What to Include in a Literature Review Abstract
Definition and Purpose of Abstracts
An abstract is a short summary of your (published or unpublished) inquiry paper, usually well-nigh a paragraph (c. 6-seven sentences, 150-250 words) long. A well-written abstract serves multiple purposes:
- an abstruse lets readers go the gist or essence of your paper or article chop-chop, in order to decide whether to read the full paper;
- an abstract prepares readers to follow the detailed information, analyses, and arguments in your full paper;
- and, later, an abstract helps readers recall key points from your paper.
Information technology's too worth remembering that search engines and bibliographic databases use abstracts, also every bit the title, to place central terms for indexing your published paper. So what you include in your abstract and in your championship are crucial for helping other researchers detect your paper or article.
If y'all are writing an abstract for a course paper, your professor may give you specific guidelines for what to include and how to organize your abstruse. Similarly, academic journals oftentimes have specific requirements for abstracts. So in addition to following the advice on this page, you should be certain to look for and follow any guidelines from the course or journal you're writing for.
The Contents of an Abstruse
Abstracts comprise most of the post-obit kinds of information in brief form. The torso of your newspaper will, of course, develop and explicate these ideas much more fully. Every bit you will meet in the samples below, the proportion of your abstract that yous devote to each kind of data—and the sequence of that data—will vary, depending on the nature and genre of the paper that you are summarizing in your abstract. And in some cases, some of this data is implied, rather than stated explicitly. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, which is widely used in the social sciences, gives specific guidelines for what to include in the abstract for dissimilar kinds of papers—for empirical studies, literature reviews or meta-analyses, theoretical papers, methodological papers, and instance studies.
Here are the typical kinds of information found in almost abstracts:
- the context or background data for your enquiry; the general topic under written report; the specific topic of your research
- the central questions or argument of the problem your research addresses
- what'south already known virtually this question, what previous research has done or shown
- the primary reason(s), the exigency, the rationale, the goals for your research—Why is it of import to accost these questions? Are you, for instance, examining a new topic? Why is that topic worth examining? Are y'all filling a gap in previous inquiry? Applying new methods to take a fresh look at existing ideas or data? Resolving a dispute within the literature in your field? . . .
- your research and/or belittling methods
- your main findings, results, or arguments
- the significance or implications of your findings or arguments.
Your abstruse should be intelligible on its own, without a reader'southward having to read your entire paper. And in an abstract, y'all ordinarily practice not cite references—near of your abstract will describe what you take studied in your inquiry and what you have establish and what yous debate in your paper. In the torso of your newspaper, y'all will cite the specific literature that informs your enquiry.
When to Write Your Abstruse
Although you might be tempted to write your abstruse showtime because it volition appear every bit the very first part of your paper, it'southward a skilful thought to wait to write your abstract until after you've drafted your full paper, and then that you know what y'all're summarizing.
What follows are some sample abstracts in published papers or articles, all written by kinesthesia at UW-Madison who come from a variety of disciplines. We have annotated these samples to help you see the work that these authors are doing within their abstracts.
Choosing Verb Tenses within Your Abstract
The social science sample (Sample 1) below uses the nowadays tense to depict full general facts and interpretations that have been and are currently truthful, including the prevailing caption for the social miracle under report. That abstruse also uses the present tense to describe the methods, the findings, the arguments, and the implications of the findings from their new inquiry report. The authors use the by tense to describe previous inquiry.
The humanities sample (Sample 2) beneath uses the past tense to draw completed events in the past (the texts created in the pulp fiction industry in the 1970s and 80s) and uses the present tense to describe what is happening in those texts, to explain the significance or meaning of those texts, and to describe the arguments presented in the article.
The science samples (Samples 3 and 4) beneath use the past tense to describe what previous inquiry studies have done and the research the authors have conducted, the methods they have followed, and what they accept found. In their rationale or justification for their enquiry (what remains to be done), they utilise the nowadays tense. They besides utilise the nowadays tense to innovate their report (in Sample 3, "Here nosotros report . . .") and to explain the significance of their report (In Sample 3, This reprogramming . . . "provides a scalable prison cell source for. . .").
Sample Abstract one
From the social sciences
Reporting new findings almost the reasons for increasing economic homogamy amongst spouses
Gonalons-Pons, Pilar, and Christine R. Schwartz. "Trends in Economic Homogamy: Changes in Assortative Mating or the Partition of Labor in Marriage?" Demography, vol. 54, no. three, 2017, pp. 985-1005.
