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09_How to Write the Title, Abstractand list Keywords? — Transcript

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0:00hello everyone and welcome to this
0:02lecture on how to write title abstract
0:06and list keywords
0:07as part of the series of lectures for
0:10the manuscript writing course
0:12i assume that if you are viewing this
0:14lecture you have already written up your
0:16research work in the form of a detailed
0:18manuscript or a report under the heads
0:20of introduction materials and methods
0:23results and discussion
0:26this is the right time for you to think
0:28about writing and summarizing your
0:31entire manuscript in the form of an
0:34abstract finalizing an appropriate title
0:37for your research work and listing
0:39keywords
0:41having said that
0:42the specific learning objectives for
0:45today's session
0:46are to enable you to write a relevant
0:49title for your manuscript to be able to
0:52describe the principles of abstract
0:54writing and to be able to list relevant
0:58keywords
1:00first let us look at the first objective
1:02of today's session that is to enable you
1:04to write a relevant title what is the
1:07purpose of writing a good title should
1:09we at all spend a lot of time on writing
1:12a good title
1:13yes of course you should
1:15why because the title of a manuscript is
1:19the first introduction to your research
1:21work
1:22both for the readers as well as for the
1:24reviewers
1:25and many a times a good title induces
1:28the person who's reading your research
1:30work to read the entire manuscript or
1:33the abstract
1:35also a good title ensures that your
1:38manuscript is appropriately indexed in
1:40the indexing databases like pubmed or
1:43scopus and that your research work would
1:46be easily retrievable by any person who
1:49is searching
1:51related to your research area
1:53this also ensures that your manuscript
1:56may be read and cited by several of your
1:59peers what are the attributes of a good
2:01title
2:03a good title should neither be too long
2:06nor it should be too short it should be
2:08a concise one and it should contain
2:10detailed information about the body of
2:13research that you have done it should
2:15talk about who were the participants of
2:17your research what was the health
2:20related area that you were studying in
2:22your research
2:23what are the interventions that you had
2:25given if any
2:26what were the comparators what were the
2:28key outcomes
2:30also it is a good practice to explicitly
2:33mention the study design as part of the
2:35title
2:37when you are writing the title ensure
2:39that the terminologies that you use are
2:41scientifically accurate and well valid
2:44also be very specific about what is your
2:48research work for example do not write
2:51titles like vitamin d and pneumonia
2:54they do not make any sense and does not
2:56give a clear idea of what your research
2:59work is all about
3:00so
3:01instead of writing vitamin d and
3:03pneumonia if you write vitamin d
3:05deficiency and risk of severe pneumonia
3:09in children then that is more specific
3:11and tells the readers a lot more
3:14information about what was the research
3:16work that you had done it is also a good
3:18practice to ensure that your research
3:20title is interesting enough to pique the
3:23interest of the audience so that they
3:25would go ahead and read your abstract as
3:28well as the full manuscript the next
3:29thing that you need to think about is is
3:32it a good practice to state the results
3:35as part of your title now many of you
3:37while going through journal articles you
3:39would have seen that authors do write
3:42the results in the form of a title now
3:44this
3:45form of writing a title is called as a
3:47declarative title for example a
3:50declarative title may go like this
3:52a 7 day antibiotic therapy is more
3:55effective as compared to a 10 day
3:56antibiotic therapy for neonatal sepsis
3:59now is this a good way of going about
4:02writing your title what this sort of a
4:05declarative or stating your results
4:06title does is
4:08it may pique the interest of the
4:10audience but the reviewers would
4:13understand that there is a certain
4:15amount of intrinsic bias that you have
4:17about
4:18what could be the answers to your
4:20research question with which you set out
4:22to do the research as a result it is not
4:25a very good practice to state results in
4:28the form of your title
4:30what are some of the other things that
4:32you should usually avoid while writing a
4:34title never ever use abbreviations as
4:37part of your title for example
4:40if you you're using an abbreviation
4:43called asd to a cardiologist asd could
4:47mean atrial septal defect
4:49to a child psychiatrist asd could mean
4:52autism spectrum disorder so a common and
4:56well accepted abbreviation like asd is
4:59what a cardiologist would think but then
5:02a child psychiatrist would interpret it
5:03differently so
5:05do not write abbreviations as part of
5:07your title
5:08write the full form expand it and then
5:11maybe you could add the abbreviation you
