“A well-prepared abstract enables readers to identify the basic content of a

document quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interests, and thus to decide whether they need to read the document in its entirety” (American National Standards Institute 1979b). The abstract should not exceed the length specified by the journal (commonly, 250 words), and it should be designed to define clearly what is dealt with in the paper. Typically, the abstract should be typed as a single paragraph, as in Figure 9.1. Some journals, however, run “structured” abstracts consisting of a few brief paragraphs, each precededby a standardized subheading, as in Figure 9.2. Many people will read the abstract, eitherin the original journal or as retrieved by computer search.

Most researchers will first read your abstract before delving into your whole contribution. Therefore, in order to raise their interest and have more chances of being quoted, your abstract should contain as much information as possible about your research activities and the findings you obtained.

When papers are sent out for review, the abstract is all that the potential reviewer sees before making the choice of whether or not to review the paper. So, as you write your abstract, think about the kind of reviewers that would be most appropriate for your work, and structure the abstract so that they will recognize its relevance to their work.

Evolution and effect of meeting abstracts in JCR journals

"The purpose of the present study is to analyse the presence and evolution in the last 13 years of the document type “Meeting Abstract” in the database where they are best represented, i.e. in the Web of Science Core Collection. We have also studied in which categories and in which type of journals they have a significant presence.

Frequency analyses of meeting abstracts (absolute and ratios) were performed on years, indexes, categories and topics variables, and the Impact Factor was calculated without the citations obtained by the meeting abstracts...

This study is of great relevance for researchers and policymakers, because it helps to identify in which disciplines Meeting Abstracts have relevance and they should be considered for the calculation of indicators in bibliometric practices, and opens the door to research into their relationship with other documentary typologies within the social processes of scientific communication in different sciences..."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157724001433

The Abstract is the most important part of a journal paper, because most people will

never read the rest of the paper. Often, there is no reason why they should. People

read the abstract to determine whether or not that particular paper is applicable to

the clinical or scientific issues they want to learn more about. If the full paper is not

relevant to a reader’s needs and the abstract makes this clear, then the abstract has successfully fulfilled its main purpose: preventing a reader from squandering time and effort reading the wrong paper . If a reader of an abstract decides that this publication is relevant to his or her needs, then he or she should always read the full article, because an abstract is never long enough to provide all the information a clinician or scientist should understand before applying the paper to his or her work.

Regrettably, many readers either cannot or will not retrieve the full article, so the abstract must accurately summarize all the most important information from the full paper. In some cases (especially readers in low-resource parts of the world or clinicians in private practice), people would like to read the full paper but do not, because they do not have immediate free access to it. In other cases, there are readers who judge the paper relevant to their questions and have access to the full paper, but very regrettably, they simply do not bother to read the full paper (often with the illusion that they are “too busy”). Even the journal Editors to whom you submit your manuscript may never read further than the abstract , especially if the abstract is poorly written. Because most people will never read the full paper, it is crucial spend several hours, even days, perfecting every aspect, word, and number of the abstract. The abstract should make it clear to readers whether or not the paper is relevant to the issues they want to know more about.

When it is time to write up a journal paper, many authors start by writing the

abstract first. But this is wrong and inefficient, and it often leads to substantial problems. By definition, an abstract is a summary of the main points of the full paper. But how can anyone know exactly what the main points of a paper are, much less how to summarize them, if the paper has not yet been written? As you and your many co-authors write and rewrite the paper again and again, the contents and focus of the paper will evolve substantially. If the abstract is written before the main paper, the abstract will not accurately reflect the final paper.