A Practical Guide to Research: Design, Execution, and Publication

The abstract has 4 sections: purpose, methods, results, and conclusion. In Abstract: Purpose, sum up the controversy in a single sentence, stating the purpose in terms of the hypothesis being tested (but do not actually state the hypothesis). Don’t use abbreviations in the abstract. In Abstract: Methods, sum up who, what, where, hen, and especially why. Sum up the type of study, nclusion or exclusion criteria, primary outcome meaure, consideration of statistical power, and documenation of institutional review board approval. In Abstract: Results, state the P value, mean range), and confidence interval. In Abstract: Conclusion, remember, “Our results i emonstrate . . . ,” then mention limitations in terms of ias, and consider clinical relevance.