stand-alone statement that briefly conveys the essential information of a paper, article, document or book. Like an executive summary, an abstract presents the objective, methods, results, and conclusions of a research project. It is a brief summary that appears as the first section of a paper.

An abstract should: describe the objective, methods, results, and conclusions of the complete paper omit background information, a literature review, and detailed description of methods avoid reference to other literature and sources.