Sample Abstract 2
From the humanities
Analyzing underground pulp fiction publications in Tanzania, this commodity makes an argument well-nigh the cultural significance of those publications
Emily Callaci. "Street Textuality: Socialism, Masculinity, and Urban Belonging in Tanzania's Pulp Fiction Publishing Industry, 1975-1985." Comparative Studies in Lodge and History, vol. 59, no. ane, 2017, pp. 183-210.
Sample Abstract/Summary 3
From the sciences
Reporting a new method for reprogramming adult mouse fibroblasts into induced cardiac progenitor cells
Lalit, Pratik A., Max R. Salick, Daryl O. Nelson, Jayne M. Squirrell, Christina Yard. Shafer, Neel M. Patel, Imaan Saeed, Eric Thou. Schmuck, Yogananda Southward. Markandeya, Rachel Wong, Martin R. Lea, Kevin Westward. Eliceiri, Timothy A. Hacker, Wendy C. Crone, Michael Kyba, Daniel J. Garry, Ron Stewart, James A. Thomson, Karen Grand. Downs, Gary E. Lyons, and Timothy J. Kamp. "Lineage Reprogramming of Fibroblasts into Proliferative Induced Cardiac Progenitor Cells past Divers Factors." Jail cell Stem Cell, vol. eighteen, 2016, pp. 354-367.
Note: This journal calls this paragraph at the kickoff of the article a "Summary," rather than an "Abstract." This journal provides multiple ways for readers to grasp the content of this enquiry article quickly. In addition to this paragraph-length prose summary, this article also has an effective graphical abstract, a bulleted list of highlights list at the beginning of the article, and a ii-sentence "In Brief" summary.
Sample Abstruse iv, a Structured Abstract
From the sciences
Reporting results about the effectiveness of antibody therapy in managing acute bacterial sinusitis, from a rigorously controlled study
Note: This journal requires authors to organize their abstract into four specific sections, with strict word limits. Considering the headings for this structured abstract are self-explanatory, we take chosen not to add together annotations to this sample abstract.
Wald, Ellen R., David Nash, and Jens Eickhoff. "Effectiveness of Amoxicillin/Clavulanate Potassium in the Treatment of Astute Bacterial Sinusitis in Children." Pediatrics, vol. 124, no. one, 2009, pp. ix-15.
Abstruse
"OBJECTIVE: The office of antibiotic therapy in managing astute bacterial sinusitis (ABS) in children is controversial. The purpose of this study was to make up one's mind the effectiveness of high-dose amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate in the treatment of children diagnosed with ABS.
METHODS: This was a randomized, double-bullheaded, placebo-controlled study. Children 1 to 10 years of age with a clinical presentation uniform with ABS were eligible for participation. Patients were stratified according to age (<half-dozen or ≥6 years) and clinical severity and randomly assigned to receive either amoxicillin (ninety mg/kg) with potassium clavulanate (6.4 mg/kg) or placebo. A symptom survey was performed on days 0, 1, 2, 3, five, seven, 10, 20, and xxx. Patients were examined on 24-hour interval xiv. Children's conditions were rated as cured, improved, or failed according to scoring rules.
RESULTS: Ii thousand one hundred thirty-5 children with respiratory complaints were screened for enrollment; 139 (6.5%) had ABS. 50-eight patients were enrolled, and 56 were randomly assigned. The hateful age was 6630 months. Fifty (89%) patients presented with persistent symptoms, and 6 (11%) presented with nonpersistent symptoms. In 24 (43%) children, the illness was classified as balmy, whereas in the remaining 32 (57%) children it was severe. Of the 28 children who received the antibody, fourteen (l%) were cured, 4 (xiv%) were improved, 4(xiv%) experienced treatment failure, and six (21%) withdrew. Of the 28children who received placebo, 4 (14%) were cured, five (18%) improved, and nineteen (68%) experienced treatment failure. Children receiving the antibiotic were more likely to be cured (50% vs 14%) and less likely to have handling failure (14% vs 68%) than children receiving the placebo.
CONCLUSIONS: ABS is a mutual complication of viral upper respiratory infections. Amoxicillin/potassium clavulanate results in significantly more cures and fewer failures than placebo, co-ordinate to parental study of time to resolution." (9)
Some First-class Communication about Writing Abstracts for Basic Science Research Papers, past Professor Adriano Aguzzi from the Plant of Neuropathology at the Academy of Zurich:
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Source: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/
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