5:13want to use in the parenthesis
5:16next to the full form please avoid using
5:18interrogative connotations in your
5:20titles
5:22people have done research which has
5:24shown that
5:25titles which describe the research
5:28question
5:29though people are more likely to read
5:31such manuscripts these manuscripts are
5:34less likely to get cited do not use all
5:37capitals while you're writing a title
5:40because the conventional way of writing
5:41a title is in the sentence case
5:44writing all capitals may appear
5:47very loud and rude to certain readers
5:50and reviewers
5:51let us look at a few practical examples
5:55look at this example pause the video for
5:58a minute and think about if this is a
6:00good title for a piece of research work
6:02this title reads like this
6:05video game playing among preschoolers
6:08prevalence and home environment in three
6:10states of india
6:13now if you think for a minute and
6:14analyze this title you would understand
6:17that video game playing is not a very
6:19good accurate terminology for internet
6:21gaming disorder
6:23also the title does not make us
6:25understand what is being studied about
6:28the home environment
6:29this makes you understand that the title
6:31needs certain refinement a more refined
6:35form of a title could be prevalence and
6:38determinants of internet gaming disorder
6:40among preschoolers in three states of
6:43india a cross-sectional study
6:45this title clearly mentions
6:48what is the area that you want to
6:50research who is the target population
6:52that you are looking at what is your
6:54research question where what is done and
6:57what is the study design now let us look
6:59at another example this example says
7:02does tips help in preventing rebleed in
7:05serotic patients again if you would take
7:07a minute and analyze this title you will
7:10be able to observe
7:11that
7:12there is an abbreviation if you analyze
7:15this title you would understand that
7:17tips is not a very well known
7:18abbreviation especially among
7:20non-gastroenterologists
7:22also we are not understanding whether
7:25this is an interventional study or
7:27whether this is a cohort study or
7:29whether this is a quasi-experimental
7:31study so this title needs certain amount
7:33of refinement a better title would be
7:36one which elaborates and writes in full
7:38form what is tips tells us what is the
7:41comparator whether it was a randomized
7:44trial or not what was the outcome of
7:46interest and what is the patient
7:48population that we are looking at so a
7:51better title would be effectiveness of
7:53trans-jugular intra-hepatic
7:55photosystemic shunt which is tips versus
7:58beta blockers in preventing varicial
8:00rebleeding among advanced cirrhosis
8:02patients a randomized control trial so
8:06that brings us to the conclusion of the
8:08first objective of today's session that
8:10is how to write a relevant title i hope
8:13that now you understand what are the
8:15attributes of writing a good title what
8:17are the do's and don'ts and how you
8:19could refine certain titles that you are
8:21working on for your research work now
8:23let us move on to the second learning
8:26objective of today's lecture that is to
8:28describe the principles of writing a
8:31good abstract again we begin with a
8:33question of whether abstract is an
8:36important section of your written
8:37manuscript the answer is yes of course
8:41an abstract is perhaps the only part of
8:44the manuscript that readers or reviewers
8:47may be reading about your research
8:49so a good abstract often induces the
8:52readers as well as the reviewers to go
8:55on to read your full manuscript or at
8:58least the abstract part of your
8:59manuscript
9:01in the case of conference abstracts
9:03usually only a portion of your research
9:05work is presented as a conference
9:08abstract sometimes authors may not go on
9:11to write
9:12an entire detailed manuscript based on
9:14the conference abstract work alone so
9:18conference abstracts that you present
9:20perhaps could be the only published
9:22record of your work
9:23what are the basic aspects of an
9:25abstract an abstract is a gist or a
9:28condensed and concentrated summary of
9:31the detailed research work that you have
9:33written up in the form of a report or a
9:35manuscript the abstract should be
9:38consistent and should be in line with
9:41the detailed report or manuscript that
9:43you have written
9:44by which i mean that your abstract
9:46should follow the same order
9:49of information
9:50that goes on in your detailed manuscript
9:53and it should also include information
9:55only from the source report
9:58do understand that abstract is a
10:00standalone document
10:02by that i mean that if a reader reads
10:05only your abstract he should be able to
10:07get all the details related to your
10:09research work which are vital and
10:11important that is he should be able to
10:13know
10:14what was your research question how did
10:17you go about answering the research
10:18question and what were your key results
10:21and then what were your conclusions and
10:23recommendations
