Clarifying the abstracts of systematic literature reviews

• Published in: Bulletin of the Medical Library Association Vol. 88; no. 4; pp. 332 - 337
• Main Author: HARTLEY, James
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL Medical Library Association 01.10.2000
• Subjects: Abstracting and Indexing as Topic - standards; Abstracts; Adolescent; Adult; Child; Exact sciences and technology; Guidelines as Topic; Humans; Information and communication sciences; Information publishing, dissemination and reproduction; Information science. Documentation; Readability; Reading; Review Literature as Topic; Sciences and techniques of general use; Scientific and technical writing; Medicine; Improvement; Language; Biomedical information; Periodical; Abstract; Writing; Abstracting; Information structure; Recommendation; Typography
• ISSN: 0025-7338

There is a small body of research on improving the clarity of abstracts in general that is relevant to improving the clarity of abstracts of systematic reviews. To summarize this earlier research and indicate its implications for writing the abstracts of systematic reviews. Literature review with commentary on three main features affecting the clarity of abstracts: their language, structure, and typographical presentation. The abstracts of systematic reviews should be easier to read than the abstracts of medical research articles, as they are targeted at a wider audience. The aims, methods, results, and conclusions of systematic reviews need to be presented in a consistent way to help search and retrieval. The typographic detailing of the abstracts (type-sizes, spacing, and weights) should be planned to help, rather than confuse, the reader.