52.1 Abstracting Plan
An abstracting plan is a record of basic abstracting decisions. It should be developed in advance of any actual abstracting activity. This should be maintained, revised, and updated periodically. There are some reasons why an abstracting plan should be developed.
• to ensure that the principles of abstracting (i.e. accuracy, brevity, and clarity) are always borne in mind in order that researchers will be lead to the relevant documents
• to save the reading time of the user
• to be consistent in the type of abstracts to be produced • to keep the abstract within reasonable limits
• to ensure that the abstractor follows the library's or information center's policy as to how the abstract should be structured.
The following criteria should be carefully considered in developing an abstracting plan.
• Users of the abstract - Determine who the users are, their information- seeking behavior, and their needs with regard to the currency, accuracy, and reliability of the abstract, their point of view, and their terminology preferences.
• Documents to be abstracted - Which documents acquired by the library/information need to be abstracted?
• Parts of the documents to be abstracted - Which items in the documents will be of utmost interest to the users of the abstract?
• Type of abstract to produce - This will determine if abstracts will be indicative, informative, indicative-informative, structured, slanted, slanted but indicative, slanted but informative, and so on.
52.2 Abstracting Manual of Procedures
Relative to the abstracting plan, an abstracting manual of procedures provides specific guidelines in abstracting various types of documents. It is considered more as a manual of style in abstracting.
The following are usually included in the manual of procedures in abstracting. • a summary of the abstracting process (i.e. reading and understanding the
document, selecting the important phrases and passages, organizing these to produce a rough draft, and writing the final draft)
• instructions on transcribing the bibliographic reference whether on paper or electronic worksheets
o rules on the sequence of the bibliographic elements o transcribing the author's/authors' name(s)
§ number of author's name(s) to be transcribed if there are more than three
§ natural or inverted order of transcribing o transcribing the title of the article
§ which words in the title should be capitalized o transcribing the title of the periodical
§ in full or abbreviated form (if abbreviated, what standards must be observed)
§ italicized or underlined
o transcribing the volume and/or issue number o transcribing inclusive pages of article o transcribing date of publication
§ abbreviations for month and year
• instructions on style of writing, particularly on the following items o Topic sentence - Begin the abstract with a topic sentence. o Sentences within the abstract - Use complete sentences but
simple, and transitional words and phrases for coherence. o Verbs - Use verbs in the active voice.
o Pronouns - Use third-person pronouns. o Language - Use simple language.
o Abbreviations - Use commonly understood and easily intelligible abbreviations.
o Terminology - Use standard and familiar terms. Avoid the use of trade jargons and colloquial terms.
o Verbosity - Ideas in phases must be completely expressed through the minimum number of words.
o Redundancy - Avoid the use of a word whose meaning is already conveyed elsewhere in a passage.
o Number of words - This determines the specified length of the abstract.
52.3 Abstracting Standards
There are various organizations and institutions that issued standards in producing good-quality abstracts. Some of these organizations are named below, with the title of the standards issued by each.
• Armed Services for Technical Information Agency (ASTIA) - Guidelines for Cataloging and Abstracting. 2002.
• Defense Documentation Center (DDC) - Abstracting Scientific and Technical Reports of Defense-Sponsored RRDT/E AD 667000. 1968. • UNESCO - Guide for the Preparation of Author's Abstracts for Publication.
1968.
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - ISO 214-1976 - Documentation: Abstracts for Publication and Documentation. 1976. 52.4 Abstracting Process
The process of abstracting is composed of several stages.
1. Reading and understanding - This is the very first and essential step wherein the introductory paragraphs and text are scanned for key information. This concludes with comprehension (i.e. textual meaning interpretation).
2. Selection - This is a process of purposeful elimination developed by means of contraction, reduction, and condensation strategies. Here, the abstractor may mark the important phrases and passages and jot down marginal notes. 3. Interpretation - The abstractor makes a second interpretation using reasoning
and inference. At this point, the abstractor starts organizing the phrases and passages previously marked, as well as the marginal notes jotted down. Then, a raft-draft of the abstract is produced.
4. Synthesis (analytical description) - In writing the final draft, the prefixed analytical description level or desired type of abstract is carefully considered. In scientific or scholarly abstracts, information must be so organized that the abstract should contain the following.
• Objective or purpose - This should be stated unless this is already clear from the title of the document or can be derived from the remainder part of the abstract.
• Methodology - The techniques of approaches employed should be described but only to the degree necessary for comprehension. New techniques should be identified clearly and the basic methodological principle, the range of operation and the accuracy obtained would be described as well.
