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Writing Geoscientific Abstracts

Abstract worksheet Links to an external site.

Types of Abstracts

Abstract are the first and often the only way that your work will be communicated to others. They should be highly polished, concise and precise descriptions of what you did and what you found out through the course of your research. They are usually written last, once you have already worked out your methods and findings. 

In general there are two common types of abstracts in the geosciences:

  1. An informative abstract distills the most important elements of the entire paper or presentation, highlighting key findings and implications.  This is the most common type of abstract which you will write in the geosciences.
  2. A descriptive abstract gives an overview of the type of information or research your paper presenting, without giving the information itself. Descriptive abstracts are sometimes used to describe research which is not yet complete, i.e. you don't have results to discuss, but expect you will by the time you present the abstracted work. 

Abstracts vary in length, often ranging from 100-500 words when included with a paper or presentation. Some journals publish much longer abstracts which stand alone as publications. You have to know the requirements of the publication or conference to which you are submitting.  GSA abstracts for conferences are strictly limited to 2000 characters without spaces. This means they are rarely over 350 words.

Organization

Abstract structure also tends to vary by discipline, but common way of organizing them is to follow the structure of a traditional scientific paper, emphasizing the findings and implications above all else.

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General Recipe for an Abstract

  • Title: Concise, precise, search-friendly
  • Keywords: Words that are meaningful to your disciplinary community and help experts in your field classify your paper. Word combinations that will distinguish your paper in search results. For instance, if you applying a method in a novel way to investigate a poorly-understood process, you should include the method and the process.
  • Abstract
    • Introduction: What's the important "gap" in knowledge or understanding you are trying to fill.  Sometimes this can be formulated or presented as a hypothesis.  (e.g. 1 sentence)
    • Study Context and Methods: What did you do? Why was the geological context (geographic/temporal context) of your study appropriate. (e.g. 1-2 sentences)
    • Results and Conclusions: What did you find out? What does the data show? What does it mean in terms of the "gap" you've identified. Sometimes it is important to state specifically how your findings relate to the work of others. (e.g. 3-4 sentences)

Use this Abstract Worksheet Links to an external site. to help you get started, or to refine what your already have.

Notes on Titles and Keywords

Even before reading your abstract, potential readers will assess the relevance of your work based on the title, often selecting it from a list of references or search results drawn from different journals and fields.  It's important to ask yourself two questions when writing a title:

  • Does the title of your manuscript, seen in isolation, give a full yet concise and specific indication of the work reported?  
  • Would someone interested in the exact topic of your paper, reading this title, be inclined to read the abstract? (Kumar, 2013 Links to an external site.)

As you craft your title, keyword list and the abstract itself, it is also important to be conscious of how the words you choose will impact how your work is indexed by search engines.  Titles, keyword lists and abstracts themselves are all used by machines and algorithms to classify and sort our work, so be precise in the words you choose to describe your focus, method, findings.

"Nominal titles" describe the work presented in a concise and precise statement.

Example:

  • "A late Miocene-Pliocene origin for the central Himalayan inverted metamorphism" (Harrison at al. 1997)

As we increasingly challenge disciplinary boundaries and locate literature via indexed search engines, the "compound title" has become more popular as a way of situating very specific research within a broader question, issue or context.

Common compound title forms:

Broad area of study in which many are involved: Narrow question, issue, point or methodologicial approach

Compelling or contentious issue or question: Implications, findings or results of your work

Examples:

  • "Recent climate cycles on Mars: Stratigraphic relationships between multiple generations of gullies and the latitude dependent mantle" (Dickson et al. 2015)
  • "A flow law for ilmenite in dislocation creep: Implications for lunar cumulate mantle overturn" (Dygert, Hirth & Liang 2015)

Further info

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