‘Calvin and Hobbes’ © Bill Waterson
Writing Abstracts and Journal
Articles
Caroline Gibson, Catherine Hanley
and Emma Barker
Agenda for the Session
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Why publish?
Abstracts
Titles
Keywords
Writing a journal article
Why publish?
• Dissemination
• Contribute to
knowledge base
• Making a difference
• Career advancement
• REF
• Developing critical
thinking skills
• Gain feedback
• Network with others
within your area of
interest
• Articulating and
explaining something =
a clearer picture in your
own mind
What is an Abstract?
• A concise summary of your research
• Normally about 100-250 words long
• A proposal or a summary
– Proposal for a conference
– Summary for a journal article
• An accurate, interesting and relevant window to your
research
• A summary of your entire research, including your
conclusions
Writing an Abstract
• Summarise each paragraph in your paper in one line.
• Use the 4 headings ‘Why?’, ‘What?’, ‘So what?’, ‘Now
what?’.
• Examine your research / article to find keywords and
phrases that directly relate to the major concepts of
your research.
• Make every word count.
• Remember, this may be the only part of your
research people read (if you get it wrong!).
Writing an Abstract
• Your abstract should:
– Provide a fully self-contained, summarised description of the
paper
– Follow the same chronology as your paper
– Stick to the word count
• Your abstract shouldn’t:
– Contain any new information
– Contain teasers!
– Just copy sentences from your paper
The all-important title
• Conveying your information
• Keeping it concise
• Making it different to an essay title
Titles
• The ‘too-much-like-an-essay’ title
– ‘What were the economic reasons behind the handover of
power from Brandt to Schmidt in Germany in 1972?’
– ‘Discuss the arguments for and against capital punishment’
• The clever or obscure title
– ‘Anyone for Tennis?’
– ‘Is there a Text in this Class?’
Titles
• The ‘academic colon’
– ‘Where have all the blue knights gone?: colour symbolism in medieval
literature’
– ‘With All, and for the Good of All: The Emergence of Popular Nationalism in
the Cuban Communities of the United States, 1848-1898’
• The ‘my whole article is in the title’ title
http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2008/08/25/long-titles-and-colons/
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2003/05/05/opinion/8165.shtml
Titles
• The ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ title
– ‘The Siege Engine as Metaphor in Four Old French
Chronicles’
– ‘The Stereochemical Outcome of Diene Additions to
Thionitrosoarenes’
– ‘Short-term and Long-Term Effects of United Nations Peace
Operations’
Keywords
• Keywords need to be both specific and informative
• Keywords will be used on internet or database
searches to find your article
• Keywords may be used to assign your paper to
particular reviewers
• Think of terms you would use to Google your
research
• Use your abstract to look for appropriate keywords
Writing a journal article
• Four main questions:
– Why?
– What?
– So what?
– Now what?
Day and Peters (1994), “Quality Indicators in Academic Publishing”, Library Review, 43, 7
Discipline-specific considerations
• Different expectations in different
disciplines
• Understand your audience
• Using jargon
Substantiating your claims
• The concept of ‘common knowledge’
• Contested areas
• Supporting literature
Referencing
• Any quote or idea
• When to give page numbers
• Referencing original works or reprints?
Permissions
• The difference between permission and
copyright
• What do you need permission for?
– images, charts and tables
– quotations
Self-editing
• A first draft is not good enough to
submit to a journal
• If it’s not relevant, take it out
• Check your language and style
• Be ruthless with yourself
Not re-hashing your lovely essay
/ lab report / research report
• In short, don’t do it …
www.warwick.ac.uk/go/reinventionjournal
BCUR: The British Conference of
Undergraduate Research
University of Nottingham
April 14-15, 2014
http://www.bcur.org/conference/