10:24all of this a reader should be able to
10:27understand just by reading your abstract
10:29even without going on to read your full
10:32manuscript having discussed the basic
10:34aspects of an abstract now let us
10:37discuss
10:38how conference abstracts are essentially
10:40different from manuscript abstract now
10:42usually a conference abstract is
10:44something that the author
10:46writes from a portion of their research
10:49work or from the interim analysis of
10:50their research work with the only
10:52objective to gain acceptance to present
10:55as part of a conference so generally
10:57conference abstracts may not be based on
11:00the final analysis but may be based on a
11:03preliminary analysis or an interim
11:05analysis
11:06but
11:07it should be understood that conference
11:09abstracts also remain available in
11:12conference proceedings and may be quoted
11:15by several people who are working in
11:17your same area as a result a conference
11:20abstract preparation also needs rigorous
11:23methods and it should not be taken
11:25lightly
11:26in contrast a manuscript abstract is
11:28something that is written primarily to
11:31summarize all the key elements of your
11:34main manuscript so usually your
11:36manuscript abstract is based on the
11:38final analysis
11:40and also is going to be indexed in
11:43several abstracting services like pubmed
11:46scopus etc as i previously mentioned
11:49always you must keep in mind that
11:51abstracts may be the only part of your
11:53research work that readers or reviewers
11:56may be reading as a result your abstract
11:59should contain sufficient accurate
12:01information related to your research
12:03work so that people may understand your
12:06key conclusions and recommendations let
12:09us move on to understand what are the
12:11various steps in preparing an abstract
12:14so the first step in preparing an
12:15abstract is to choose a topic this holds
12:18good both for conference and manuscript
12:20abstracts but it needs special attention
12:22specially for a conference abstract
12:25because a manuscript abstract is usually
12:27written
12:28after you write your full manuscript
12:30whereas conference abstracts generally
12:33are written when your research work is
12:35in midway or you have just completed an
12:37interim analysis
12:39so always think about what all research
12:41questions you are going to address as
12:43part of this abstract so choose your
12:46topic wisely that is the first step in
12:48preparing an abstract the next step is
12:50to review the data that is available or
12:52to review your detailed manuscript and
12:55understand what are the key elements
12:57that you are going to work on in this
12:59abstract the third step in preparing an
13:01abstract is to look at the rules of the
13:04journal and conference and then adhere
13:07to the rules be it the word limit or be
13:09it the structure or be it the
13:11requirement of an additional table or
13:13the requirement of an additional video
13:15or the requirement of an additional
13:17graph
13:18after having reviewed the rules of the
13:20journal and the conference the fourth
13:22and fifth step is to extract relevant
13:25information from your data and
13:26manuscript and to organize the relevant
13:29information that you have extracted
13:31within the outline of the abstract as
13:34prescribed by the journal or the
13:35conference
13:37so having understood that there are
13:39multiple steps in preparing an abstract
13:41you may know that you will not be able
13:43to write a very good abstract at one go
13:46so
13:47one of the important things that you
13:49need to
13:50understand about abstract writing is do
13:52not hesitate to keep on writing revising
13:55rewriting and revising your abstract so
13:57the final version of your abstract would
13:59be something that is
14:01holding key information about your full
14:04manuscript or your full body of work and
14:06also ensures that the reader's interest
14:10is spiked so that they would go and read
14:13your full manuscript let us now go into
14:15a little bit detail about each of the
14:17steps that we have elaborated in the
14:19previous slide step one is all about
14:22choosing the right topic for your
14:23abstract there are certain do's and
14:25don'ts when it comes to choosing the
14:27right topic so what are the do's
14:30always choose topics which are
14:32addressing research questions where you
14:33have enough data the analysis of that
14:36data is complete and you have got key
14:39results either in the tabulated version
14:42or in the form of graphs and you know
14:44that you have
14:46conclusions and recommendations which
14:48are clear and which have come out from
14:49your results another important aspect of
14:52choosing the topic for your abstract is
14:56obtaining relevant clearances
14:59it is a good practice for you to always
15:02take
15:03the administrative clearance from
15:06your reporting authorities within your
15:08institution and also to take academy
15:12clearance be it from your thesis
15:14supervisors
15:15or from
15:16the other contributors of your research
15:19work so that everybody is on board and
