English-written abstracts for Spanish publications: A challenge in the globalization of science

The preeminence of English as the scientific lingua franca, together with the ever-present publish-or-perish dilemma, has brought increasing concern on Spanish scientists striving to achieve international recognition. Spanish journal editors try to make their journals look as professional as possible, most of them peer reviewed and their abstracts are listed in the most important databases. However, the problem of language seems to be the issue around which the dissemination of their publications is centered. In this report we examine the English-written abstracts of the Spanish Journal of Finance and Accounting, their content and form, and whether or not they are persuasive enough to lure the researcher into reading the paper. While the abstract is considered the first point of contact with the researcher, the expected results will show a rather irregular rendering of the information and, in general, a defective composition of the abstracts, in addition to local issues discussed in their articles. These results suggest a poor dissemination and repercussion of the authors’ contribution worldwide.

English-language abstracts written by Czech linguists: how are we doing?

Article abstracts may be among the most efficient means of disseminating research results if certain basic principles regarding their content and structure are followed. No research outcomes have yet been made available on the structure of abstracts published in Czech linguistic periodicals. The current study presents a survey of 120 such abstracts collected from four journals and, on the basis of rhetorical moves analysis, describes their shared features, strengths and shortcomings. The results show that many of these abstracts fail to include moves which are generally considered obligatory (results, data and method description) and that their informative value is consequently lower than sufficient. The study concludes by recommending that awareness of rhetorical principles amongst Czech academics be raised e.g. through instructional texts or courses

The components of abstracts: The logical structure of abstracts in the areas of materials science and technology and of library and information science

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to examine whether the logical structure of abstracts in the areas of materials science and technology and library and information science comply with the ISO 214 or IMRAD formats, while also suggesting guidelines for components of abstracts. Design/methodology/approach – In the first part of the research the components of abstracts are analysed. The results showed that not all the proposed structural elements are present in the abstracts. Therefore also the improved prototypes and recommended abstracts are developed to examine the satisfaction of readers with different forms of abstracts. According to the results of satisfaction of readers with different forms of abstracts, uniform guidelines for the components of abstracts in accordance with the IMRAD format are proposed. Findings – The introduction (I) should include three sentences of background information. The method (M) should include three sentences of method. The results (R) should include three sentences of results. The discussion (D) should include two sentences of conclusions. The conclusions should present the implications of the results on subjects that were not part of the study, suggestions for possible application of the findings, suggestions for further research work and an evaluation of the research. Originality/value – It is important to emphasize that even if the guidelines for writing abstracts by the individual journal exist, authors do not always take them into account. Therefore, it is important that the abstracts that are actually published in journals were analysed. It is also important that the opinion of researchers was taken into account

Trends in genre analysis articles on scientific abstract structures: A Quantitative content analysis

Genre analysis is a methodologically prominent approach to segmenting a scientific abstract into discourse units. Genre analysis studies on scientific abstract structures have valuable outputs not only for secondary information services, including bibliographic databases and online services but also for scientific communication and library and information science (LIS) education. However, trends of research on this topic have not been investigated yet. This study identifies research trends and reveals knowledge gaps and research opportunities in genre analysis articles on scientific abstracts. For this purpose, Web of Science and Scopus databases were searched to identify the articles. According to the study selection criteria, 75 articles were included in the quantitative content analysis. It was found that the most frequently studied genres were research articles (73.3%), proceedings (%12), and thesis/dissertations (8%). The sample size of the corpus ranged from 5 to 4214 abstracts (M = 223.8, MD = 94, SD = 523.8). The authors most frequently cited for abstract genre models were Hyland, Swales, and Santos, respectively. In 18.7% of articles, at least one of the abstract standards was cited. Approximately, two-thirds of the articles were comparative. Languages (44.7%), disciplines (25.5%), genres, and native/non-native authors (8.5%) were compared most frequently. English was the most frequently studied language, both individual (72.4%) and comparatively (25.9%). The results of this study suggest that the LIS community, as well as applied linguistics, can seize the opportunity to address gaps in academic genres, disciplines, and languages. In addition, future studies are expected to have generalizable results to assist the scientific communication and LIS communities

Automatic abstracting: a review and an empirical evaluation

The abstract is a fundamental tool in information retrieval. As condensed representations, they facilitate conservation of the increasingly precious search time and space of scholars, allowing them to manage more effectively an ever-growing deluge of documentation. Traditionally the product of human intellectual effort, attempts to automate the abstracting process began in 1958. Two identifiable automatic abstracting techniques emerged which reflect differing levels of ambition regarding simulation of the human abstracting process, namely sentence extraction and text summarisation. This research paradigm has recently diversified further, with a cross-fertilisation of methods. Commercial systems are beginning to appear, but automatic abstracting is still mainly confined to an experimental arena. The purpose of this study is firstly to chart the historical development and current state of both manual and automatic abstracting; and secondly, to devise and implement an empirical user-based evaluation to assess the adequacy of automatic abstracts derived from sentence extraction techniques according to a set of utility criteria. [Continues.

