How to write a scientific conference abstract

Dr David W. E. Hone‎, a Ph.D. in Vertebrate Palaeontology and a lecturer of School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University College Dublin, Ireland

Right, onto the abstract:

First of all, make sure you are going to go to the meeting. In many cases places are limited and it is frustrating for others if slots to speak or even just attend are taken up by people who don’t show up.

Next up, find out when the deadline end for the abstract submission, there’s no point in submitting a late one, or leaving yourself only a day to do it. Make sure you know what the word limit is and the format for submissions. Are you allowed figures? Are you allowed references? Some meetings allow for some extended abstracts that can be several pages long and act as a miniature paper so if you want to write one you might have to ask the meeting organizer, and again these take much longer to write so leave yourself sufficient time.

Read through several existing abstracts for previous meetings before you start. This should give you an idea of the style of abstract, what kinds of things the meeting is likely to be interested in and how you should approach writing the piece.

Do not write about something you haven’t done yet, but for a project you have largely completed (or at least know what the results are and mean). If not, you have to guess what your results will show and you run a real risk of having to present results the opposite of what you announced in your abstract, or have none at all. This might not be so bad for the presentation, but many abstracts are recorded and are cited in publications, so if you abstract says ‘X correlated positively with Y’ then while those at the meeting might learn from you that it negatively correlates instead, plenty of other people won’t and until the paper is published (assuming it ever is, not all abstracts become papers) the wrong information is stuck in the literature.

Do make your abstract interesting and informative. That can be incredibly hard when you have only a couple of hundred words to play with, but it’s worth doing right. Take your time and do a good job, so that you are more likely to have your abstract accepted, and more likely to get the audience interested in attending your talk or reading your poster. Try to give the basic outlines of what you did and why: hypothesis, methods, results, conclusions. This can be done in very little space with practice. Once you have done this, it’s often a good idea to get a colleague to check what you have written, both to look for mistakes and to make sure it makes sense.

Like many things (making posters, giving lectures, anatomical drawing) it takes practice, so take your opportunities to submit abstracts and practice writing them. Reading others is a great Task and seeing what is good and bad about each one will give you excellent guidelines.

Task 8. Look through the text again and find the collocations. Translate them into Russian

abstract to take up extended to attend word to take

a slot a talk time submission abstract limit

Task 9. Translate the sentences into English

1. Прием аннотаций заканчивается 31 октября.

2. Используйте свое время для того, чтобы хорошо подготовится к выступлению на конференции.

3. Во время своего доклада не отвлекайтесь и не вдавайтесь в детали.

4. Обязательно посещайте доклады других участников конференции.

5. При написании аннотации обратите внимание на ограничение объема слов, которое устанавливается организационным комитетом.

Task 10. Translate the sentences into Russian

1. In many cases places are limited and it is frustrating for others if slots to speak or even just attend are taken up by people who don’t show up.

2. Take your time and do a good job, so that you are more likely to have your abstract accepted.

3. Some meetings allow for some extended abstracts that can be several pages long.

4. Next up, find out when the deadline end for the abstract submission, there’s no point in submitting a late one, or leaving yourself only a day to do it.

5. Many abstracts are recorded and are cited in publications.

6. Make sure you know what the word limit is and the format for submissions.

Task 11. Read the feedback to article; tell if it is useful to the inexperienced scientific author. Looking at the underlined words and phrases, name the main points which should be included into the abstract, explain their purpose.

Michael BW: How about the straightforward approach:

1 sentence introducing the problem

1 sentence naming your method

1 sentence stating the main result

1 sentence giving a nearer explanation concerning the result or naming further results

1 sentence discussing the result(s) under consideration of previous ideas and/or introducing a new model as a generalization of your results

1 sentence putting the implications of your research in a larger context.

Task 12. Translate the sentences into English

1. Ваша аннотация должна быть краткой и информативной.

2. Прежде чем писать аннотацию к своей работе следует завершить исследование, чтобы точно знать его результаты.

3. Часто результаты одних исследований цитируются авторами более поздних научных изысканий.

4. Для того чтобы ваша статья была принята к рассмотрению комитетом конференции, нужно следовать правилам оформления и не нарушать сроки подачи аннотации.

5. В аннотациях обычно допускаются ссылки на другие источники, но не разрешается представлять какой-либо графический материал.

Task 13. Read the text to find out about the participation in the scientific conferences and translate it into English using the words in brackets

Task 14. Read the article by Dr David W. E. Hone, and find out what are the main things to do at the scientific conference. Answer the questions below

1. What is a poster?

2. What to do with the contacts you got at the meeting?

3. If you came with a group, should you always follow each other?

4. How can be a scientific meeting useful for you?