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• What were my results? What was new compared to previous research?

• What are the implications of my findings? What are my conclusions and/or

recommendations?
Although most Abstracts shouldn’t concentrate on the methods but more on the
results, some scientists (e.g. chemists, physicists, biologists) who are presenting
some new instrumentation may want to focus not on what they found, but on what
the benefits of their apparatus are and how well it performs.

To decide what to include in your Abstract, go through your paper and highlight
what you consider to be the most important points in each section.

Remember that an Abstract is NOT an Introduction to your paper, it is a summary
of ALL your paper.

13.3 How important is the Abstract?

Incredibly important.

Editors may decide whether or not to send your paper for review exclusively on the
basis of your Abstract.

Reviewers will probably read your Abstract first before reading any other parts your

paper. Ensuring that they have a positive reaction is essential. If they don’t like your
Abstract they may simply stop reading and reject the paper, rather than wasting their
time reading and evaluating the rest of the paper. In fact, a poor Abstract is very
often the sign of a poor paper.

Research has proved that what you experience first will condition how you perceive
what comes after – we tend to judge everything in comparison with something else,
i.e. something that came before. This means that if your Abstract is clearly written,
you will set up a positive expectation amongst your readers – they will think that if
the Abstract is easy to understand then the rest of the paper is likely to be easily
understood too. This will certainly encourage them to read on.

Your title and your Abstract will generally be the only parts of your paper that are avail-

able online at no cost. So when a potential reader finds your paper, they will use your
Abstract to help them decide whether to buy the full version of your paper and / or read
the rest of the paper.