domain)
• Plagiarized work / Cooked data / Falsified /
Fabricated data
(It will do more harm than help)

35. Advantages of conferences
• Abstract is often published
• Full paper may be published in proceedings
• You can present your work that is still underway
and incomplete
• Based on the feedback, your direction of work can
be changed
• Get to know people working in your field
• Most beneficial for young scholars / budding
scientists

36. Limitations of conferences
• Mushrooming journals are serving the
purpose of conferences ! (By publishing
anything and everything !)
• Your work is no more a secret!
• Often Commercial interests dominate
• Often promoting self-interest
• Often promote only positive studies

37. Thanks!