| name | abstract-writing |
| description | Use when writing or revising the abstract of a scientific paper. Covers structured vs unstructured abstracts, word budgets, the canonical five-move pattern, sentence-by-sentence templates, and the rule that the abstract must be self-contained (no abbreviations, no citations, no figure references). |
Abstract writing
The abstract is the most-read part of your paper. Most readers see only this. Treat it as a one-paragraph version of the whole paper, not a teaser.
Structured vs unstructured
Structured (used in clinical and many biomedical journals): explicit headings.
Background: ...
Methods: ...
Results: ...
Conclusions: ...
Unstructured (most other fields): single paragraph, same content order, no headings.
Default to whatever the target journal uses. When unspecified, unstructured for ML/CS/physics, structured for medicine/biomed.
Word budgets
- Standard: 150–250 words.
- Medicine (structured): often 250–300 words, sometimes 400.
- Nature / Science summary paragraph: very tight, ~150 words, written for a broad audience.
- Always check the journal's specific limit; overflowing is an instant desk reject signal.
The five moves
Whether structured or not, a good abstract executes five moves in order:
- Context (1–2 sentences). Why does this matter? What's the broad question?
- Gap or question (1 sentence). What's unknown or unresolved?
- What we did (1–3 sentences). The approach in one line, then key methodological specifics.
- What we found (2–4 sentences). The primary results, with concrete numbers where possible.
- Why it matters (1–2 sentences). The implication or contribution.
If you can't write each move in the listed length, your paper itself has a focus problem.
Sentence templates
These are scaffolds, not formulas; adapt the wording.
- Context: "X is critical for Y, but Z remains poorly understood..."
- Gap: "Existing approaches assume A, which fails when B..."
- Method: "We propose [method] that [key idea]. We evaluated it on [dataset/population]."
- Results: "Our method achieves [number] on [metric], a [delta]% improvement over [baseline]."
- Implication: "These results suggest [broader claim] and enable [downstream application]."
Hard rules
- Self-contained: no citations, no
Figure 2, no Section 4. The abstract stands alone.
- No undefined abbreviations: spell out on first use; if the abbreviation appears only once, don't introduce it.
- No promissory notes: "We will show..." → "We show..."
- Numbers > adjectives: "achieves 94.2% accuracy" beats "achieves high accuracy."
- No throat-clearing: "In this paper, we..." can almost always be cut to "We..."
- Tense: past for what you did and found ("We measured", "Accuracy was..."), present for what is generally true ("Drug X reduces...").
Quick polish pass
After drafting, do three reads:
- Numbers read. Every claim has a number, baseline, or comparator. Vague claims get cut or quantified.
- First-sentence test. Does the first sentence work as a tweet about why this paper exists? If not, rewrite it.
- Cut 20%. Almost every draft abstract can lose a fifth of its words without losing content. Force yourself to find them.
Related: [[imrad-structure]].
