Suggest other relevant materials when it is appropriate. An abstract is an abbreviated, accurate summary of a non-fiction work, usually without interpretation or criticism. It may appear with the work that it summarizes, or it may include a bibliographic reference to the original work. Abstracts help the reader to narrow the selection of documents to be read for a particular research problem. Abstracts in one language can help readers decide which research papers in other languages would be useful to translate.
Informative abstracts can substitute for the original literature in many cases.
Abstracts can be used to help organize the preparation of articles, reviews and bibliographies. Includes salient data from the original work. Follow the same order of presentation as the original. Use the outline or table of contents as a guide. Length depends on the nature of the original.