Writing Abstracts for Ayurveda Research Papers

Abstract

Publication of scientific articles in Ayurveda is important for re-validation, popularization and international recognition. Abstract is an essential part of scientific writing and is a challenging task. They are vital to convince the scientific community and are the first impressions of the work done. Considering the poor standards of abstracts in Ayurveda, this paper intends to guide students of Ayurveda for effective writing of abstracts. Abstracts of Bio-medicine and reputed Ayurveda Journals were screened to arrive at appropriate guidelines for Abstract writing. Abstracts can be structured (IMRD-Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusions) or unstructured as per the guidelines of the journal. Author can choose to write the abstract in informative or descriptive style. Care should be taken neither to cross the word limit nor to omit the basic information. It is advisable to write the abstract after completing the paper and update whenever the paper is edited during the process of peer review. English terms should be used with exception to popular and essential Samskrit terms. IAST (International Alphabet of Samskrit Transliteration) diacritics must be used only when journal accepts. Hence adopting these helpful points would certainly improve the quality of Abstracts.