Standards for writing abstracts

Ben H. Weil

Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1970, vol. 21, issue 5, 351-357

Abstract: An abstract, as defined here, is an abbreviated, accurate representation of a document. The following recommendations are made for the guidance of authors and editors, so that abstracts in primary documents may be both helpful to their readers and reproducible with little or no change in secondary publications and services. Prepare an abstract for every formal item in journals and proceedings, and for each separately published report, pamphlet, thesis, monograph, and patent. Place the abstract as early as possible in the document. Make the abstract as informative as the document will permit, so that readers may decide whether they need to read the entire document. State the purpose, methods, results, and conclusions presented in the document, either in that order or with initial emphasis on findings. Make each abstract self‐contained but concise; retain the basic information and tone of the original document. Keep abstracts of most papers to fewer than 250 words, abstracts of reports and theses to fewer than 500 words (preferably on one page), and abstracts of short communications to fewer than 100 words. Write most abstracts in a single paragraph. Normally employ complete, connected sentences; active verbs; and the third person. Employ standard nomenclature, or define unfamiliar terms, abbreviations, and symbols the first time they occur in the abstract. When authors' abstracts are employed in secondary services, precede or follow each abstract with the complete bibliographic citation of the document described. Include pertinent information about the document itself (type, number of citations, etc.) if this is necessary to complete the message of the abstract.

Date: 1970
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