Pitfalls of Abstract

Common weaknesses of abstracts in published journal article

- Are cursory, i.e. lack adequate information for readers to understand what was done
and how.
- Miss important information, e.g. sample size(s) or research instrument(s).
- Are excessively detailed and lack focus.
- Are too long, exceeding the word limit (usually about 250 words) specified by the
journal.
- Are verbose and lack economy in expression.
- Include extraneous content, e.g. literature findings peripheral to topic.
- Include reference citations.
- Are disorganized; unstructured abstract may lack orderly transition or progression,
structured abstracts may have misplaced information.
- Confuse, reuse, or transpose the abstract and the paper’s introduction.
- Introduce new information (not mentioned in article).
- Overstate the data from the current project/study in the conclusions.
- Lack correlation between conclusion and the current project/study findings.
- Contain grammar, spelling or punctuation errors.

Submitting to Conference: Creating an Awesome Trailer!

- Frame your abstract so it matches up with the conference themes to increase your
chance of success.
- If too many results, may need 2 abstracts.
- Best not to submit partial results or state that analysis are in progress – often results in
rejection.
- Conclusion should not restate result  a well written conclusion refers back to
introduction and aims and emphasizes the significance of the findings.

Presenting the Results

- … and when presenting the results, include numerical values, not just an interpretation
of the results.
o Example: “Response rates differed significantly between hypertensive and non-
hypertensive children.”
o Better: “The response rate was higher in non-hypertensive than in hypertensive
children (50% vs 20%, respectively, p<0.01).
Tips on Writing a Good Title
- Start thinking about the title from the start.
- Brainstorm lots of key words, create permutations and ask co-authors and non-authors
for input.
- Start the title with the most important words (not with the methods).
- Don’t finalize the title until the very end.

Informative and Indicative Titles

- Informative: “Video supported feedback is superior to audio only feedback”  this is
controversial; some say to avoid such declarative titles.
- Indicative: Randomized trial.
- Both: Video supported feedback is superior to audio only feedback: a randomized trial.
- Can use colon (“:”) to append indicative portion such as “ a systematic review”, “a
cohort study”, “a national survey”, etc.

Title Transformation

Poor title Better Title Rationale

Systematic review of
assessments of medical
student self-regulated
learning
Does CBL work for medical
student lectures?
Evaluating the role of
Schmidt’s Intermediate effect
in facilitating the cognitive
development of third year
medical students in a
Assessing self-regulated
learning in medical students :
a systematic review
Case-based vs non-case-
based lectures for second-
year medical student : a non-
randomized controlled study
Or
Improved retention with
case-based vs non-case-
based lectures for medical
students : a non-randomized
controlled study
Reproducing the
intermediate effect in third-
year medical students: a
randomized trial
Or
Don’t start off with the study
design, begin with words
most likely to attract
attention of potential
readers.
The acronym “CBL” could
mean many other things
including computer-based
learning.
The poor title does not
mention the comparison or
the study design.
The poor title does not
specify the stage of medical
student training or the main
findings: each better title
resolves on of these deficits.
The poor title is very long and
contains details that distract
from the main massage.
The better title are shorter,
more focused, and put the
 nephrology clinical rotation
in Kenya
Give me credit for what I’ve
done : Improving
maintenance of certification
Clinical reasoning in third-
year medical students
reproducing the intermediate
effect
Facilitating maintenance of
certification for internal
medicine physicians: a focus
group study
key words up front. The
choice between these two
would depend on which key
words would best attract
your target audience.
The poor title might be
appropriate as an editorial or
perspective, but it is a bit
informal for most original
research articles. Note that
the better title puts the key
words near to the front, to
better attract attentions.

More about the Title

- Keep it concise.
- Keep it specific.
- Place the keywords towards the beginning.
- Use of colon in the title.
- Avoid query / interrogative titles.
- Avoid abbreviations / acronyms in the title.
- Ingredients of a good title – should be SPICED!

Keep it Concise
- Not too long, not too complicated.
- About 10-12 words at most.
“A novel study on the usefulness of NS1 antigen detection test in the diagnosis of dengue
fever in children : analysis of clinical features and comparison with ELISA test and viral
culture with clinical follow – up in 100 patients of dengue fever at XYZ hospital, Delhi.”

Better: “NS1 antigen test for the diagnosis of Dengue fever in children”
Keep it Specific
- Example 1
o “Vitamin D and pneumonia”  though concise, it is not informative.
o Better: “Vitamin D deficiency and risk of severe pneumonia in children”
- Example 2
o “Daily vs weekly iron supplementation in adolescent girls in Delhi”
o Better: “Daily vs weekly iron supplementation in adolescent girls : a randomized
controlled trial”

Place Keywords Towards the Beginning

- Example 1
o “Treatment of Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia with Rituximab”
o Better: “Rituximab for Treatment of Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia”
- Example 2
o “Prevalence of Obesity in Adults by Sex”
o Better: “Sex differencesin Prevalence of Obesity in Adults”

Use Descriptive/Neutral Title

- Use a descriptive title that has all the study elements (PICO).
Patient, intervention, comparison, outcome.
- Example
“Seven Days versus Ten Days Antibiotic Therapy for Culture-Proven Neonatal Sepsis : a
Randomized Controlled Trial”
- There is not agreement if declarative titles should be used.

Avoid Query/Interrogative Titles

- Most agree you should avoid interrogative titles.
- Example
“Is Seven Days Antibiotic Therapy Better than Ten Days Antibiotic Therapy for Treating
Culture – Proven Neonatal Sepsis?”
Ingredients of a Good Title : It Should be SPICED!
- Setting
- Population
- Intervention
- Condition
- Endpoint
- Design

…and in summary, some final pearls about abstracts

Characteristic of a well-written abstract

- Stand on its own without need to read the paper

- States the hypothesis, question, or objective of the study
- Completes the story by answering the hypothesis, question, or objective
- Contain the same keywords and terms as the title and the introduction
- Follows the correct style and format
- Follows the order of the main text (e.g. IMRAD)
- Stays within the allowed word count
- Does not contain information absent in the paper
- Does not make conclusions unsupported by the data
- Limit the use of abbreviations
- Does not include references
- Does not cite tables or figures

Conclusions
- An abstract must be well written as it is just like movie trailer.
- Conference proceedings website instructions should be reviewed carefully prior to
submission.
- Finish at least 1 week before deadline to seek input from your co-authors.
- Follow reporting standards.
- Think about the title early on.. should be concise, specific and be spiced!