Writing the abstract

A good abstract is very important as, like a good title, it advertises the content of the paper and draws readers in. In a world where the quantity of scientific literature is increasing (see here), it is more likely that someone will read your abstract but not your paper. Actually, it’s far more likely that someone will read your title and use that to decide whether or not to look at the abstract. Moreover, when you submit your work to the journal, your editor may decide whether or not to immediately reject your manuscript based on the content of the abstract (see here). Therefore, it had better be good!

What is the abstract?

The abstract is a concise paragraph that sums up the major points of your manuscript so that the potential reader will be able to assess whether or not they want to read the entire paper. It is an abstract of the entire document. It should not be abstract!

So what would a good abstract contain?

A good abstract is a summary of the highlights of the paper. You can’t hope to include all of the results, but you should include relevant statistics that support your major finding. You must include the broader subject area that your study fits into, and show how your results are relevant to this.

None of this is easy, and you should not expect to write your abstract in a single sitting. It will likely require multiple iterations, and some intense word-smithing to make it as good as it can be. Abstracts almost always have a word limit, and that makes it challenging and means that you have to be concise (see here).

Increasingly, you’ll hear that a good abstract is citable. This means that it contains enough information that someone knows that it can be used to cite for a specific fact. Of course, these people should download and read the entire study. 

Where do you start?

Just like planning your writing in general, I’d suggest starting your abstract with an outline. Use bullet points to make a list of things that you feel that you should include. Rearrange your list until you have all the introduction points at the start, results in the middle and discussion at the end. 

There’s no need for detailed methodology, but it is useful to know the approach. For example, ‘we used a common garden experimental approach’ or ‘we sampled 85 animals from three invasive populations’. 

Although many abstracts are provided as a single paragraph, some are structured into the sections of the paper (like this), or as numbered points (like this). Using this formula is a good way to get disciplined about boiling your paper down into a small amount of concise words. It’s worth keeping a copy of any abstract that you compose like this in case you decide to submit to a journal that requires it. 

Starting with this framework will ensure that the abstract is well balanced. 

At this point, I’d circulate it to your advisor to ask whether there are other key points that should be included. As a rule, it’s easier to start with everything present, and only then cut the words down to something within the abstract word limit. If you wordsmith your abstract and then try and add a key point later, it’ll never come out so well.

When do you write your abstract?

Although the abstract comes on page 1 of your manuscript, only try to write it once you’ve got to the end of the process of writing your manuscript. 

Do abstracts for conferences differ?

Yes. It’s likely that an abstract for a talk will not be the same, unless you have already published paper: but even then it’s probably worth re-writing it. I’d suggest that your conference abstract be more descriptive and thought provoking. Pose questions that you will answer in your talk. 

Where do people go wrong in writing the abstract?

The most common mistake is getting the balance wrong. I often see an abstract that gets to the results, runs out of space and simply stops. It is important to have a statement about what the results mean. 

Another common mistake is to have a very simply worded abstract that conveys very little information. There is definitely going to be a lot to put in, so expect to write something too long with too much, and then discuss what can be left out.

Text from the main document is copied into the abstract. I’ve written about this elsewhere (see here), but you should never copy parts of your writing. You could start like this, but wordsmithing must change the words and their order substantially. Otherwise, when the first sentence of the abstract is the same as the first sentence of the manuscript, it will really turn off your readers.

Too many statistics or no numbers are also common mistakes. Often numbers can leave you with more space for other information. 

There is only time for one or two comments on the discussion, so pick out something important. Look through your written discussion and rank the points that you make in terms of interest to others. Can you combine two or more points into a single sentence?

The introduction of the abstract must frame the bigger question, and the discussion must show how your data responds to this. 

Don’t be tempted to overreach with your claims in the abstract (or the main text)

Finish with something conclusive and strong, preferably how this study changes the understanding, and not a caveat or suggested further study.

The abstract does not contain citations (or very rarely and only if unavoidable), so don’t put any in!

Academic phrasebank

When reading papers, I often come across the same phrases time and again. They seem so well honed to the situation that I’m envious about how the writer dreamt them up. Stealing them isn’t quite plagiarism, but then they don’t regularly fit the exact situation that I’m looking for. 

Imagine cutting and pasting them into a file, or even better a database that’s ready for any eventuality. Banking them over time so that they are always available.

Then imagine that you did this and made it available to everyone…

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Well, John Morley has already done it, and he’s made it available to everyone. The academic phrasebank is a fantastic resource:

How to find something you need

• Look across the top for different sections of text that you are currently writing.
• Then look down the left hand side to see the type of language function that you need. Click on something that looks applicable and watch the database open up.
  

Getting started & English as a foreign language

It strikes me that this is going to be a fantastic resource for those of you who are not writing in English as your home language. And for those of you who just need a few words to get started. 

