12/15 YES!: Abstract Art: Writing an Abstract That Will Get You Noticed - and Accepted

December 15, 2023

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00:00This is Martin who you're going to
00:02hear from today Co administrate and
00:05direct the yes Yale Educator series.
00:08So we're so excited to have you as
00:12you know with the combination of
00:14educator development series that
00:17are ideally appealing and useful
00:19for people whether you're teaching
00:21in the clinical setting or the pre,
00:24pre clerkship clinical setting.
00:28And Andreas today has a great
00:31one that's not only I think this
00:34is probably applicable to any,
00:35any faculty or resident.
00:36So we're great that you're here.
00:38It has to do with professional
00:40development skill of scientific or or
00:44other scholarship writing of abstracts.
00:47So I'm just going to briefly
00:49introduce Andreas Martin,
00:50for those who may not know him,
00:52but he's the Riva Ariela Rico,
00:56pardon, no,
00:57professor of child psychiatry
01:00at the Child Study Center.
01:03And he is also the medical director
01:06of the Children's Psychiatric
01:07Inpatient Service at the Yale
01:09New Haven Children's Hospital.
01:11And he's been part of the Center for
01:16Medical Education for a long time and has,
01:22I think it was maybe just three years ago.
01:24Andreas,
01:24you can tell me I'm wrong about
01:27when you ended up finishing
01:28your doctoral degree in medical
01:31education from the Netherlands.
01:33He's also the Editor in Chief and chief
01:36of the Journal of the American Academy
01:39of Child at Adolescent Psychiatry.
01:41Or was until 2017.
01:44And I'm really excited.
01:46I've been enjoying learning from him.
01:48So we're all going to be excited to be
01:51better abstract writers 50 minutes from now.
01:55Andreas,
01:55turning it over to you.
01:57Amen. Thank you, Dana.
01:59And it's such a joy working with with Dana.
02:03So to get CME credits,
02:06please go ahead and text that
02:08number to that phone.
02:10We're also going to put
02:11it in the in the chat.
02:15OK. And the rest of the of
02:16that says that I don't have
02:18any conflicts of interest.
02:19I'm not paid by abstracts of
02:21America to give this talk, so
02:25OK, So what are the learning
02:27objectives today? First,
02:29and this might seem strange at first,
02:31but I hope that by the end of today
02:33you will be able to differentiate an
02:36abstract as a summary of a paper,
02:38which I would argue is a bad
02:40thing from seeing a paper as
02:43an as an expanded abstract,
02:45which I would argue is a good thing.
02:48Hopefully this will become clear. Next
02:54the commandment to all of us abstract
02:57writers finding ways of shedding,
02:59of of shedding the fluff and becoming
03:02understated in our writing abstracts.
03:07Finally, to be sure to incorporate
03:10basic elements of writing and PGH,
03:14here stands, I'll describe it further.
03:16Stands for problem gap hook,
03:19which is a strong heuristic to
03:22writing including that and to
03:25include elements of epidemiology,
03:28problem, population, exposure,
03:31comparison, outcome, and time.
03:34And this is not just for epidemiology papers,
03:38it's for the great majority of papers,
03:41and something that's near and dear to my
03:43heart and my current research I write.
03:45I do mostly qualitative research,
03:47so there are a couple of things
03:49that are slightly different when
03:50it comes to qualitative research,
03:51and I'll point those out.
03:55I love this quote from Pascal,
03:5717th century, who said I'm sorry
03:59that I wrote you such a long letter,
04:02but I didn't have time to write a short one,
04:05and there's great wisdom in that.
04:07Writing short is really hard.
04:10Another 17th century genius, Doctor Seuss,
04:14said that short is better than length
04:19and they were all on to something.
04:24Now let let's get into this philosophical
04:2717th century quill on hand mindset and I'm
04:30going to ask you to do a mind experiment,
04:32a thought experiment as we move along.
04:35And that is, think of your last
04:39abstract that you wrote, imagined,
04:41or are imagining right now,
04:44or revisited or wrote.
04:45It'll be helpful to have a template
04:47in your mind of an abstract.
04:49So if you have written a lot,
04:52you'll have many of those.
04:53If you are just getting started
04:55and writing them, that's fine,
04:57you can just follow that mental sketch.
