Hey all,

if in submitting an abstract you use in text citations like (Brown, 1998) are you supposed to also provide a list of references at the end (even if they are just 3 or 4 maximum)?

Also, if the organizers haven,t specified a word limit how long should it usually be? Is around 350 words okay?

And finally, if one is presenting empirical work (but also has a very strong theoretical component to it) is there any specific order in which these should be presented in an abstract?

Best,

Bug writing her first abstract for submission....

I've always understood that abstracts should be short and coherent (200 wds or so) - and not to use any references in it. Refs. are only for the main text.

You could look at this website about abstracts http://research.berkeley.edu/ucday/abstract.html

See also www.Theses.com. These don't have citations (generally).

Abstracts are the hardest thing to get right. They're what everyone sees and used to judge whether or not the article is of any use to them.

As far as I'm aware you never put references or citations in an abstract, unless the actual reference is the main subject of your work.

Abstracts are normally around 300 words in length...comprising of subject area [using as many keywords as possible], main question(s), metholodgy, findings, & conclusion(s).

I agree with Aloha, abstacts are hard to get right! I'm writing one now, and it's a pain in the a*se.

Thaks v helpful. but i was just wondering, when we present work that's in progress, and not 'findings' as such...what happens then...

I agree that abstracts are an enormous pain to write! I don't think it really matters whether it is a work in progress or a completed piece of research. If you have already written the article then let that be your guide. The abstract should tell the readers what you are going to tell them in the article, in a very condensed form obviously. (I've always struggled with this idea. The writer part of my personality doesn't want to give away the ending!)

If you are writing an abstract for something you haven't written yet, like a speculative conference presentation, then try at least writing a framework of what you would intend to cover in the presentation and let that be your guide.

Hi Phdbug,

as the others indicated I can confirm that there should not be any refererences in the abstract, refererences should be related to the main text.

You could look at an old article, from which you think the abstact is well written and use that as an example for style. Key issue is that it is written clearly, that one understands what was done and what the outcome was. Normally about 300 words

It depends on your subject area I think. For instance, in my area (psychology) you can use references in the abstract but this must be in the form of a full reference not a citation i.e. so that the abstract can stand alone without a list of references after it. Again, in my experience, an abstract should not be longer than 150 words.