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Writing a Great Abstract

Amy SissonInformation Services LibrarianResearch Medical Libraryaasisson@mdanderson.org

Clara FowlerManager, Information ServicesResearch Medical Librarycfowler@mdanderson.org

Presented by:

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What abstracts are• A summary of the article’s content

• A time-saving shortcut for readers and researchers

• A “table of contents” for the most important parts of your manuscript

• Occasionally, they are the only publication of particular information (i.e. conference proceeding abstracts not published elsewhere)

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Why are abstracts important?• Most databases do not offer the

ability to search the articles’ full text

• Article abstracts are where most keyword searches are matched

• If an abstract is not well-written, researchers may not be able to find it, because most searchers do not use subject headings to search

“BMJ editors now begin screening original research by reading only the abstract. Our estimate is that an initial decision is made on the abstract alone in 15-25% of papers.…All too often abstracts are poorly written, incomplete, misleading, and plain wrong.”

Groves, T. and K. Abbasi (2004). "Screening research papers by reading abstracts." BMJ 329(7464): 470-471.

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Types of abstracts• Unstructured &

structured• Journal will indicate in

the author’s instructions which type they require

JAMA:Include a structured abstract of no more than 350 words for reports of original data, reviews, and meta-analyses. For other major manuscripts, include an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words that summarizes the objective, main points, and conclusions of the article.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/public/instructionsForAuthors.aspx#Abstracts

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Unstructured Abstract

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Structured Abstract

Example of a structured abstract for JAMA

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Key element 1 (background): the point of the research – why should we care about the study?

Key element 2 (objectives): the specific research question – the basis of credible science.

Key element 3 (methods): a description of the methods used to collect data and determine the relationships between the variables.

Key element 4 (results): the major findings – not only data, but the RELATIONSHIPS found that lead to the answer. These are historical facts and, therefore, reported in past tense.

Key element 5 (conclusions): the answers to the research questions – the authors’ INTERPRETATION of the factual findings. An answer to a research question is in the present tense.

KEY ELEMENTS OF ABSTRACTS

http://www.ease.org.uk/sites/default/files/ease_guidelines-june2013-abstracts.pdf

Deficient AbstractsInconsistency = data given differently in abstract and the body of the articleOmission = data reported in abstract but not in the body of the article

Random sample of articles and abstracts from 6 major medical journals (Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, Lancet, NEJM, and CMAJ) compared for accuracy. Found proportion of deficient abstracts per journal varied widely (18%-68%).

• 60 articles selected from 6 clinical journals (American Journal of Emergency Medicine, BMJ, JAMA, Lancet, NEJM, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology)

• Data inaccuracy found in 32 abstracts (53.33% of the articles)

• Results sections showed the most number of discrepancies in structured abstracts

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In 2006, Arthur Amman, President of Global Strategies forHIV Prevention, made a disquieting remark: “I recentlymet a physician from southern Africa, engaged inperinatal HIV prevention, whose primary access toinformation was abstracts posted on the internet. Basedon a single abstract, they had altered their perinatal HIVprevention program from an effective therapy to onewith lesser efficacy. Had they read the full text article they would have undoubtedly realized that the study results were based on short-term follow-up, a small pivotal group, incomplete data, and unlikely to be applicable to their country situation. Their decision to alter treatment based solely on the abstract’s conclusions may have resulted in increased perinatal HIV transmission.”1

The PLoS Medicine Editors. The impact of open access upon public health. PLoS Med 2006: 3: e252.

CONSORT for ABSTRACTS• CONSORT, Consolidated

Standards of Reporting Trials, developed to alleviate the problems arising from inadequate reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

• This is the minimum list of essential items to include in a journal or conference abstract when reporting the main results of a randomized trial

www.thelancet.com Published online January 22, 2008 DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61835-2

ABSTRACTS:Writing Tips 1. Explain Abbreviations

ABSTRACTS:Writing Tips

2. Synonyms for title keywords in abstract

ABSTRACTS:Writing Tips

3. Refrain from citing references in the abstract

Why are author keywords important?• In February 2013, PubMed began displaying searchable author

keywords when supplied by journal publishers

• Author keywords provide an opportunity to include descriptive words/phrases in addition to the abstract = more “points of entry”

• Depending on the searcher, an author keyword may be the only point of entryfor that searcher tofind the article

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Choosing your author keywords• Look for similar articles to see what author keywords they

use

• Avoid general or simplistic words (molecule, lasers, energy)

• Choose specific words and phrases that other researchersin your field are likely to use when searching for your topic (hippocampal, cell death, bioturbation)

• Choose words and phrases that you did not have room forin your abstract

http://www.springer.com/authors/journal+authors/journal+authors+academy?SGWID=0-1726414-12-837806-0)

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ACTIVITY #1

Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Aug 15;178(4):521-33. doi: 10.1093/aje/kws589. Epub 2013 Jul 17.

Prospective study of ultraviolet radiation exposure and mortality risk in the United States.Lin SW1, Wheeler DC, Park Y, Spriggs M, Hollenbeck AR, Freedman DM, Abnet CC.

AbstractGeographic variations in mortality rate in the United States could be due to several hypothesized factors, one of which is exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Limited evidence from previous prospective studies has been inconclusive. The association between ambient residential UVR exposure and total and cause-specific mortality risks in a regionally diverse cohort (346,615 white, non-Hispanic subjects, 50-71 years of age, in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP Diet and Health Study) was assessed, with accounting for individual-level confounders. UVR exposure (averaged for 1978-1993 and 1996-2005) from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer was linked to the US Census Bureau 2000 census tract of participants' baseline residence. Multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Over 12 years, UVR exposure was associated with total deaths (n = 41,425; hazard ratio for highest vs. lowest quartiles (HRQ4 vs. Q1) = 1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.09; Ptrend < 0.001) and with deaths (all Ptrend < 0.05) due to cancer (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.11), cardiovascular disease (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.12), respiratory disease (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.55), and stroke (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.33) but not with deaths due to injury, diabetes, or infectious disease. These results suggest that UVR exposure might not be beneficial for longevity.

