Abstract

Peter D Corr
Department of Radiology, UAE University, United Arab Emirates

Preparing the Title
The correct title is critical to capture the attention of the reader of the journal. The title should be an advertisement to read your article. Therefore, the title must tell the reader what your research is about in a few words! This is not so easy and requires some reflection by the author. Titles should be short and easy to understand. Long tortuous titles will not attract readers, they will give up after reading the title and move on to the next article! You can use well-accepted abbreviations such as CT and MR in the title, but do not use obscure jargon. Often. using the research question or hypothesis as a title is effective.

The Title Page
It is important to follow the instructions to authors carefully. Usually all the authors’ names are placed in declining order of their contributions with their highest qualification. The address of the institution or hospital where the research was performed is placed below this. It is very important to nominate a corresponding author which is usually the first author and to include their contact details by email, postal address and fax number. Many journals expect one author to guarantee the integrity of the research, usually this the corresponding author. Editors now ask for the actual contributions of each individual author to the whole research paper.

A second blind title page, without any authors names and addresses, is asked for to be sent out for review.

Abstract Preparation
This is perhaps the most difficult part of a writing a manuscript. A good approach is to only write the abstract after completing the body of the manuscript. The abstract is there to inform the reader the essence of your research. It will be indexed with your paper in international databases such as PubMed. Abstracts are structured to include the aim of the study, methods used, results and conclusions. As most abstracts are limited to between 250 and 300 words long, it is a good idea to sit down and make a list of the most important sentences from the paper you have written for each section. Normally, the aim section is one or two sentences long. In the methods section, it is important to tell the reader who the study sample or population was and if this is a prospective or retrospective study and whether the study population was randomised or not. The sample size or patient number should be stated. You must state how the study was performed and what measurements were made and how the data was analysed. In the results section, the data must be presented in numbers and percentages. In the conclusion section, you must summarise your conclusions in one or two sentences only. Draft the abstract, read it and ask some colleagues to read it for a second opinion!

Keywords
Selecting keywords is important as they are used to index your paper in the medical literature. In radiology, many editors use the RSNA categorisation terms which are five keywords the describe the anatomical region studied, the modality and procedure used and the pathological process investigated.