Guide on How to Write a Scientific Abstract

If the dissertation is your store filled with academic goods, the abstract is the front that draws customers in, making it an essential part of your store’s success. After putting in so much effort, you’d want your research to have the greatest possible impact, attracting the attention of several experts in your field. 

To accomplish this, your scientific paper abstract must be clear and provide the reader with all the pertinent information necessary to evaluate the significance of your work. This post will emphasize important advice on how to write a scientific abstract, assisting you in resolving any challenges you may be having with the abstract. 

What is the purpose of an abstract?

Why should you take your time to develop a quality abstract for a research paper? The abstract is the first section of your research paper that readers will encounter, and as a result, it will have the greatest impact on how they perceive your work. 

Furthermore, a scientific abstract gives the reader a condensed synopsis of your findings, making it easier for readers to determine whether your paper is relevant to their research. Finally, the abstract is useful for indexing on different academic databases and should thus include all the crucial phrases that characterize your research article. 

How to write a good scientific abstract

Many students submit poor-quality abstracts because they are unfamiliar with the stages involved in creating an abstract. As a result, many students either write the abstracts too early, skipping over the article’s main points, or duplicate a section of their paper and use it as the abstract. 

In both cases, the student does not fully grasp their paper’s arguments, therefore, deriving negative attitudes from readers. When it comes to your scientific research abstract, we advocate the following steps: 

1. Review faculty guidelines

Before starting on your abstract, take time to familiarize yourself with various guidelines advocated for by your faculty. Some of these guidelines involve the word count and use of tenses in your abstract. 

2. Develop a reverse outline

After writing your dissertation, write a reverse outline highlighting the key ideas of your paper. This will help you gauge the flow of ideas within your paper and to identify the key arguments in support of your thesis statement.

With this, you can sift the ideas to tackle in your abstract, therefore, giving the reader a clear summary of the pertinent issues within your paper. 

3. Prepare an outline for your abstract

A lack of coherence in the abstract can easily turn your reader off by passing the idea that your entire paper is lacking in coherence. Ideally, outline for your abstract to fit all the ideas together into a smooth narrative, therefore, helping the reader clearly understand the overall scope and findings of your research paper. 

4. Drafting and editing

Finally, write your paper and conduct the necessary revision to ensure adherence to various guidelines from your faculty. 

Scientific abstract format

The most recommended format for an abstract is the IMRAD format. This approach stands for the introduction, methods, results, and discussion section. 

1. Introduction

This section of your abstract should outline your research paper’s objectives and the research issues it will address. So, the opening of the abstract should include a succinct explanation of why the topic of your dissertation is relevant and should also mention previous research to support the justification of the exploration of a specific research gap. 

2. Methods 

This section of the abstract highlights all the research methods that were used in your paper. however, offer an overall description of your research design as opposed to highlighting every nitty-gritty detail of your research. 

3. Results

Here, summarize the main findings that are relevant to your thesis statement. The results are written in a matter-of-fact tone and without any interpretation in comparison with existing sources. 

4. Discussion

The discussion part of your abstract should then express the implications of your research in a few sentences, helping the reader to establish the arguments that your paper can support. 

Final take

We sincerely hope that this tutorial has assisted you in resolving any issues you may have had with your abstract. To ensure a seamless experience with your studies and to get the most out of your study sessions, feel free to enlist the help of our specialists for any academic issues you may be experiencing.