Conference Abstracts, Summaries and Synopses

How to write and submit a good conference abstract


Every more or less solid conference is announced several months before its actual dates. Conference announcement or call for papers or call for abstracts mainly states, that all interested parties, who want to apply for a conference, have to send several documents, particularly CV and, most important, the abstract of the paper. Usually an abstract should not exceed 500 words. The abstract is a short introduction to the topic, supposed to be presented by a researcher at the conference. While submitting an abstract to conference organizers, several points have to be considered.

So what is a relevant conference abstract?

First of all, if there is words restriction, an abstract should never exceed the mentioned amount. If the call for papers states, that an abstract has to be no more than 300 words, never submit an abstract containing 312 words. It is unethical to ignore the rules of the conference from the very beginning.

Many researchers regardless their academic position and experience, write their abstracts in a narrative way, just describing something, what is wrong. Conference organizers do not want to learn about some facts through your conference abstract. A conference abstract has a different mission – to give a precise idea of what about exactly a participant is going to talk at the conference. Thus, while writing an abstract for conference, first introduce the topic in general terms, then mention the problem and at the end make sure to write what exactly the presentation is about. Use such terms as “In this paper I will introduce…”, “My presentation will focus on…”, etc.

If the abstract submission for conference is successful and the abstract is accepted by the conference review committee, conference organizers will send you an official invitation and will include your paper’s title in the conference program. Conference abstracts are sometimes published in a brochure and distributed among the conference participants during the opening ceremony. Usually conference abstracts are followed by the conference program in the same volume. Full conference papers can be published in a separate volume as conference proceedings. Sometimes conference proceedings are published as a separate volume of a famous periodical or series in that particular field of studies. You may find conference proceedings online or their hard copies in the libraries.

Find conference abstracts to submit on ARMACAD.INFO

ARMACAD website strives to serve as a conference abstract database and present conference abstract publications online. Since not all the conference abstracts are published online, ARMACAD would like to fill that gap. Conference abstracts search is available in this section and will be updated regularly.