Abstract

Characteristics of An Abstract

  1. One paragraph of text, typically 200-300 words long.
  2. A summary of the entire poster.
  3. Organized into four distinct sections that appear in order:  Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results, Discussion.
  4. Each section typically consists of 2-4 sentences.
  5. No tables and no figures.     

The abstract is a paragraph of text that appears at the top-left side of the poster (Figs. 1 and 2).  It is a summary of the entire poster. It should stand alone such that a person can read the abstract and understand all the research described in the poster.  An abstract (Fig. 3) contains four parts that should be written in the following order: Introduction, Materials & Methods, Results and Discussion.  Each part typically consists of 2-4 sentences and the entire abstract will contain 200-300 words.  An abstract consists strictly of text, it contains no figures, no tables, and typically it does not contain citations.    

Figure 3. Abstract
example abstract
Figure 3. Example of an abstract and its four parts: Introduction (blue), Materials & Methods (yellow), Results (green), Discussion (red) and optional Conclusion (purple). This abstract is provided merely as an example and is not factual nor is it based on actual research.

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Scientific Posters: A Learner's Guide Copyright © 2020 by Ella Weaver; Kylienne A. Shaul; Henry Griffy; and Brian H. Lower is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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