Disclaimer:
“In preparation of this lesson, materials have been
taken from different online sources in the shape of
books, websites, research papers and presentations etc.
However, the author does not have any intention to
take any benefit of these in his own name. This lecture
is prepared and delivered only for educational
purposes and is not intended to infringe upon the
copyrighted material. Sources have been acknowledged
where applicable. The views expressed are presenter’s
alone and do not necessarily represent actual author(s)
or the institution.”
Semester: Fall 2024
Research Methodology
Lecture # 3
Saturday, November 16, 2024
2
How to write an abstract?
3
Recap
• What is presentation?
• Rules of Presentations
• Aristotle's Five Point Plan for Effective
Presentation
• Outline of Presentation
• Listeners should know where they are?
• Points to remember while preparing a presentation
• Points to remember while delivering a
presentation
• Class Tasks
4
ILOs of the Lecture
• What is abstract?
• Importance of abstract
• Typical template for abstract
• IEEE template, Springer template, Elsevier template
• Structure of abstract
• Common problems related to abstract
• Abstract examples
• Extended Abstract
• Class task
5
What is Abstract?
• What do you think about it?
• An abstract is a very concise statement of the
major elements of your research project. It states
the purpose, methods, and findings of your
research project.
• An abstract is a condensed version of a full
research paper.
6
What is Abstract?
7
What is Abstract?
• It covers
–Background of study
–Objectives
Preferably at the beginning
–Methodology
Theoretical: tell the reader how have you
generated the data?
Experimental: tell the reader how have you
performed experiments?
–Results
–Conclusions
8
What is Abstract?
• The problem is, its length is limited
to 300 words.
• Thus, maximum information with
minimum words.
9
Length of Abstract?
10
Length of Abstract?
11
Length of Abstract?
12
Length of Abstract?
13
Length of Abstract?
14
Length of a Paper?
15
Length of a Paper?
16
Example 1
17
Example 2
18
Example 3 – Good or Bad?
19
Example 4 – Good or Bad?
20
Example 5 – Good or Bad?
21
Example 6 – Good or Bad?
This study examines Socially Responsible Human Resource Management (SRHRM) for the common good
through the connections between the psychological green climate (PGC) and employee green behavior
(EGB). In doing so, it explores the influence of SRHRM and PGC on EGB and sustainable performance
(SP) as well as the moderating effect of PGC on EGB for organizing sustainable dimensions of HRM for
environmental common goods. Drawing on the notion of the common good, this study mobilizes the
ability motivation opportunity theory to articulate the nexus of business ethics and the environment.
This study is quantitative in nature, following the deducting reason approach. Data were collected from
307 manufacturing companies using a survey. To ensure robustness, structural equation modeling using
the AMOS software was used to analyze the data. The study’s results show that both SRHRM and PGC
directly influence EGB, which proxies to affect the organizational SP precisely. However, the results also
show that SRHRM has no significant direct repercussions on SP, and the analysis of the moderation
effect revealed that PGC does not intervene in the relationship between SRHRM and EGB. This paper
contributes to an interesting conjuncture of growing literature on the adoption and impact of SRHRM
and SP, which we argue can become the epicenter of ethical business processes to ensure the common
environmental good. This study shows that organizations can flourish sustainable behavioral aspects,
values, norms, and practices in business processes and among employees by nurturing the tenets of
SRHRM, PGC, and EGB, which will increase the organizational capacity to transform the environmental
common good.
22
Example 7 – Good or Bad?
As independent financial advisors, securities firms are the core intermediaries in major
asset reorganization (MAR) of listed companies. Furthermore, they play the dual roles of
transaction and authentication. Based on this institutional background, this paper studies
how listed companies choose between industry experience (‘‘meritocracy”) and
relationships (‘‘nepotism”). Using the MAR of A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2013
as the sample, this paper shows that higher transaction costs (i.e., greater demand for the
transaction function of advisors) are related to the higher possibility of advisors with
weaker relationships and more industry experience being hired. It also shows that higher
suspicion of tunneling (i.e., greater demand for the signal of fairness associated with
advisors’ authentication function) is related to the higher possibility of advisors with
weaker relationships being hired, but it is not significantly related to whether advisors
have more or less industry experience. This paper also shows that reputation has a certain
governance effect on the negative consequences of relationship. For the most part, listed
companies reward meritocracy but not nepotism when appointing independent financial
advisors.
23
Why Abstract is Important?
• There are many thousands of abstracts submitted
to a conference.
• There are many thousands of research papers
published every week.
• The conference organizers use it to decide:
– if your project fits the conference criteria
– if it deserves an oral presentation
• The conference attendees use it to decide:
– if attending your talk
– if reading your paper in the Proceedings
24
Template of an Abstract
25
Some templates
• IEEE Conference
• IEEE Transactions
• Elsevier
• MDPI
• Springer
• Hindawi
– Please search and check.
• Templates are available in MS Word and Latex
26
What not to include
• Definitions
• Citations
• Abbreviations or symbols
• Information that is not in the paper
27
Conference Abstract
• It is submitted to a conference review committee.
