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<abstract> Abstract

Summarized description of the content of a document or document component.

Usage/Remarks

Multiple Abstracts
An article may take many abstracts (<abstract>), differing in:
  • style (<abstract abstract-type="para"> or <abstract abstract-type="section">)
  • size (“<abstract abstract-type="short">” or <abstract abstract-type="tweet">, <abstract abstract-type="extended">)
  • kind (<abstract abstract-type="stereochemical"> or <abstract abstract-type="objectives">)
  • audience (<abstract abstract-type="executive-summary"> or <abstract abstract-type="web-summary">)
  • language (<abstract abstract-type="short" xml:lang="de"> or <abstract abstract-type="short" xml:lang="fr">).
Attributes to differentiate among multiple abstracts include:
  • The attribute @specific-use may identify a processing purpose, such as RSS feed or pronunciation.
  • The attribute @abstract-type may be used to identify special types of abstracts, for example, graphical abstracts, stereochemical abstracts, ASCII abstracts for sending to small devices, and Table-of-Contents abstracts that are so short they are inserted as annotations into a Table of Contents. See the attribute page for @abstract-type for a list of suggested types.
  • The attribute @xml:lang names the language in which the abstract is written.
    The multilingual attributes can be used to mark one abstract as the “original” and another as a “translation”, to mark two or more abstracts as “original”, or to group same-content abstracts into language groups.
Length of Abstracts
Many journal publishers request an abstract that is a very short summary of the major findings or conclusions of an article and limit this abstract to a paragraph or two. But some publishers require “long” or “summary” abstracts in which each section of the paper is summarized in a separate abstract section that has the same title as the article section being summarized. Such abstracts may be extensive, incorporating figures and tables. While the model for the element <abstract> has been made flexible enough to allow for these titled sections, it is expected that most abstracts will be much simpler and will contain one or more paragraphs.
Accessibility
For accessibility purposes, it is useful to provide a very short synopsis abstract (much like a Table of Contents blurb or a dek in some journals) whose purpose is to tell a non-sighted reader what the document is about. This abstract can be given the @abstract-type such as “meta-description”, “description”, or “dc:description” to indicate that, when making web pages from this XML, the abstract should be used to create the XHTML metadata description.
The <abstract> element should not be used to take the place of the regular accessibility elements <alt-text> or <long-desc>, which are, respectively, shorter and longer descriptions of a component of a document, such as a table or figure.
Attributes
abstract-type
specific-use

Multi-lang Attributes

lang-focus
lang-focus-custom
lang-group
lang-source
lang-source-custom
lang-translate
lang-variant
lang-variant-custom

Base Attributes

id
xml:base
xml:lang
Models and Context
May be contained in
<article-meta>, <sec-meta>
Description
The following, in order:
Content Model
<!ELEMENT  abstract     %abstract-model;                             >
Expanded Content Model

(title?, (p)*, sec*)

Tagged Samples
Single paragraph abstract 
<article dtd-version="1.4d1">
 <front>
  <article-meta>
   ...
   <abstract>
    <p>We describe a method for cloning nucleic acid molecules onto the
     surfaces of 5-μm microbeads rather than in biological hosts. 
     A unique tag sequence is attached to each molecule, and the tagged
     library is amplified. Unique tagging of the molecules is achieved by
     sampling a small fraction (1%) of a very large repertoire of
     tag sequences. The resulting library is hybridized to microbeads that
     each carry ≈10<sup>6</sup> strands complementary to one 
     of the tags. About 10<sup>5</sup> copies of each molecule are collected 
     on each microbead. ...</p>
   </abstract>
   <kwd-group kwd-group-type="author">...</kwd-group>
  </article-meta>
 </front>
 ...
</article>
With interior sections 
<article dtd-version="1.4d1">
 <front>
  <article-meta>
   ...
   <abstract abstract-type="section">
    <sec>
     <title>Objective</title>
     <p>To examine the effectiveness of day hospital attendance 
      in prolonging independent living for elderly people.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec>
     <title>Design</title>
     <p>Systematic review of 12 controlled clinical trials (available
      by January 1997) comparing day hospital care with comprehensive 
      care (five trials), domiciliary care (four trials), or no comprehensive 
      care (three trials).</p>
    </sec>
    <sec>
     <title>Subjects</title>
     <p>2867 elderly people.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec>
     <title>Main outcome measures</title>
     <p>Death, institutionalisation, disability, global “poor
      outcome,” and use of resources.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec>
     <title>Results</title>
     <p>Overall, there was no significant difference between day 
      hospitals and alternative services ...</p>
    </sec>
    <sec>
     <title>Conclusions</title>
     <p>Day hospital care seems to be an effective service for 
      elderly people ...</p>
     <p><boxed-text position="float">
      <sec>
       <title>Key messages</title>
       <p>...</p>
      </sec>
     </boxed-text></p>
    </sec>
   </abstract>
  </article-meta>
 </front>
 ...
</article>
@abstract-type differentiates multiple abstracts 
...
<article-meta>
 ...  
 <abstract>
  <p>This is the third and last part of the volume devoted to solubility data of rare 
   earth metal chlorides in water and in ternary and quaternary aqueous systems. 
   Compilations of all available experimental data for each rare earth metal chloride 
   are introduced with a corresponding critical evaluation. Every such evaluation 
   contains a tabulated collection of all solubility results in water, a scheme of the 
   water-rich part of the equilibrium ... Because the ternary and quaternary systems 
   were almost never studied more than once, no critical evaluations or systematic 
   comparisons of such data were possible. Simple chlorides (no complexes) of 
   Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu are treated as the input substances. The 
   literature (including a thorough coverage of papers in Chinese and Russian) 
   has been covered through the middle of 2008.</p>
 </abstract>
 <abstract abstract-type="short">
  <p>The is the third and last part of the volume devoted to solubility data of rare 
   earth metal chlorides in water and in ternary and quaternary aqueous systems. 
   Compilations of all available experimental data are introduced for each rare earth 
   metal chloride with a corresponding critical evaluation. This part covers chlorides 
   of Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu, with coverage of the literature through the 
   middle of 2008.</p>
 </abstract>
</article-meta>
...
Abstract in 2 languages 
<article-meta>
 ...
 <abstract xml:lang="es" 
    lang-variant="original" lang-source="author">
  <title>RESUMEN</title>
  <p>La repetición verbal espontánea forma parte de la
   interacción temprana adulto–niño, estando enmarcadas 
   en el seno de conversaciones. ...</p>
 </abstract>

 <abstract xml:lang ="en" 
    lang-variant="translation" lang-source="translator">
  <title>ABSTRACT</title>
  <p>Spontaneous verbal repetition is part of early adult–child 
   conversational interchanges. ...</p>
 </abstract>
 ...
</article-meta>
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