A suggested workflow for writing the final elements for your paper:
- Contributions (what we now know)
- Implications (why it matters)
- Key messages (what to remember)
- Abstract (synthesised promise)
Prerequisite
This workflow assumes you have a target journal in mind. If you’re still deciding, or wrote with a different journal in mind, check that your broader problem section aligns with the target journal’s scope and ambition before proceeding.
Step 1: Identify the study contributions
Write down what new knowledge your study contributes to the field. Think refined methods, improved theories, important datasets.
Study contributions usually appear explicitly in the Discussion’s summary, may preview in Introduction aims, and are synthesised in abstract and implications.
Check your knowledge gaps
Use the knowledge gaps from the Introduction to check what gaps existed, and check whether you’ve filled those gaps.
Step 2: Write the implications
Given these contributions, what follows? Address significance at two scales, if you include both in your Introduction: for the scientific field (how should understanding or practice change?) and for broader context (societal application, policy, or future research).
In the implications it is generally allowed to speculate.
See also: IMRaD sections
Step 3: Extract the key messages
Distill 2–3 takeaways readers must remember. These may be findings, conclusions, or implications—whatever best captures why your paper matters.
Step 4: Summarise into an abstract
Synthesize contributions, implications, and key messages into a compact promise: the problem, your approach, the resolution, and the significance. This is the hook that determines whether readers enter the full paper.
See also: Abstract
Abstract should reflect main text
Abstracts should accurately summarise the main text. However, sometimes new insights can pop up while you’re writing the abstract. Ensure those are also clearly stated in the main text.