15:21knows that such an abstract is being
15:23written up either for a conference or
15:25for a manuscript so before you submit
15:28your abstract to the conference you need
15:29to take all these clearances and only
15:32then submit your abstract now let us
15:34look at some of the don'ts that you
15:36should not do while you're choosing a
15:38topic for a conference abstract
15:41never ever present
15:43a topic which has already been presented
15:46in another conference
15:47do not choose a topic that already has
15:50got a published manuscript because an
15:52abstract is already written the idea of
15:55presenting in a conference is to
15:57disseminate your results and if there is
15:59a detailed manuscript that is already
16:01available you cannot go and repeat the
16:04same information in a conference do not
16:07choose a topic when the analysis is not
16:10yet complete if you are not sure about
16:12the key conclusion or result then do not
16:15choose that research topic for
16:17presenting in a conference
16:18and
16:20in case you do not obtain relevant
16:22administrative clearances or if your
16:24peers are not in support of you writing
16:27up this research work for a conference
16:30then please do not present this
16:32or choose this particular topic for a
16:34conference presentation the step two
16:37after having chosen the topic the next
16:39important step is to review the data or
16:41the detailed manuscript that is
16:43available with you if the returned
16:45report is available you need to go
16:47through and review the report so that
16:49you can pick up key elements that could
16:51form part of your abstract if your
16:53report is not yet complete then you need
16:56to review your protocol
16:58find out what data you have relevant to
17:01the topic that you have chosen for the
17:02abstract analyze that particular data
17:06put your results in the form of text
17:08tables graphs or charts whichever are
17:11relevant and identify key pieces of
17:13evidence around which you will build
17:15your abstract make sure that you have a
17:18logical conclusion to the research
17:20question that you have post in the topic
17:22and then go ahead to think about what
17:25recommendations that you can write based
17:28on the results that you have observed
17:30after having reviewed the data that is
17:32available with you in relation to the
17:35topic that you have chosen the next
17:37important step is to review the rules
17:40prescribed by the journal or the
17:41conference for writing the abstract and
17:44submitting it these rules could be
17:46pertaining to the structure of the
17:47abstract that you have to write
17:49whether it is whether there is an
17:51imposed structure in the form of
17:53introduction methods results and
17:55conclusion or whether the journal
17:57mandates that the abstract should be
17:59unstructured
18:00also these rules would tell you what are
18:02the word limits that you have to stick
18:04to while writing your abstract
18:06the common word limits that often
18:09journals or conference presentations
18:10demand is between 250 to 275 words if it
18:15is going to be a structured abstract if
18:18it is going to be an unstructured
18:20abstract then usually the word limit is
18:23much smaller and maybe roughly around
18:25100 words
18:27the way to go about writing an
18:28unstructured abstract is to first write
18:31a structured abstract keeping the
18:34introduction methods results and
18:36conclusion in the logical order and then
18:38to edit it and reframe it so that it
18:40appears like an unstructured abstract
18:43after having reviewed the rules of the
18:45journal or the conference the next steps
18:48are to extract ideas pertaining to your
18:50research question from the detailed
18:52manuscript that you have written off
18:54from the report that is available with
18:55you
18:56and also to put these key elements in
18:59the outline as prescribed by the journal
19:02or the conference so while extracting
19:04the ideas from the report you need to
19:06again go through the report review the
19:09data identify those key pieces of
19:12information that you are going to put
19:14into your abstract in the form of either
19:16a key table or from a key graph and then
19:19you build logical argument around those
19:21key
19:22elements finally after having extracted
19:26the key elements that you have finalized
19:29would be going into your abstract
19:31organize that material within the
19:33abstract outline
19:34the abstract outline as you are well
19:36familiar by now includes the
19:38introduction methods results and
19:41conclusion
19:42with this slide we have understood what
19:44are the key steps in writing up an
19:46abstract
19:48now let us look at a couple of examples
19:50from published work which show us a
19:52structured abstract as well as an
19:55example of an unstructured abstract this
19:57is a published abstract from lancet
19:59public health and gives you an outline
20:02of how a structured abstract would look
20:04like a structured abstract will have an
20:07introduction and a background section it
20:09would have a materials method section a
