Research

Although the abstract appears first in the article, it is best written last because it must contain the essence of the introduction (the purpose of the study), the methods, the main findings (with specific results and their statistical significance) and main conclusions. The style can be impersonal and condensed. It is not an introduction to the article and is not intended to be read as part of the article. It should not contain material that is not in the article. There is much confusion about the nature and function of abstracts, summaries and synopses. A summary was once the summing up of the message at the end of an article. Then editors put it first so readers could see if they wished to read the whole article. Then it began to be used by abstracting journals so more care had to be given to its contents. It is now best called an abstract although some journals still call it a summary. A synopsis, on the other hand, is a brief note of the contents of the article, usually prepared by the journal editor rather than the author. Synopses are seldom used. In the Vancouver style the abstract is limited to 150 words and indeed some computers are programmed to accept only 150 words subsequent words are just omitted.