It’ll also be useful when you are wanting to wordsmith your introduction or abstract. 

Enjoy!

What do invasive toads eat on Mauritius?

It feels like it was only last week that I was encouraging the MeaseyLab to write popular articles to help publicise their papers (among other reasons: see here). Today, James Baxter-Gilbert, post-doc in the MeaseyLab, published a really nice piece in The Conversation Africa, about his study on Guttural Toad diet in Mauritius.

Here, James makes the really important point that these toads are eating Mauritian endemic snails that are classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangerd, Omphalotropis plicosa. Indeed, if you look up this species on the Red List website today, you'll see that it's listed as Extinct. Indeed, Vincent and Claudia, our collaborators in Mauritius, thought that this snail was extinct until it was flushed out of the stomach of a Guttural Toad (see here). Like other species coming back from apparent extinction, it has been termed a "Lazarus species". As the snail is arboreal, they don't think that the toads are a direct threat, but it all goes to show how much information you can get from looking at an alien's diet!

Read James' great article on Guttural Toad diet here:

Baxter-Gilbert, J. (2020). The diet of invasive toads in Mauritius has some rare species on the menu. The Conversation - Africa November 5, 2020 149371

Why write a popular article?

You may have noticed that in the MeaseyLab there are quite a few popular articles written (if you haven't noticed, click here to see links). This is something that I encourage all students to do, especially after they've recently published a paper. But why?

Here are some reasons why: 

• Inform tax-payers who funded research what you found
• Increase profile of your work and you as a researcher
• Reach a far bigger audience than your scientific paper ever will
• Reach other researchers (who also read popular articles)
• Open more doors to other potentially cross-disciplinary work
• Gain new insights into how your work appears to the general public

The Conversation Africa is an online magazine that we go back to time and again. It is written by academics about the subjects that they know best. We have a great relationship with their editors, and they've previously held a writing competition in conjunction with the CIB (see here). 

In an effort to facilitate your popular article writing, here's a few pointers to help you get started:

What’s the hook?

Your popular article will not be the same as your chapter or paper. You should plan to have a single fact or message that you want the public to walk away with after reading your article. This is unlikely to be the same as the main result in your chapter or paper. 

When composing your article, you need to be single minded about achieving the understanding of your hook. The article cannot take any side roads or distractions, but must stick to the main point. Once that’s done, provide the “so what” that allows the public to see the bigger picture, and maybe where you would go next.

Don’t get complex or technical

If your whole article hinges on something technical, you might have to start by explaining it simply. If you can’t easily explain it, then this is probably the wrong subject for a popular article. Don’t worry about leaving out key details, you can always refer the reader to your article if they want to know more. 

Always refer to your published work

Make sure that you always have some reference to your work that’s published. Provide a hyperlink, but preferably give the full citation.

Be aware that news items count towards metrics of your article, so be sure to link it correctly.

You must always mention the CIB & Stellenbosch University - they do most of the funding for our work

Pictures, videos and even sound files

These are great to help readers engage with your work. Try to choose images that tell the same information as you have in your article. Try to remember that you will need these when doing your research as it will help later. 

Insights into Guttural toad impact on Mauritius

Guttural toads were introduced to Mauritius nearly 100 years ago in order to control cane beetles on the island. They have spread from the plantations all over the island, including into indigenous forest. For a long time there has been speculation that the toads predate on endemic threatened snails. Now we have published data from two dietary studies that shows that these snails make up a significant component of Guttural toad diet.

I visited Mauritius back in October 2017 (see here) when I worked with Denzel Citta in his final year project on the stomach contents of Guttural toads from different forests on the island. Denzel completed his project, but Vincent Florens and Claudia Baider already had dietary data from another student, Yuvna Perianen, who had done a similar project 10 years earlier. Luckily, they still had the dataset, and it is complementary to the one collected by Denzel. 

Vincent is an expert on the endemic snails of Mauritius, and had identified all of the different species that had been found in the guts of Guttural toads. Over the years, he had even found, and then relocated, a species previously thought to be extinct but that popped up in the toads stomach contents. Needless to say, toads eat snails and together the two studies were able to assess the level of impact.

James Baxter-Gilbert was able to combine these dietary datasets and write up a paper for African Journal of Ecology:

Baxter Gilbert, J.H., Florens F.B., Baider, C., Perianen, Y.D., Citta, D.S., Measey, J. (in press) Toad-kill: Prey diversity and preference of invasive guttural toads (Sclerophrys gutturalis) in Mauritius.African Journal of Ecology https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.12814

James has also written a piece for The Conversation:

https://theconversation.com/the-diet-of-invasive-toads-in-mauritius-has-some-rare-species-on-the-menu-149371