05:00I think that if you do this,
05:01you will get the most out of
05:03our next minutes together.
05:06The outline for the talk today is 3 parts.
05:091st, why bother?
05:10You know what's a big whoop Dee Doo with
05:14abstracts and why does it matter anyway?
05:17The second one is the content of
05:19an abstract and this is where we're
05:21going to spend most of our time.
05:23What is the anatomy and the Physiology of
05:26an abstract and how can we optimize it?
05:29And finally,
05:30we're going to close by a review of a
05:33dozen tips to write a compelling abstract.
05:36We will have covered most of this
05:40by the time that we get there.
05:44OK, so context. Why?
05:46Why bothering?
05:47Why does it matter?
05:49Let me show you an X-ray of your brain
05:52and mind and how we read papers.
05:55So this is how not to read a paper.
05:57But of course it's how we all usually
06:00read papers and this is what happens.
06:02So this here is a paper.
06:05Doesn't matter the content,
06:07but as soon as you open the paper,
06:09your brain does this magical thing in
06:12which everything goes Gray and you stop
06:15paying attention because it's too scary,
06:19detailed.
06:20It's no good.
06:23Instead you go to the introduction,
06:25which in essence is a glorified
06:26letter to the editor.
06:28So already someone is trying to brainwash
06:31you to tell you how wonderful their work is.
06:34Then when it comes to the methods,
06:36you simply skip those.
06:38They're impenetrable.
06:40They have some Greek letters.
06:43You don't know what a log linear model is.
06:45You don't care.
06:46You skip it.
06:50The result's the same thing. You skip it.
06:52You know the tables are busy,
06:53the figures are hard to make sense of,
06:56so you're skipping most of it.
06:57And you get to your discussion
06:59and read parts of it because
07:01it's in English, not in Greek.
07:03But in some ways it's not the
07:05right thing because shouldn't
07:07you be making your own decision?
07:09And shouldn't you be reading your own paper?
07:12So that's how we usually read papers.
07:14But this is a key thing related to today.
07:18Oh, and the disclosures, you know,
07:20why should I care about disclosures?
07:22But this is what we can do and usually do.
07:25And that's what the abstract is
07:27the most powerful part of a paper.
07:29It's overwhelmingly the only
07:31part that is read.
07:33It's a part in which you can
07:35connect with your audience.
07:37And even though it is absolutely critical,
07:41all too commonly we just leave
07:43it as the very last thing to do.
07:45It's an afterthought and we
07:47don't really pay the attention
07:49that it that it deserved.
07:54So let's get into what
07:56is it that can help us?
07:59So the first thing is that whatever
08:01else you do, don't leave your
08:02abstract as as an afterthought.
08:04Don't leave it to the end.
08:06The corollary of this is
08:09get to your abstract first,
08:12and even as you're moving along,
08:15and if you have a scientific idea,
08:16try to think of what this
08:18abstract would be like.
08:19It doesn't have to be all 250 words,
08:21it can just be a couple of lines that
08:25start putting shape into your paper.
08:28So why should you bother?
08:30Well, these are some of the
08:31functions that an abstract does.
08:32It persuades someone to read your paper.
08:36We're going to have another
08:38Yes session in January.
08:39Looking at posters and a poster
08:41really is a glorified abstract,
08:43and they serve the same function.
08:46You want to persuade someone to connect,
08:49to engage scientifically
08:51with you in an abstract.
08:53You also want to cover the
08:54high points of your study.
08:55You don't want to be an
08:57encyclopedia and cover everything.
08:58You want your abstract to help you be
09:01findable in computerized databases.
09:06At a more cognitive level,
09:10an abstract really helps you
09:12clarify your own thinking,
09:13because if you can't abstract it,
09:16you really can't write it.
09:18It goes back to Pascal.
09:19If you think that
09:22that you can write a big paper
09:25without being able to summarize
09:26that there's something wrong.
09:27So the the tightness of it is very,
09:29very important.
09:30And the last point that often gets
09:32forgotten is that you become a
09:33better critic of your own work,
09:35but you also become a better
09:38reviewer of others work.
