The abstract is the face of an entire medical research paper. It can also be seen as the ticket for the research paper to be accepted as a presentation for a bigger audience. It is among the last items written for medical research and is often mistakenly seen to be the easiest content to be created for the entire project.
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For an abstract to be effective, it needs to reflect the time, work, and importance of the medical research that was performed during the study. If the abstract is poorly written, the study—no matter how well it was executed—will have a higher chance of being seen as mediocre.
It is important that an ample amount of time is spent on the writing process to produce compelling abstract. It should not be definitely written five minutes before the deadline. Some medical researchers tend to underestimate the writing of the abstract because it only requires a relatively small amount of text to be written. Despite being short and only a paragraph long (usually), abstracts must be worked on weeks ahead.
Abstracts have to be impressive but should also be simple enough not to sound ostentatious. It is important that the researchers think deeply about the message that they want to relay to their readers. A rushed abstract tends to include a lot of unnecessary details, and a conclusion does barely sums up the entire study. This often confuses the reader and leads to disinterest. Medical researchers must also read and adhere to the submission guidelines provided in the call for abstracts strictly. A certain structure, word count and other technical requirements are sometimes specified when writing the abstract.
Image source: medwrite-canada.com
Vijaya Prakash Boggala writes medical abstracts and has contributed to the 2011 article ‘A mortal case of moonshine.’ More about him can be read here.
