Unit 11.

2
Structured & Unstructured Abstracts
Structured Abstracts

• Multiple short paragraphs

• Covers all major parts of the paper
• Have separate headings for each section
 Example of Structured Abstract
PURPOSE: To summarize the main findings from research on structured abstracts.

METHODS: A narrative review of all the relevant papers known to the author was conducted.

RESULTS: Authors and readers judged the structured abstracts to be more useful than traditional ones. In 1987 the
Ad Hoc Working Group for Critical Appraisal of the Medical Literature proposed guidelines for informative seven-
headings
abstracts. In 1990 Haynes et al. reconsidered the structured abstract of clinical research and review articles and proposed
revised guidelines. Nowadays, most abstracts are informative, and the most commonly used structure is IMRAD
(Introduction, Methods, Results And Discussion) format.

CONCLUSIONS: There are many variations in the structured-abstract formats prescribed by different journals. But even
in recent years, not all abstracts of original articles are structured. More research is needed on a number of questions related
to the quality and utility of structured abstracts.

Key words: Abstracting and indexing. Review literature. Peer review 

Unstructured Abstracts

• Single paragraph
• Covers all major parts of the paper
 Example of Unstructured Abstract
Many adolescents are inseparable from their smartphones on which they are often confronted with covert advertising ‐like
mobile advergames. This study explores the roles of brand familiarity and smartphone attachment in adolescents’ abilities
to recognize the commercial intent of advergames. Moreover, it considers the potential indirect effects of brand familiarity
and smartphone attachment on the susceptibility of young consumers to mobile advergames. An experiment (N = 98) was
conducted, which showed that brand familiarity moderates the effect of playing advergames on the recognition of the
commercial intent of advergames. Furthermore, smartphone attachment was found to facilitate the recognition of the
commercial intent of advergames, such that adolescents who experienced higher levels of smartphone attachment (when
compared to lower levels) were better able to differentiate between advergames and non ‐commercial games (games
without advertising). Interestingly, no association between smartphone attachment and brand responses were found—
suggesting that smartphone attachment did not affect adolescents’ compliance with the advertised message.

Key words: Advergames and Non-commercial games Smartphones, Consumers

Reference

Wallwork, A. (2011). English for Writing Research papers. New

York, NY: Springer