Elsevier Publishing Campus

To summarize, although the abstract is one of the last elements of an article to be written, it is one of the first elements that will be read by your peers.

Only the title and abstract are freely available to everyone once your article is published (unless of course you publish under the Open Access model). So, your abstract needs to be strong enough to stand out from the crowd and entice your readers to download and cite your work.

A journal’s 'Guide for Authors' describes exactly the format and structure in which the journal editors and the publisher wish to receive your article. Be sure you read the ‘Guide for Authors’ before you start writing, and perhaps even read it two or three times. This could save you a lot of time down the road if you haven’t understood the Journal article requirements properly.

Always pass your article to a couple of trusted colleagues before you submit it. When you receive feedback or criticism on your abstract or indeed on your entire article from your peers, do not take it personally. Look at the feedback critically, openly, and objectively.

The more effort you put into writing your abstract, the more chance you have that the article will be found, read, and cited, once published. Because the abstract acts largely as a summary for the rest of your article, it should be written last so that you do not waste too much time in rewriting it.

Structuring your article properly will make the work clearer and will have a greater impact in the field. Make sure that each section of the article fulfills its purpose clearly and concisely. Your Title and Abstract advertise your work and attract people to read the full article. Keywords are the labels or tags for your article that give your readers a very quick idea about the content of your article and are used by indexing and abstracting services.

Keywords also have an impact on search engine optimization, which supports readers to find your article more quickly. So, pay close attention to each word you use.

The main text of the article includes Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion or IMRAD. The Discussion is where you can really showcase the importance of your results and explain how they advance understanding in your field.