Document abstract

A document abstract (hereinafter, the Abstract) is an abridgement or summary of a longer publication such as a technical report. The Abstract is a required part of report's front matter; the Abstract functions as a part of report's descriptive metadata.

Description

The ANSI/NISO Scientific and Technical Reports standard details,

An abstract, a required component, presents a concise (approximately 200 words, although the length may vary; there may be restrictions in some automated databases) informative statement of the purpose, scope, methods, and major findings of the report, including results, conclusions, and recommendations. The informative abstract retains the tone and scope of the report but omits the details. The abstract typically appears in a separate section between the title section and table of contents, although reports that use a Report Documentation Page include the abstract as bibliographic data entered on the form. Because abstracts are also published by abstracting services to assist potential readers in determining if they are interested in the report, an abstract is independent of the rest of the report. An abstract contains no undefined symbols, abbreviations, or acronyms and makes no reference to references or illustrative material. ANSI/NISO Z39.14-1997 (R2002), Guidelines for Abstracts, the Standard for preparing informative abstracts, provides examples of abstracts as well as guidance on their presentation and style.

An executive summary may be used as an alternative to an abstract and includes information similar to an abstract, but in slightly more detail. An executive summary should not exceed 10 pages, dependent on the length of the report.