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Drummond Rennie, MD; Richard M. Glass, MD

JAMA. 1991;266(1):116-117.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

The abstract of a scientific article was, until recently, merely a terse statement summarizing the research question, how the authors had sought to answer it, what they found, and what they concluded. We say "merely" not to imply that abstracts are unimportant or easy to write. Though many articles and, indeed, entire books have been devoted to teaching the scientist how to write them, they still seem to be the hardest part of any article to put together.

What, then, is the problem? In the worst cases, when a manuscript arrives at THE JOURNAL, the abstract carries no hint of the author's purpose and so no good reason for the reader to continue. Research methods are scarcely mentioned, details concerning the groups investigated are not given, and quantitative results are not reported. Either there is no conclusion or the conclusion may go way beyond the data presented in the article. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Scientific Publications Group, American Medical Association, 515 N State St, Chicago, IL 60610 (Dr Glass).

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