In my opinion, the hardest part when writing a research paper is the abstract. It is often the last part of a manuscript that is prepared before submission for peer-review and it is the first thing that anyone interested in your paper is going to read when published. The hardest part when writing an abstract is finding the perfect set of words that encapsulates an entire research project. Some primary research articles can run well over 6,000 words. In fact, many journals have capped the length of articles at about 7-8,000 words. But abstracts are almost always kept to a very strict word count, between 200-350 words.
The scientific abstract needs to be very concise, provocative, and timely. When scientists scroll through hundreds of papers on PubMed, at first all they see of each article is the title and abstract. So you have to write an abstract to grab their interest and then maintain that interest long enough for the reader to get through the entire thing. The challenge is summarizing thousands of words into just a handful and still conveying important results and answering all the questions that the reader will have, such as: Why do I care about this work? How did they do this study? Does it related to my own work? What did they find? Is this important? What didn't they do in their study? I'm tired, why do I need to read this?
I think the scientific abstract is a lot like flash fiction. Flash fiction stories are generally shorter than one thousands words and some are even smaller, less than a hundred. Flash fiction stories need to grab a reader's attention, keep it, and convey a sense of meaning or purpose in a very limited amount of time. The best flash fiction stories generally have a plot and even a hint at character arc. It's very hard to pull off. But the ones that grab me as a reader are ones that were crafted and edited and re-edited and accomplish a sense of purpose. Every single word matters. This same principle holds for the research abstract as well; they go through many (sometimes dozens) of drafts before the wording is just right.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the similarities between flash fiction and abstracts. Partially because I've just submitted my own manuscript for peer review and partially because I like to write flash fiction. Recently I entered into a very challenging flash fiction competition that called for stories less than 250 words on the topic of 'alien invasions during Christmas'. I wasn't a winner unfortunately, but it was still a lot of fun to write a 'quick' story and submit it (it took much longer to write and edit than I had anticipated). I decided to meld my hobby with my day job and write a flash story about a Christmas alien invasion modeled like a research abstract. I really liked how the story came out and since it won't be published anywhere I decided to put it here for others to enjoy. It's structured like many research abstracts. I hope that will give you a flavor of what an abstract looks like if you have never read a scientific paper. Due take note, as with all scientific abstracts, sometimes the bits left out in a flash fiction story are just as important as what is presented in the text.
It is going to be busy here for the next few weeks. I will be posting another story, this one much much longer. It's a fantasy Christmas caper, complete with tinsel, Santa Claus, swords, paladins, gnomes, and zombie Rudolph. It will never find a home in the publishing world (it was never intended to) but I think it's a fun story to share.
Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy!
‘Holiday Spirit’ Influences Mem’tep Casualty Rates During Invasion
R’lourl, Shzyc*
*Director of Mem’tep Military Research, Mem’tep Prime Military
University, Mem’tep Prime
Translated by Douglas F. Dluzen
Background: It is
well known that invasion of planetary systems harboring at least one dominant, sentient
species (α1 systems) results in higher Mem’tep casualty rates. We hypothesized that
Mem’tep casualties are negatively influenced by local religious events and
holidays.
Methods and Results:
We chose two α1 systems for military invasion, colonization, and integration into
the Mem’tep Kingdom. Ponceau S is home to a nuclear-grade sentient species
without religious proclivity and served as our control. Terra, technologically similar
to our control, is predominantly monotheistic. Each invasion fleet utilized identical
resources and troops as outlined in the Mem’tep Code of Colonization. Casualty rates,
infrastructure loss, and rates of post-invasion uprisings were measured up to
one hundred years post-colonization. We observed a significant increase in Mem’tep
casualties during the colonization of Terra compared with control.
Additionally, Mem’tep casualties increased beyond baseline during each annual
recurrence of the Terran religious period known as the Christmas holiday, which
commemorates the birth of their perceived savior. Local Terran uprisings
against Mem’tep authority are often synchronized with the observance of
Christmas and this effect is locally known as the ‘holiday spirit’.
Conclusions: Recurring
religious holidays are associated with increased Mem’tep causalities during and
after planetary invasion of α1 systems with monotheistic civilizations. Local
customs may influence integration success with the Mem’tep Kingdom and tend to unite
familial subunits and opposing geopolitical factions against Mem’tep authority.
Future studies should explore strategies which manipulate the so-called
‘holiday spirit’ to promote sustained integration with Mem’tep culture.