20:11key results section and a conclusion
20:13section whereas
20:15an unstructured abstract as in this case
20:18from the medical education online
20:20journal shows you that the abstract does
20:22not have clearly imposed subdivisions
20:25whereas if you would pause the video
20:27take a minute and read this abstract you
20:30will be able to understand that though
20:32there are no imposed subdivisions or
20:35imposed categories in this unstructured
20:37abstract
20:39the authors
20:40begin with describing the background of
20:43why the research has been done then they
20:45go on to discuss what is the objective
20:47of the research work then they tell you
20:50how or what were the methods that they
20:52had followed to address the research
20:54question what were the key results that
20:56they had observed and what are their key
20:59conclusions and recommendations
21:01so though
21:02there is no imposed structure in an
21:04unstructured abstract as i told you
21:07previously even unstructured abstracts
21:09generally follow the same flow of
21:12introduction methods results and
21:14discussion having seen examples of
21:18published work of how structured and
21:20unstructured abstracts look at let us
21:23dwell a little bit in detail and see
21:25what should be written under each of the
21:28imposed heads of a structured abstract
21:31first let us begin with the background
21:33section of an abstract
21:35in the background section of the
21:37abstract the most vital piece of
21:39information that should be written
21:41in the background section of an abstract
21:43is the information pertaining to what
21:46research question you're addressing in
21:48this piece of research work and also you
21:51need to mention what were the reasons
21:53that led you to conduct this piece of
21:55research
21:56if the word limit would allow you and if
21:58it is possible for you then you could
22:00also
22:01mention a couple of lines about the
22:04importance of the topic that you're
22:05researching or if there is any other
22:07background information that you would
22:08like to add to the introduction segment
22:11having understood what should go into
22:12the background section of an app now let
22:14us look at a practical example of
22:16writing the background or introduction
22:18segment for an abstract
22:20now this example pertains to
22:23investigating an outbreak of
22:25gastroenteritis that occurred in a
22:28specific region in india
22:30so here we are trying to tell you what
22:33is the
22:34order of importance and what is the
22:36order in which the details are presented
22:39usually in an introduction
22:41usually in an introduction section many
22:43of the authors the first line that they
22:45write pertains to what is the importance
22:48of the topic that they are trying to
22:50address the second line that they would
22:52write is what are the reasons that led
22:54them to conduct the study and the third
22:56line that they would write is what is
22:58the objective of the study but as we had
23:01seen in the previous slide you know that
23:04the most important aspect of the
23:06abstract introduction section is to make
23:09the reader know what is the objective of
23:12your study
23:13so if at all the word limit does not
23:15permit you to write three lines in the
23:17background section then the one line
23:20that you must give related to this
23:22outbreak investigation is the first line
23:24that we have mentioned that is the
23:26objective of the study that states we
23:29investigated the outbreak to identify
23:32its source
23:33suppose if the word limit permits you to
23:35elaborate then you can go on to say
23:39what is the importance that is festivals
23:41are common causes of foodborne outbreaks
23:43in india and then you can go on to say
23:46what are the reasons for which the study
23:48was conducted that is they had observed
23:50a cluster of gastroenteritis cases among
23:53the guests who attended a wedding i hope
23:55that that is clear the methods paragraph
23:58in the abstract
23:59actually should mirror the same format
24:02of the methods paragraph that you write
24:04in your detailed manuscript by which i
24:07mean that the methods paragraph in your
24:09abstract section should also elaborate
24:12what was the study design that was used
24:14to address the research question what
24:16was the case definition that the authors
24:19had used
24:20who were the participants of your
24:21research
24:23what were the details of the
24:24interventions or the comparators that
24:26were given
24:28how did the data collection happen
24:30what type of analysis was done and
24:33whether there was any additional
24:34pertinent information
24:36related to the methods section like
24:38environmental assessment etc those also
24:41need to be forming part of the methods
24:43paragraph of your abstract for example
24:45this is the method section of the same
24:48investigation of the gastroenteritis
24:50outbreak that i was detailing when we
24:53were discussing the background section
24:56pause the video for a minute take a look
24:58at this method section having gone