09:40Many of us don't love to review,
09:42but it's part of belonging to
09:45a scientific community where
09:47you do review and especially
09:49after you have been published,
09:51enjoy the the toils and share the toils,
09:56right.
09:57So you you have to give back in in
10:00academia and to do so as a better
10:03reviewer will really be helpful and help you.
10:06If you're interested in becoming
10:08part of a journal,
10:09if you want to be part of
10:11a program committee,
10:11if you want to become more
10:13actively involved in your society,
10:14etcetera,
10:15etcetera,
10:19who cares? Well, there's this dude.
10:23Who cares? So this is most of
10:26us coming with our pencil head
10:28as supplicants to an editor.
10:30Please take my paper.
10:32And if you haven't been rejected by
10:34a journal, it only means one thing.
10:36It means that you haven't been
10:38submitting enough, right?
10:41Rejection is part of the game,
10:43but over time, you want the signal
10:45to noise ratio to get better.
10:46You want to be approved,
10:48accepted more and more,
10:50and an abstract is going to help
10:52you so that Mister Erase your Head
10:53doesn't send you to the garbage bin.
10:55Once again,
10:56this point is absolutely critical.
10:59I was an editor in chief for 10
11:01years and the only thing that we
11:04have editors read is abstracts.
11:06It's only at a much later date stage
11:09of the game that we start getting
11:11really into the paper itself.
11:13So people will spend months,
11:15years in the beautiful discussion
11:17and the guts of the results,
11:19as he should, but once again,
11:22leave the abstract as an afterthought and do
11:25do themselves a big disservice in that way.
11:28The other people who care a lot
11:29about this are medical conferences.
11:31Whatever your professional society,
11:33wherever you go,
11:35if you want to present,
11:36if you want your work work to be shown,
11:38you will need to write an
11:39abstract and put it up there.
11:41And the principles are exactly the same.
11:43You want to touch someone.
11:46You want to connect with someone
11:48through those 250 words so that they
11:50can see how important the work is.
11:56OK, so let's move on to the second part,
12:01the content and what I'm calling the
12:03Anatomy of the Physiology of an Abstract.
12:08So let's start with a title,
12:10and I'll call this entitlement,
12:13the mini lives of the title.
12:14So I have an example here of a little
12:17paper that I wrote that I will
12:19share with you at the end of today
12:21in which I struggle for a while.
12:23While as to the title of it,
12:26I initially thought he started with.
12:31I initially thought that
12:34Abstractification was a great title,
12:37but of course that's not even
12:38a word in the English language.
12:40It's a little bit or a lot too cute,
12:44and it really doesn't tell me anything.
12:45So I like the word,
12:47just like I like the play on entitlement.
12:51But it didn't really give me enough,
12:54so I continued polishing
12:55it and thinking about it.
12:57And then I came to this abstracted.
12:59Otherwise no one is likely
13:01to read or find your work.
13:04So that's a little bit better.
13:05It's still a little cute,
13:08but at least it tells me
13:09what the paper may be about.
13:14The paper that I'm going
13:15to show share with you.
13:16This is the the title I settled on,
13:18which is Abstract art.
13:2012 tips to help you write
13:22an effective abstract.
13:24You can already get a sense that this
13:25was not written for a scholarly journal,
13:27it was more for some magazine type
13:31publication, but it tells you what it was.
13:34It's a little cute abstract art,
13:36but not over the top cute.
13:38And each of the the words
13:39here is doing some word work,
13:41telling you what happened.
13:42Now, if I wanted to take this
13:45article into an academic journal,
13:47it would look perhaps something
13:48a little bit like this.
13:50Abstract quality predictors of
13:52preliminary article rejection
13:54in the scholarly journal, right.
13:57So you see different levels of this
14:01and at least the way my brain works,
14:03I typically go through some iteration
14:05of this couple of words, I Polish them,
14:07I know more and more and more and
14:09by the time I have a title,
14:12one of the hardest pieces of
14:14work has been done.
14:15Because once I knew abstract R12 tips,
14:17then that put A-frame on the
14:19paper and it was easy from them.
14:21Now you will notice that I
14:24put the colon in green.
14:27I highlighted that colon and I did that
14:31on purpose because the colon is your friend.
14:36Just remember that the colon is your friend.
