Guidance on the format and content of Cochrane review abstracts is available in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.

Abstracts must be no more than 1000 words long, and it is highly desirable for abstracts to be less than 700 words.

Headings in the focused review format have been updated and are different from those in the previous review format (see focused review template).

Formatting options in the Abstract are limited to bold or italic text. There are no options to add bulleted or numbered lists, or RevMan-formatted headings. Hyperlinks should not be used in the Abstract. This is because Abstracts need to be publishable as standalone documents and this formatting may not be correctly reproduced outside the Cochrane Library. Use bold formatting for additional subheadings (e.g. in Main results).