Identify author keywords for this article

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PubMed Uses Automatic Term Mapping

Terms entered into the search box are matched (in this order):1. subjects using the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) translation table, 2. journals using the Journals translation table3. authors and investigators, using the Full Author translation table,

Author index, Full Investigator translation table and Investigator index.

If a match is found in any translation table, the mapping stops.

If no match is found in any tables, terms are searched in All Fields and ANDed together.

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Automatic Term Mapping in PubMedEXAMPLES:

Ear infection = "otitis"[MeSH Terms] OR "otitis"[All Fields] OR ("ear"[All Fields] AND "infection"[All Fields]) OR "ear infection"[All Fields]

Metastatic lung cancer = ("secondary"[Subheading] OR "secondary"[All Fields] OR "metastatic"[All Fields]) AND ("lung neoplasms"[MeSH Terms] OR ("lung"[All Fields] AND "neoplasms"[All Fields]) OR "lung neoplasms"[All Fields] OR ("lung"[All Fields] AND "cancer"[All Fields]) OR "lung cancer"[All Fields])

ABSTRACTS:Writing Tips

4. Run a sample search for your article in PubMed and see how it is searched.

Search: pomegranate and blood pressure

Query searched in PubMed:("punicaceae"[MeSH Terms] OR "punicaceae"[All Fields] OR "pomegranate"[All Fields]) AND ("blood pressure"[MeSH Terms] OR ("blood"[All Fields] AND "pressure"[All Fields]) OR "blood pressure"[All Fields] OR "blood pressure determination"[MeSH Terms] OR ("blood"[All Fields] AND "pressure"[All Fields] AND "determination"[All Fields]) OR "blood pressure determination"[All Fields] OR ("blood"[All Fields] AND "pressure"[All Fields]) OR "blood pressure"[All Fields] OR "arterial pressure"[MeSH Terms] OR ("arterial"[All Fields] AND "pressure"[All Fields]) OR "arterial pressure"[All Fields] OR ("blood"[All Fields] AND "pressure"[All Fields])

PubMed: Phrase Index via Advanced Search

Use PubMed’s Advanced Search feature to “test” a phrase you’re considering as an author keyword; if it does not get results, it may not be the best choice

Previously indexed articles• Look up a similar article and

check its MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) terms to see how it was indexed

• Follow the trail by right-clicking on a MeSH term and viewing it in the MeSH database

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ACTIVITY #2

Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Aug 15;178(4):521-33. doi: 10.1093/aje/kws589. Epub 2013 Jul 17.

Prospective study of ultraviolet radiation exposure and mortality risk in the United States.Lin SW1, Wheeler DC, Park Y, Spriggs M, Hollenbeck AR, Freedman DM, Abnet CC.

AbstractGeographic variations in mortality rate in the United States could be due to several hypothesized factors, one of which is exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Limited evidence from previous prospective studies has been inconclusive. The association between ambient residential UVR exposure and total and cause-specific mortality risks in a regionally diverse cohort (346,615 white, non-Hispanic subjects, 50-71 years of age, in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP Diet and Health Study) was assessed, with accounting for individual-level confounders. UVR exposure (averaged for 1978-1993 and 1996-2005) from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer was linked to the US Census Bureau 2000 census tract of participants' baseline residence. Multivariate-adjusted Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Over 12 years, UVR exposure was associated with total deaths (n = 41,425; hazard ratio for highest vs. lowest quartiles (HRQ4 vs. Q1) = 1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.09; Ptrend < 0.001) and with deaths (all Ptrend < 0.05) due to cancer (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.11), cardiovascular disease (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.12), respiratory disease (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.55), and stroke (HRQ4 vs. Q1 = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.33) but not with deaths due to injury, diabetes, or infectious disease. These results suggest that UVR exposure might not be beneficial for longevity.

Identify MeSH terms for this article

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Am J Epidemiol. 2013 Aug 15;178(4):521-33. doi: 10.1093/aje/kws589. Epub 2013 Jul 17.Prospective study of ultraviolet radiation exposure and mortality risk in the United States.Lin SW1, Wheeler DC, Park Y, Spriggs M, Hollenbeck AR, Freedman DM, Abnet CC.

MeSH TermsAgedCardiovascular Diseases/mortality*Cause of DeathFemaleHealth BehaviorHumansMaleMiddle AgedNeoplasms/mortality*Nutrition Surveys/statistics & numerical dataOzoneProportional Hazards ModelsProspective StudiesRespiratory Tract Diseases/mortality*Risk AssessmentSpatial AnalysisStroke/mortality*Sunlight/adverse effects*Ultraviolet Rays/adverse effects*United States/epidemiology

AUTHOR KEYWORDS: epidemiology, mortality, prospective, sunlight, ultraviolet radiation, vitamin D

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Conclusions1. Read Instructions for Authors for guidance on format, length, and

content2. Explain abbreviations to improve searchability3. Use synonyms in the text of your abstract to create multiple options for

other researchers to find your work4. Do not cite other work in your abstract unless required by the editor5. Search PubMed to find similar articles to your research to see how they

were indexed (MeSH terms) and what author keywords were selected6. If you need assistance with selecting keywords, schedule a consultation

with a librarian (rml-help@mdanderson.org)