1. Writing a Research Abstract
Used to provide a concise description about a research project
A short summary of a completed research work
N S Senanayake November 2016

2. Purpose
When writing an abstract, it is important to keep in mind the purposes of an abstract.
Provide readers with useful information about the study.
help readers to evaluate and select a document that they would find useful in their own research
Provide the basics information about a document without requiring them to read the actual document.

3. Types of abstracts Descriptive abstracts Informative abstracts
Commonly used in the social sciences and humanities; do not give specific information about methods and results
Informative abstracts
Commonly used in the applied sciences; present information on the background, aim, methods, results, and conclusions
Structured abstracts
essentially divided into a series of headings (e.g., Objective, Method, Results, Conclusion)and are typically found in medical literature and clinical trial reports

4. Composition Motivation or problem statement Objective/s
Why is the study was done? What gap do you expect to fill?
Objective/s
What outcomes have you targeted?
Method/Procedure/Approach
Methodology you adopted to achieve the objectives?
Results/Findings
What did you achieve after completing the procedure?
Conclusions/Implications
Is the problem solved or not? Other Implications?

5. Features of a Good Abstract
Attractive and short Title reflecting the actual work
Coherent and concise paragraphs, and be able stand alone
Main parts in correct order (starting from introduction and ending with conclusions)
Follows strictly the chronology of the study
Logical connections between information presented
No new information (that has not been included in the full article)
Understandable to a wide audience
Use of passive voice sentences emphasize the information
No citations and abbreviations

6. Things you should avoid
Start with “this paper presents” or similar (Good to write about research rather than about the “paper”)
Sentences that end with “is reported”, “is suggested”, “ is analyzed” or similar
Sentences that begins with “It is felt that… ”, “It is believed that ….” or similar
Use of trade names, acronyms, abbreviations and symbols
Citations and References

7. Keywords A keyword is a key to information.
Keywords point researchers to relevant papers—papers that may not come to a researcher’s attention in the normal course of her or his reading
Do not use words or terms in the Title as keywords: because function of keywords is to supplement the information given in the Title.
Words in the Title are automatically included in indexes, and keywords serve as additional pointers.

8. How should you pick keywords?
If the research focuses on a particular region (geographic, climatic, etc.), use that as a keyword (semi-arid tropics, Asia ).
Consider the experimental material and techniques, which may suggest suitable keywords (Photo elasticity, simulation, 3D modeling).
Check whether potential applications can serve as keywords (long-term preservation, energy efficiency).
Use specific phenomena or issues as keywords (climate change, air pollution, sustainable development, genetic engineering).
Do not use words or phrases from the title as keywords.

9. Abstracting and Indexing
Abstracting and indexing (A & I) service is a product a company sells or makes available.
The product indexes content at the article level by assigning subject headings (descriptors or keywords) to each one and then making them searchable in the product’s database.
These services also index other bibliographic elements of journal articles, including authors, titles, date of publication, etc.

10. Impact Factor(IF)
The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year or period.
Impact Factor of a journal is calculated by dividing the number of current year citations by the source items published in that journal during the previous two years.

11. H -index
H-index is a measure of the number of highly impactful papers a scientist has published.
The larger the number of important papers, the higher the h-index
To calculate it, only two pieces of information are required: total number of papers published (Np) and number of citations (Nc) for each paper.

13. i10- Index
Created by Google Scholar and used in Google's My Citations feature. 
i10-Index is the number of publications with at least 10 citations.  
This very simple measure is only used by Google Scholar, and is another way to help gauge the productivity of a scholar.  

14. Activity
Write an abstract based on your undergraduate project