New structured abstracts for RCM
Dietrich A. Volmer · Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry · 2011
New structured abstracts for RCMWe are introducing an important change to the format of RCM abstracts in October of this year, which we believe will greatly benefit RCM authors and readers alike.The important role of an abstract is often overlooked and the quality therefore neglected, which is unfortunate as a well-written and informative abstract will encourage scientists to read the full article or download it from a database.This situation is analogous to that of a conference abstract, where most scientists would not argue with having to produce a convincing, high impact abstract, clearly highlighting the aim of the work, the most important results and the conclusions drawn from the data.Their paper may otherwise not get selected for presentation or 'downgraded' to a poster presentation (if submitted for oral presentation).In scientific research publications, however, the abstract is often an afterthoughta necessary evil.Of course, writing a polished, high impact abstract is not a simple task.It requires skill; nevertheless, perfecting this skill will pay off in the long run.[1,2] The most common mistake in abstracts of scientific papers is that they often result from simple cut-and-paste collections of complete, almost unchanged sentences from the main manuscript.Such a patchwork does not offer a smooth, enjoyable-to-read and complete logical story.Other common problems include the failure to clearly state the reason or rationale for conducting the work, the inability to communicate all data and results succinctly and efficiently, and the lack of a description of the impact of the results.An abstract should always answer the following questions: "Why did you start?", "What did you do?", "What did you find?" and "What does it mean?".[3] Addressing these questions chronologically in a clearly structured manner leads to so-called 'structured abstracts'.Medical journals introduced structured abstracts a long time ago and they have proven very useful, in particular for clinical studies.[4] In fact, the 'Vancouver group', the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, recommended the use of structured abstracts in 1993.[5] A few other journals outside the biomedical field have also adopted structured abstracts.The editors of RCM believe that this format will similarly enhance the utility of abstracts in the mass spectrometry field.