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Conclusions and Reflection Room

Once you have completed your field work and data collection, you will have to draw conclusions from what you have found, reflect on what those conclusions mean and finish writing your dissertation or thesis. The constellations accessible from this room will help you to both form conclusions from your findings and to explain them, as well as covering topics such as effective writing and presentation, defending your thesis in viva voce examinations, and thinking about what you might want to do after you have finished your research.
Conclusions and reflection > Effective conference abstracts
Scientist looking down microscope

Conclusions and reflection

Effective conference abstracts

There is an increasingly wide range of scientific conferences in all research disciplines. This has, in turn, stimulated a rise in the number of conference abstracts submitted by researchers wishing to disseminate aspects of their research or examples of innovation and good practice. As a result, the process of selecting abstracts is becoming more competitive and members of scientific panels have to make harsh judgements about which papers to accept and include in their conference programmes. Whilst this is clearly an indication of a mature research-based discipline, it does mean that a successful abstract submission requires meticulous planning and developing a writing style that is clear, succinct and informative.

The aim of these learning materials is to review the essential stages of developing a strategy for writing a conference abstract that increases the chance of acceptance. The text is taken from the paper "Planning, developing and writing an effective conference abstract" by John Albarran (2007), published in the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing, Vol 2 No 11, and is used here by kind permission of the publishers, MA Healthcare Ltd.

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1. Introduction to effective conference abstracts
2. The purpose of an abstract
3. Starting with background work4. The title and conference themes
5. The conference audience
6. Format and submission of an abstract
7. Writing the abstract - title8. Writing the abstract - main body
9. Abstract writing stages10. Improving the quality of your abstract

Author: John Albarran, Reader in Critical Care Nursing, University of the West of England, Bristol

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