Other documents such as books, theses and reports also benefit by the inclusion of an abstract in English. An even more important reason to write abstracts in English is to help the editors of abstracts services or journals to understand the work and write abstracts for it. While some abstracts services are able to write their own abstracts in English of material in other languages, most information that is not in English does not become accessible through an abstracts system. It is of real help to us at IBRA, in publishing Apicultural Abstracts , if English abstracts are included in a publication, as we can use them without needing to have them translated. The remainder of this guide contains suggestions on what kind of documents should have abstracts written for them, and how to go about preparing useful abstracts.
Abstracts are most useful when they are written for material that reports something new.
A brief statement of the purpose of the study, unless it is obvious from the title or the main content of the abstract. Basic information on the organisms, materials and locations used. Selected details of the experimental methods, including the duration of the study, the treatments, methods and equipment used. The key results, with a description of them and some of the main figures and their statistical significance. Finish with a brief note on the significance of the results.