Clarifying the abstracts of systematic reviews

Hartley J.

Introduction: In this presentation implications from research findings about improving the clarity of abstracts of research articles are addressed to the abstracts of systematic reviews. Advice is given on three main features of abstracts: their language, structure, and typographical presentation.
Objectives:
Methods:
Results:
Discussion: Abstracts of systematic reviews are targeted at a wide audience so they must be easy to read. The aims, methods and results of such reviews need to be presented in a consistent way in the abstracts to help search and retrieval. The typographic detailing of the abstracts (type-sizes, spacing, weights) should enable rather than confuse the reader.

Rome 1999 O43