• Results and conclusion - Results and conclusions should be clearly presented. These may be abstracted jointly to avoid redundancy.
In the presentation of data for scientific abstracts, the main findings must be highlighted. Furthermore, collateral and additional information may be added. Collateral information includes findings or information incidental to the main purpose of the study, including modification of methods, new instruments, new compounds, and newly discovered documents or data sources. Additional information includes tables, illustrations, and references. These may be included in an abbreviated form within parentheses at the end of the abstract.
• Example: 4 tab., 5 fig., 10 ref. 52.5 Abstracting Format, Styles, and Length
Abstracts have three (3) major parts.
• Reference - This contains the complete bibliographic citation of the original document.
• Body - The body contains data from the original document and indicates or describes the content of the original.
• Signature - This indicates the abstractor's name (either the full name or initials may be given) and his affiliation. This usually comes at the end of the abstract.
Citation formats do not strictly adhere to a single standard. There are several varieties of standards which can be adapted. Below are some examples of citations based from ISO 690-1975 (Documentation: Bibliographic References - Essential and Supplementary Elements).
• Monographs/books
o Name(s) of author(s), with forename(s)
o Title of publication (distinguished by italicizing or underlining) o Edition number
o Place of publication o Publisher
o Year of publication
o Pagination (total number of pages) o Price
§ Example: Lancaster, F. W. Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. London, Library Association, 1998, 365 p., Php 3,856.00
• Periodicals
o Name(s) of author(s), with forename(s) o Title of article
o Title of periodical (preferably abbreviated, distinguished by italicizing or underlining)
o Volume number
o Issue number (in parentheses) o Date of issue
o Pages
§ Example: Parkinson, Claire. Paradigm transitions in mathematics. Philos Math. 2(2) 1987:127-50
• Patent documents
o Kind of patent document (i.e. patent, inventor's (author's) certificate, utility model, patent application, etc.)
o Number of patent document
o Name of country publishing the patent document o Date of publication in the country of origin
o Title of invention
o Number of other patent documents to which the patent document is legally related
o Full name of country of the grantee if appropriate and known o Surname(s) and forename(s) or initial(s) of the inventor o Language of the patent document
§ Example: Patent, 27208, US Appl. 559, F. 5 Jan. 70. Pub. 29 Oct. 71. Int. Cl. B607 1/2, 1/12. Nat Cl. 810, 122.
§ Vehicles for traveling over land and/or water (Reissue of 3363716. Hovercraft Devt. Limited, GB. Inv. Christopher Sydney Rockerell). [16 p.]
In writing abstracts, accepted rules of good writing are also applicable. • Simple sentences in plain language should be used.
• Use abbreviations commonly understood or easily intelligible. • Use standard and familiar terms.
• Avoid using trade jargons and colloquial terms. • Avid verbosity and redundancy.
There is a direct correlation between the length of an original document and its abstract. Generally, the following number of words for each type of abstract will apply.
• annotation - 5-15 words
• indicative abstracts - 20-30 words • informative abstracts - 100-150 words.
In special cases, abstracts may run to as many as 205-500 words. The following table lists the component of typical abstracts of scientific documents and their approximate proportion to the total length of the abstract. Description for each component is also given.
52.6 Representative Abstracting Tools
The following is a summary of popular titles of abstracting tools that flourished throughout their history.
• 17th to 19th century
o Le Journal de Scavans. Paris: French Academy of Sciences, 1665-
o Pharmaceutisches Central-Blatt. 1830-
o Physics Abstracts. London: Institute of Electrical Engineering, 1898-
• 20th century
o Biological Abstracts. Philadelphia: BIOSIS, 1926- o Bulletin Signelatique. Paris, 1940-
o Chemical Abstracts. Columbus, Ohio: American Chemical Society, 1907-
o Dissertation Abstracts International. Ann-Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International, 1938-
o Electroanalytic Abstracts. 1963-
o Excerpts Medica. Amsterdam: Excerpta Medica, 1948-
o Fertilizer Abstracts. Muscle Shoals, Ala.: Tennessee Valley Authority, National Fertilizer Development Center, Technical Library, 1968-
o Historical Abstracts. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Clio Press, 1955- o Journal of Current Laser Abstracts. 1967-
o Library and Information Science Abstracts. London: The Library Association. 1969-
o Mathematical Reviews. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, 194?-
o Nucleic Acid Abstracts. 1971-
o Psychological Abstracts. Wash., D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1927-
o Referativnyi Zhurnal. Moscow, 1954- o Sociological Abstracts