25:00through the methods section i'm sure now
25:02you would understand that this method
25:04section gives you information
25:06about what was the case definition used
25:08for gastroenteritis
25:11what was the analysis that the authors
25:13had done
25:14what were the participants who were
25:16included in this particular study and
25:19what is the design that was employed
25:21what were the methods of data collection
25:24and what were the lab investigations and
25:27additional information that was
25:28collected as part of this outbreak
25:30investigation
25:32so to summarize the methods section
25:34should detail out
25:36how was the study done
25:38who were the participants
25:40what sort of data was collected
25:44how was that analyzed
25:46what are the laboratory methods if any
25:48and if there is any other pertinent
25:50information you may want to give that as
25:52well in the abstract
25:54all this provided that the word limit
25:56permits you to do so moving on to the
25:58results paragraph of an abstract the
26:01results paragraph of an abstract should
26:03summarize all the key result
26:05informations
26:07the first line usually should talk about
26:09the response rate from the participants
26:12to your study
26:13then you should detail out
26:15the characteristics of the participants
26:17so that the readers are aware
26:19to whom the results can be applied to
26:23the key measures of disease frequency
26:25like prevalence incidence should be
26:27mentioned
26:28and what were the results of univariable
26:30and multivariable analysis if any that
26:32was done
26:34if there were any additional
26:36investigations then you should mention
26:37all of that in your results paragraph
26:40mind you the results paragraph should
26:42address the research questions that you
26:45had post or the objectives that you had
26:48mentioned in the introduction section
26:50also the results paragraph should be the
26:53ones from which your conclusions and
26:54recommendations are derived from
26:56continuing with the example of the
26:58outbreak investigation
27:00a sample results section should usually
27:02look like this in an abstract
27:04the first line is going to give you the
27:06response rate which says of the so many
27:09guests that we were interviewing so many
27:11responded to our survey what were the
27:13characteristics of the subjects who were
27:15included how many of them were male
27:17female what was the median age how many
27:20of them had gastroenteritis that is what
27:23is the incidence of gastroenteritis in
27:25the study
27:26what sort of analysis was done what did
27:29we find out in the uni variable and
27:32multivariable analysis and was there any
27:35additional investigation done to
27:36identify what was the specific causative
27:40agent of the gastroenteritis in this
27:42case it is a staphylococcus toxin
27:45whether
27:46any additional probing was done to
27:48identify what was the source of this
27:51staphylococcal gastroenteritis that is
27:54happening
27:55in this case they identified that
27:57unhygienic practices that is leaving the
27:59fish egg batter at a room temperature
28:01for 5 hours by a food handler who has
28:05chronic staphylococcus infection
28:07led to the outbreak
28:09your results section should be in line
28:11with your
28:13research objectives the research
28:15objectives of this outbreak
28:16investigation
28:18was to identify the source of the
28:20gastrointestinal outbreak
28:22the conclusion section of the abstract
28:24should often provide the result for the
28:26key research question that you have
28:28posed and it may be written by
28:30integrating multiple lines of supporting
28:33evidence that you had written in the
28:34results section the key recommendations
28:36or actions that need to be initiated
28:39after this study
28:40need to be derived from the results that
28:42you obtained as part of your study
28:44so
28:45never ever give a generic conclusion or
28:48a genetic recommendation in your
28:50abstract
28:51so
28:52limit the conclusion and recommendation
28:54directly to whatever evidence that is
28:56supported by your data a good example of
29:00a conclusion section for the outbreak
29:02investigation is like this
29:04the staphylococcus food-borne outbreak
29:06was cast by an infected food handler
29:09with poor food hygiene practices which
29:11is the key conclusion that directly
29:13answers the research question of what is
29:16the source
29:17of the outbreak
29:19the key recommendation from this
29:21therefore would be that public health
29:23authorities should work with food
29:25handlers to improve food safety during
29:28large gatherings like weddings or during
29:30festivals i hope with this example of
29:33outbreak investigation you have
29:34understood what should be written under
29:37each of the sections of the abstract
29:39that is the introduction the method
29:41section the results section and the
29:43conclusion and recommendation section
29:46having seen what should go into the
29:48various sections of a structured
29:50abstract like the background
29:52the
29:53methods the results and discussion
