Page 243 - English for Writing Research Papers

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And here are some from other disciplines:

From a journal of vegetation sciences:

Question – Location – Methods – Results – Conclusions
From an economics journal:

Purpose – Design / Methodology / Approach – Findings – Practical implica-
tions – Originality / Value – Keywords – Paper type

Another example of a structured abstract can be found in 13.1 .

13.11 I am not a medical researcher, can I still use

a structured abstract?
The type of abstract you opt for does not depend on you, but on the journal – so have
a look at other papers in your chosen journal to see what the typical style is. In any
case you should always download the instructions to the author (see Sect. 7.2 ).

A structured abstract could really be used for any piece of research, given that all
research should have (1) a context, (2) an aim, (3) a method, (4) some results, (5) an
interpretation of the overall meaning, possible applications, and ideas for how the
research might be continued.

So even if your journal does not require a structured abstract, you will certainly
write a much more effective abstract if you at least include the same information in
the same order (though you can invert points 1 and 2)

13.12 What is an Extended Abstract?

An extended abstract is like a mini research paper, whose ideas and signifi cance can
be understood, according to William Pugh, professor of Computer Science at the
University of Maryland, "in less than an hour". Professor Pugh says:

An ideal submission should have a reviewer intrigued within the first 5 minutes of reading,
excited within 15 minutes and satisfied within 45 minutes. If your abstract fails any of these

tests, it might be rejected no matter how good the research is. Committee members may spend
more than 30–45 minutes on your abstract, but you shouldn't rely on it.
Some journals will not require an extended abstract to contain complete details of
methodology / proofs and future work. However, they will expect comparisons with