1 2 3 Hello. My name is Tom Annesley, Professor of Clinical - PDF document

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Hello. My name is Tom Annesley, Professor of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Michigan. This presentation is designed to cover important information about preparing an abstract for submission and presentation at a scientific conference. There are many benefits to submitting your work for presentation to your peers, but there are also responsibilities involved in submitting your work as well. The goal of this presentation is to provide you with information that can help you prepare a high quality abstract that is clear, concise, and relevant to your intended audience. 4

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In this presentation I will cover multiple topics that relate to preparing and presenting an abstract. In the first part of the presentation I will discuss the 3 purposes of an abstract and several good reasons for submitting abstracts to scientific conferences. I will then then cover the characteristics of a good abstract and the various steps involved in writing an informative abstract. I will also give you some tips for writing an abstract. I also want to you understand the fallacies and misconceptions about abstracts so that you can avoid some pitfalls that I am sure that you have noted in abstracts that you have read, and therefore get the most benefit from your abstract. Finally I will cover the benefits of an oral presentation versus a poster presentation, and how to cite abstracts so that they make the most punch in your curriculum vitae or annual report. 7

An abstract serves three purposes. First is provides the reader or conference attendee with a brief yet informative summary of your study. Note the word “informative” in this first point. The problem with many abstracts is that they are not informative and are therefore at an immediate disadvantage when the reader forms an initial opinion about the abstract. I will cover this later, but want to stress this point here as well. Secondly, an abstract shows that your study makes a contribution to the conference. The abstract is your opportunity to highlight and bring meaning to your work. To not only show the relevance of your work to conference attendees, but also what sets it apart from other studies that were submitted for presentation. What is important about your topic and why should it be studied? What new aspect did you perform the study? What do your results show, and what do they mean to the field? The third purpose of an abstract is to draw conference attendees to your poster or oral presentation. It is nice to have the opportunity to publish an abstract, but it has little long term meaning or impact to anyone, including you, if nobody comes to see your work or recognize its value. Thus, an abstract must be informative, must be relevant, and must be able to draw people to want to hear more about your work. 8

There are a variety of good reasons to submit abstracts to conferences. Abstracts give visibility to you as a researcher. People who otherwise would not know who you are or what you have done will see your name and your topic of research. This is good publicity for you. Abstracts serve as a permanent record of your accomplishments. They can be listed in a curriculum vitae, annual report, promotion packet, job application, skills set, or other document. In a competitive field of research, an abstract can represent a permanent record that you were working on a particular project, or first reported a finding, at a specific date and time. Abstracts allow you to discuss your research and why you did it. It helps others to see the importance of your work. Just as important, presenting a poster or oral presentation at a conference gives you the opportunity to get feedback from others about your data, and possibly even some ideas about future studies. Someone may ask you whether you have tried X or tried Y, or whether you performed a certain control experiment. You may actually discover a missing piece to the puzzle through discussions with your colleagues. Submission of abstracts is an excellent way to reward students and staff for their extra efforts in performing or contributing to your study. Abstracts also provide an opportunity for you to attend a conference, or to justify sending someone else to a conference. In some institutions the presentation of an abstract is the only way to get to a conference. 9

A good conference abstract possesses several attributes. First, it stands on its own in telling a story. Readers should be able to understand what you did, why you did it, and what your results show without the necessity for you to explain it to them. Certainly, the restrictions on the lengths of abstracts preclude including every detail of the study, but there is no reason that a clear story cannot be presented in the abstract. It is important to state the hypothesis, question, or objective of your study. If the person reading the abstract cannot appreciate the goal of a study, why go learn more about it while at the conference? Of course, if you state a question or problem, it is equally important to give the answer as well. Conference attendees may come to your poster or oral presentation to learn more about your study, or ask a question, but they will feel frustrated if they must come to you just to find an answer. They may decide not to come to your presentation at all. Don’t make conclusions that are unsupported by the data you are presenting in the abstract. If you have data or a result that you plan to present at the conference to draw a conclusion, then it is important enough data to add to the abstract. Conversely, do not include information in the abstract that will not be part of your final poster or presentation. You may think that it is alright to include preliminary data or results in an abstract and then replace them with newer, better, or more accurate data in the final presentation. This does everyone a disservice. Those individuals who just read the abstract will come away with one set of information, while those individuals who come to the presentation will have access to another set of information. Remember that it is the published abstract, not what you add to a poster or oral presentation, that is the official 11

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While it may seem obvious, it is surprising how many scientists fail to follow the designated style and format set forth by the conference organizers. The required style, format, and allowed word count are there for a reason, and should not be considered as “suggestions”. For many conferences, the peer review volunteers are instructed to reject an abstract if the authors cannot take the care to follow the instructions. If you want readers or conference attendees to remember your study, you should continue to use the same key words and terms throughout the abstract that were used in the title. Even subliminally, it helps to drive home your point if you use the same terms again. I mentioned the need for clarity earlier. Clarity and readability are generally improved by limiting the use of abbreviations. If you are going to use a term multiple times in the abstract, it is OK to designate an abbreviation after a term is first used. Abbreviations take up less space then spelled out terms, and therefore are helpful here. However, the overuse of abbreviations can make the text look busy and make the abstract tedious to read. 12

Let’s now consider how to prepare an informative abstract. Even at the beginning of writing the abstract, the process should include consideration of whether the conference you wish to submit to is the right one for you to present your data. If you were only going to submit the work to one conference, would this be the one? Even if the conference organizers accept a high percentage of abstracts, is your study really appropriate for the conference? Do you believe that the reviewers will accept the abstract? Stated differently, Is the submission to this conference a stretch for the amount and quality of data you have? If you answer “no” to any of these questions, then send your work to another conference. 14

The next step also involves gathering information before you begin to compose the abstract. Check the deadline date and submission requirements for any conference that you are considering. The worst thing to do is try to compose an abstract on the day before submissions are due. While you may succeed in creating an abstract, chances are good that it is not written as well, not proofed as well, not as clear, or not as accurate as what could have been accomplished with the correct amount of time. Remember, the published form of the abstract is the version of record and is the one that reflects your efforts and impacts your reputation. 15

One way to get useful information about how to prepare an informative abstract for a selected conference is to look at previously accepted abstracts for that conference. Read through a number of these abstracts. Look for the things that drew your attention to that particular abstract, and why. Was the message clear from the title? Was the information presented in a logical fashion? Did the authors use language that simply appealed to how you perceived the abstract? Also look at the abstracts that were selected for oral presentation. As will be discussed later in this presentation, abstracts selected for oral presentation are usually judged as superior to others. Were these abstracts prepared better or differently than the average abstract for that conference? What might the reviewers or conference organizers have seen in these submissions? Is there something you see that can help you as you write your abstract? 16