• The purpose of the abstract is to convince the
committee to accept your paper.
• If it is accepted, you will need to write a paper to
correspond to your abstract.
• A conference provides you with an audience for
your paper and an opportunity to get feedback on
your research.
• Write it in a clear, precise and engaging manner.
28
Before Finalizing
• Get help from a mentor.
• Make revisions based upon the feedback.
• Have others read your draft in order to check for
technical errors, such as spelling and grammar
mistakes.
29
Prior to Submission
Check Yourself did you :
• Follow the instructions?
• Include headings exactly as stated in the
instructions/template?
• Use short, clear sentences?
• Limit your abstract to the word count/character
count requirement?
• Edit, edit, edit.
• Check grammar, syntax and punctuation.
30
You Did It! Submit Your Abstract
• Submit your abstract before or on due date.
• Mostly online/check on paper submission
31
Why Abstracts Not Accepted?
• What do you think, why not accepted?
• Poor presentation
• Weak discussion
• Lack of originality
• Inappropriate analysis
• Inadequate results
32
How to Improve?
• Writing is an art, you can learn.
• Read published manuscript and abstract carefully
in major journals and focus on detail
• Practice, practice, and practice
• Get help from your mentors and colleagues
33
Some Writing Tips
• Active voice is preferable to passive voice
• Always use the full term before you refer to it by
acronym [for example, Orthotropic Liver
Transplantation (OLT)]
• Eliminate unnecessary words.
• Ensure that verb tenses are consistent and correct.
34
Abstract and Summary?
• Both words indicate a short restatement of a
document.
• Then what is the difference?
• Summary is a restatement of the major
findings and conclusions of a document,
placed after the text of the body.
• Abstract is also a restatement; however, it is
placed before the text of the body.
35
Types of Abstract
Descriptive and Informative
• Descriptive
− Background Study
− Objectives
− Methodology
− do not provide results, conclusions, or
recommendations.
36
Types of Abstract
• Informative
–Background of study
–Objectives
–Methodology
–Results
–Conclusions
Remember paper abstracts are informative
37
Types of Abstract: Examples
• Informative abstracts focus on providing the
results of the research and describing the
conclusions that can be drawn from these
results.
• Descriptive abstracts do not supply results
but rather aim to provide the reader with
brief summaries (1-2 sentences) of each of
the four sections of the research report
(i.e., Introduction, Methods, Results,
Discussion).
38
Types of Abstract: Examples
Informative or Descriptive?
39
Types of Abstract: Examples
Informative or Descriptive?
40
Test, what you learned.
Informative vs. Descriptive
• It needs approx. 20 mins
• [Link]
tools/abstracts/#:~:text=There%20are%20tw
o%20main%20types,main%20arguments%20
and%20important%20results.
41
Extended Abstract
• An extended abstract and a full paper are nearly the
same; the primary difference is that an extended
abstract tends to be somewhat shorter than a full
paper.
42
Extended Abstract
• What an extended abstract should contain:
– Background
– Problems
– Methodology
– Results
– Conclusions
– Limitations
43
Extended Abstract
44
Extended Abstract
45
Point to remember
Work, finish, and publish
46
Class Task
• Read abstracts of two journal papers of
your topic and check whether the points
required for an abstract are present.
• If not, please suggest the authors to write
them as per guidelines. What guidelines
will you suggest?
47
Assessment # 2 –Abstract
• Students have to write an abstract for a conference on
their selected topics.
• It is a standard abstract (not extended, i.e. no figures)
• The abstract cannot be of the kind “what you plan to
do“. (It makes no sense).
• Max. no. of words = 300 including refs.
(absolutely strict).
• Min. no. of words = 250 (not too strict)
• If you do not have results, pretend that you have
achieved.
48
Assessment # 2 –Abstract
• Deadline (Hard) : 20th May, 2023 – 12:00 mid night
(PST).
• File name: Student’s full name with registration
number and section number like Hammad Khan(CU-
20-2021)-1
• Google classroom subject: RM- abstract- student’s
full name with registration number and section
number like RM- abstract-Hammad Khan(CU-20-
2021)-1
49
Assessment–Presentation
• Deadline (Hard) : 10th June 2023 – 12:00 midnight
(PST).
• File name: Student’s full name with registration
number and section number like Majid Khan(CU-
20-2021)-1
• Google Classroom Subject: RM- presentation-
student’s full name with registration number and
section number like RM-presentation-Majid
Khan(CU-20-2021)-1
50
How to send?
• Send the Research proposal file and
abstract file to google classroom.
51
Remember
• You should have your own laptop in next
class.
• You should also have five papers (Journal
papers are preferred) on your topic for
paper writing.
52
Summary
• We learned about abstract.
• We learned its types and why abstract is
important.
• Major elements of informative abstracts are
introduction/background of study, objectives,
methodology, results, and conclusion.
• We also discussed different examples of good and
bad abstracts.
• Standard abstract vs. extended abstract.
53
Thank you
54