Publish with Camtree: Structured Abstracts
Every item in the Camtree Digital Library needs to be accompanied by a structured abstract. This is a summary of 250-300 words which describes the background and purpose, aims, design, findings and implications of the inquiry that features in the research report.
The structured abstract needs to be in English. Translated versions of the abstract in additional languages can be provided, and of course, the body of the research report itself can be in any language.
The structured abstract appears in the research report itself, but it is also part of the metadata that accompanies the report when it is added to the library. Here’s the section of the template that sets out the structure of the abstract:
Why Structured Abstracts?
Many publications, dissertations and conference proceedings require an abstract, but these often provide rather vague guidance about what should be included. Making the abstract structured means that consistent information is included, making searching and browsing the library for relevant content much easier. It also allows easier synthesis of research, as details such as context, numbers of participants, and key outcomes are are clearly presented.
Structured abstracts are also more ‘machine-readable’ allowing search engines, indexers and ‘machine learning’ based systems to make sense of the content.
Writing abstracts isn’t easy, so we will be developing some tools and resources (and good examples) to help you write yours. It’s also something that our peer review process focusses on: once you’ve submitted a report to the library, you might get some feedback and advice specifically about the structure, content or language used in your abstract.