29:56one of the key rules that you need to
29:57remember is
29:59overall throughout your abstract the
30:01primacy of data should be maintained you
30:04should not begin writing your abstract
30:06without having data and most of the
30:09words that you write in the abstract
30:11should be
30:12revolved around the data that you have
30:14generated as part of your research work
30:16this means that you will have to revise
30:18your abstract minimize and cut down all
30:21the words that may be unnecessary often
30:24authors
30:25write words
30:26which do not provide additional
30:28information like it was interesting to
30:30note that or more research is needed
30:33avoid using such unnecessary words which
30:35do not provide additional information to
30:38your abstract be specific while writing
30:40your abstract avoid vague and unclear
30:43statements
30:45always use an active voice because an
30:47active voice provides more clarity
30:50for example instead of saying a
30:52descriptive study was done
30:54you could say
30:56we performed a matched case control
30:59study so this is a more clear one and
31:02also is written in an active voice
31:05specify the tools that you had used for
31:07measurement very clearly because these
31:09tools could be used by other researchers
31:12who are working in the same area
31:14always present data clearly before
31:17concluding from the data when you are
31:19doing the outbreak investigation that i
31:21was mentioning to you
31:23don't start a statement saying that a
31:25point source epidemic was noted
31:27rather describe very clearly that the
31:30cases rose rapidly and fell rapidly
31:32within a short period of time that was
31:35being investigated allow sufficient time
31:38for revising your abstract this is one
31:40of the key aspects or key principles of
31:43abstract writing you must have plenty of
31:45time and should not rush into writing
31:47your abstract because abstract is one of
31:50the most important aspects of your
31:52manuscript and you need to write and
31:54rewrite because your abstract should
31:56contain all the relevant accurate
31:59information it should summarize your
32:01entire manuscript in a short form in 250
32:05to 275 words
32:07while conforming to the rules prescribed
32:10by the journal or the conference
32:12so revise
32:13rewrite
32:15revise revised revise that is the advice
32:17that i would give to you do not hesitate
32:20to write multiple versions of your
32:22abstract
32:23do discuss and take advice from your
32:26supervisors from peers who have
32:29contributed to this research work
32:31so
32:32after
32:33many revisions you would come up with an
32:35abstract that is a very good one
32:38provides succinct summary of the
32:40detailed research work that you have
32:42done and also is fully conforming to the
32:45rules of the journal that you are
32:47targeting or the conference where you
32:49want to present the abstract before
32:51final submission of the abstract always
32:54seek academic clearance as well as
32:57administrative clearance so that you are
32:59all done and set to submit the abstract
33:03a lot of the journals now also require
33:05you to provide a graphical abstract
33:08being in the age of social media we
33:11understand how
33:13informative visuals can be used be it on
33:16twitter platforms or instagram platforms
33:19to disseminate your research results
33:22quickly so a graphical abstract is
33:24nothing but a pictorial or a visual
33:26summary of the research work that you
33:28have done
33:29it should be designed in such a way that
33:31the readers would be able to rapidly
33:33understand what was the study design
33:36that you employ to address your research
33:37questions and what are the key take-home
33:39messages that you have derived from your
33:41research work
33:43several journals have got specific
33:45guidelines on how graphical abstracts
33:47should be presented
33:49i am just giving you an indicative
33:50example of how an effective visual
33:53abstract should be now look at this
33:55visual abstract for a study that look
33:57impact of treating iron deficiency
33:59anemia before major abdominal surgery
34:03now as is seen in this visual abstract
34:05it is very important that within the
34:08visual abstract you find space for
34:10summarizing the key research question
34:13the next important aspect that a visual
34:16abstract must have is
34:18it should explicitly mention the
34:20outcomes of the study that you are
34:22trying to see so some of the outcomes
34:24that this particular study looked at are
34:27decreased need for blood transfusion
34:30shorter hospital length of stay and also
34:32they looked at recovery of hemoglobin
34:35post discharge
34:37now each of these outcomes are also
34:39visually represented so that the viewers
34:42or the readers are immediately attracted
34:45to see and understand what this research
34:47is all about and what did the results
34:49show look at the bottom section of this
34:52abstract the bottom section also gives
34:54explicit data related to the outcome if
34:57you look at the outcome pertaining to
34:59decreased need for blood transfusion