Critérios para a elaboração de resumos

Procedures for abstracts elaboration are presented in terms of content, style and limits of extension, first considering the aspects concerning quality, reading and structure. The need to update standards on this subject is focused in the conclusion.São apresentados alguns procedimentos de elaboração de resumos em termos de conteúdo, estilo e extensão, considerando os aspectos relativos, preliminarmente, à qualidade, à leitura e ao esquema. A necessidade da atualização das normas já existentes sobre o assunto é enfocada na conclusão

An analysis of abstracts in medical and economics journals: Microstructure and practical applications

Writing abstracts, both in a professional and academic environment, is a crucialskill, reflecting the ability to think synthetically and express thoughts in a concise way. Due to the rising popularity of indexing scientific papers in different databases, abstracts can determine the readability of a paper and its future quotation rate. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the microstructure of 40 abstracts from prestigious impact factor medical and economics journals, offering guidelines for designing abstract writing exercises in foreign language courses for specific purpose

English-language abstracts written by Czech linguists: how are we doing?

Article abstracts may be among the most efficient means of disseminating research results if certain basic principles regarding their content and structure are followed. No research outcomes have yet been made available on the structure of abstracts published in Czech linguistic periodicals. The current study presents a survey of 120 such abstracts collected from four journals and, on the basis of rhetorical moves analysis, describes their shared features, strengths and shortcomings. The results show that many of these abstracts fail to include moves which are generally considered obligatory (results, data and method description) and that their informative value is consequently lower than sufficient. The study concludes by recommending that awareness of rhetorical principles amongst Czech academics be raised e.g. through instructional texts or courses

LOS ESTUDIOS DE RESUMEN DOCUMENTAL EN LAS CIENCIAS DE LA DOCUMENTACIÓN: UN RECORRIDO HISTÓRICO DESDE SUS ORÍGENES HASTA LAS TEORÍAS ACTUALES

[EN] The objective of this paper is to highlight the main perspectives proposed by researchers in the abstracting field and to revise how specialists have approached them. The changes that have been introduced in this subject in recent years are outlined; as well as some of the theoretical hypotheses and methodological designs of abstracting are summarised. Therefore, various theoretical models for the abstracting studies are discussed, starting from those ones proposed by the linguistic structuralism to those presented by socio-functionalist theories, including the approaches which are strictly linguistic, pragmatic linguistic or text linguistic, also the abstracting-oriented psycholinguistic or semiotic trends. The analysis and commentary of such models are focused in three approaches: product/text approach, process approach and social-construction approach. Finally, is offered a holistic perspective. All the models analysed are integrated in a new systematic framework. Also some methodological problems concerned with this kind of studies are suggested to be a high complex abstract.[ES] Se realiza una categorización de los estudios del resumen documental a partir de la revisión de los diferentes modelos y propuestas de los investigadores en este campo. Se señala la evolución de la investigación en esta actividad de tratamiento documental de contenido, atendiendo a las aproximaciones de la textolingüística y el estructuralismo lingüístico, los enfoques semióticos, las orientaciones de la psicología cognitiva, o el funcionalismo sociointeraccional. Para ello, se establecen distintas etapas, que van desde los postulados precientíficos iniciales hacia avances metateóricos y procedimentales más complejos y dinámicos. Las nuevas orientaciones y tendencias son clasificadas en base a tres dimensiones: el enfoque del texto/producto, el enfoque del proceso-actividad resumidora y la aproximación comunicativo-sociocultural, como puente integrador entre ambos. Finalmente, se alude a una fusión necesaria de las teorías resumidoras existentes, sin renunciar a toda la riqueza de perspectivas y visiones que ofrecen cada una de ellas, paraconfigurar un mapa consolidado de modelos resumidores en distintos ámbitos de especialidad.Izquierdo Alonso, M.; Sánchez Domínguez, C. (2011). LOS ESTUDIOS DE RESUMEN DOCUMENTAL EN LAS CIENCIAS DE LA DOCUMENTACIÓN: UN RECORRIDO HISTÓRICO DESDE SUS ORÍGENES HASTA LAS TEORÍAS ACTUALES. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 6:209-228. doi:10.4995/rlyla.2011.904SWORD209228