35:01the decrease was observed from 31
35:03percent to 12 percent when iron
35:06deficiency anemia was treated before
35:08major abdominal surgery similarly for
35:10the other outcomes pertaining to
35:12hospital stay and pertaining to the
35:15recovery of hemoglobin post discharge
35:17similar outcome data has been explicitly
35:20mentioned so whenever you are giving a
35:22graphical abstract the outcome data
35:24should be explicitly mentioned as part
35:27of your graphical abstract also it is a
35:29good practice to give the citation of
35:32the authors and also information about
35:34who created the visual abstract so
35:37whenever the journal or the conference
35:39where you're presenting demands a
35:41graphical abstract take out time to go
35:43through the rules prescribed by the
35:45journal or the conference
35:48and usually the journals and conferences
35:50also give you a template
35:52of how the visual abstract should look
35:54like so go through that template
35:57look at the rules
35:58extract your data conform to that
36:01template conform to those rules and
36:04create a graphical abstract so some of
36:06the journals and conferences these days
36:09do require you to give a video abstract
36:13similar to the visual abstract or the
36:15graphical abstract that we had discussed
36:17a video abstract is also something that
36:20can have wider reach through social
36:22media usually video abstracts are a
36:25shorter duration videos usually for 2
36:27minutes and 20 seconds or less
36:30the video abstracts should be made
36:32optimal so that they could be shared on
36:33social media one of the key aspects of a
36:36video abstract is that it has got a
36:38personal touch the authors themselves
36:40get a chance to introduce the readers to
36:43the research work about which they are
36:44passionate and then they are able to
36:47induce the readers to read the full
36:50manuscript pertaining to their research
36:52work
36:52at the end of the section on abstract
36:54writing i leave you with these key
36:56take-home messages
36:58abstract writing may be harder than what
37:00you have imagined because
37:02succinctly summarizing a larger piece of
37:05research work within 250 to 300 words is
37:09not an easy task
37:11so systematic preparation and iterative
37:14writing rewriting and revising are key
37:16to writing a good abstract
37:19finally let us move on to the final
37:21objective of today's lecture that is to
37:24list
37:25relevant keywords for your manuscript
37:27so what are keywords keywords are
37:30nothing but short words or phrases that
37:33are used for the purposes of cross
37:35indexing and retrieving your data
37:37if you are using appropriate keywords
37:40then it becomes very easy for your
37:42manuscript to be retrieved by any person
37:45who is finding out relevant articles in
37:48the area of your research in indexing
37:51databases like pubmed and scopus the
37:54number of keywords that you write for
37:56your manuscript should be usually
37:58limited to 3 to 10 and they should
38:00revolve around the key concepts that
38:02your manuscript deals with always it is
38:04a good practice to write keywords based
38:07on the medical subject heading words
38:09that you can get on the national library
38:11of medicine website
38:13arrange the keywords in an alphabetical
38:15order for example in a study the key
38:18words were celiac disease children
38:21clinical features histopathology
38:23findings
38:25nutritional status signs and symptoms
38:29if you would take a minute and go
38:30through these keywords you will be able
38:33to understand what this research work is
38:35all about and you could possibly also
38:37frame a title for what this research
38:39work could be
38:40if i attempt to do this then the title
38:42could be something like this
38:44celiac disease in indian children
38:47assessment of clinical nutritional and
38:50pathological characteristics
38:52so understand that key words are nothing
38:55but three to ten words or phrases that
38:58revolve around the main concepts of your
39:00research work
39:02that should also preferably be
39:05the medical subject headings of the nlm
39:07database
39:09so that your manuscript is properly
39:11indexed and can be easily retrieved when
39:14anyone searches for research work in
39:17this case if anybody is searching for
39:19research work pertaining to celiac
39:20disease then these keywords would ensure
39:23that this manuscript also pops up in the
39:26results that the database gives you for
39:28your search so to summarize in today's
39:31lecture we have been looking at how to
39:33write title
39:35abstract and keywords for your
39:37manuscript as a result the title
39:40abstract and keywords need to be
39:42appropriate to your research work and
39:44also they should be concise and precise
39:47this will ensure that your research work
39:49is easily retrieved by anybody who is
39:51searching for articles related to your
39:53area of research that is all that i have
39:56for you in this lecture i wish you all
39:58the best for your manuscript writing

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