14:39A good title pretty much always
14:42has two parts divided by a colon.
14:45There is something that gives us
14:47a hint of what this is about.
14:49That's on the left,
14:50and a whole bunch of specifiers on the right.
14:53So let me give you an example.
14:55Dana,
14:55my dear friend,
14:56is a specialist in sexually
14:59transmitted diseases,
15:00and let me just write a
15:03hypothetical paper in that domain.
15:04I know nothing about the topic,
15:06but we might call it
15:11chlamydia trachomatis in italics,
15:15right colon a randomized cluster
15:21controlled trial of community
15:24based services in something.
15:27So I already know that it's about this
15:30particular bug called chlamydia on the left,
15:33but on the right, I already have a sense
15:34that it's a randomized controlled trial.
15:36That's good, but it's not of a medication.
15:38Maybe it's a some psychosocial intervention.
15:41I'm intrigued.
15:41I already want to go and do that there.
15:44Dana, are you intrigued in reading my paper?
15:48Yeah. See,
15:48so that the colon is a is an interesting way.
15:52And if you look at articles,
15:53most of the times it's there on the right,
15:56you can see things like a
15:58randomized controlled trial,
15:59a systematic review,
16:01a case control study,
16:03a qualitative qualitative report.
16:06It tells you something You usually
16:09don't want to start with that.
16:10You don't want to start with a
16:12cluster randomized controlled trial
16:14because there's a million of those.
16:16You want to start with chlamydia trachomatis,
16:19because that already tells who
16:20your readership is going to be.
16:22So don't forget the lowly colon in the type.
16:29Then we get to the real
16:31guts of the abstract.
16:32And here they are.
16:33You know them well,
16:35they're your friends,
16:36objectives, methods,
16:37results and conclusions.
16:42And and we're going to be,
16:45as you can imagine,
16:46spending time talking about the methods
16:48that has all of these things about design,
16:50setting, participants, etcetera.
16:51So this is what an abstract is.
16:53You know that very well.
16:55Now let's look at how that relates
16:57to the Physiology of an abstract.
16:59So the objective is what you set out to do.
17:03The methods are the how and what,
17:05what you actually did.
17:08The results are the thing
17:10you did that you found.
17:11And the conclusions are a recap,
17:14brief recap and no more.
17:16We're going to get to that.
17:17There's a great desire to
17:21start really tapping on your
17:22keyboard and put a whole lot
17:24at the end of the conclusions.
17:25But that's not necessarily not
17:28necessary and usually not good.
17:33Well, let's start with the objective.
17:35It's better to have one
17:37single objective than two.
17:38Sometimes you can have two.
17:40This is not a place yet to put
17:42it in a hypothesis language.
17:44It's an objective statement.
17:49Avoid throat clearing.
17:50That is such a common problem
17:52that I saw as an editor that
17:55people started with chlamydia.
17:56Trachomatis is a venereal disease that
17:58has been known to mankind forever.
18:01It is treated with what, I don't know,
18:03penicillin with antibiotics.
18:04And it gets that I don't.
18:06Everybody knows that you know,
18:08so don't clear your throat in.
18:11In my area of autism,
18:14so many articles are autism is a
18:17neurodevelopmental disorder first described
18:18by Leo O'Connor in 1943 as like reject.
18:22Enough, I know that.
18:23So so lead with what you know with
18:26what is new what what is that hook
18:28and and think that you're writing
18:30a haiku here you want to be very,
18:32very brief,
18:33but not so brief as to be obscure.
18:36You need to be aware of who your target is.
18:38So the example that I gave,
18:40if I'm writing for about chlamydia
18:42to specialists in the area is going
18:45to be different than if I pitch it to
18:48internal medicine folks who are not
18:50sexually transmitted disease specialists.
18:54OK, these three letters I have come
18:57to love and I hope you you take
18:59them with you and get to love them
19:03because they are helpful not just
19:05for an objective or an introduction,
19:08but they're critically helpful in
19:10writing a paper. The introduction,
19:12the first part of a paper,
19:14so that the PGH as a reminder is a problem.
19:18So what is known and why it matters.
19:24Chlamydia has X&amp;Y consequences and
19:26it responds to A&amp;B antibiotics.
19:31It has a significant toll on the population
19:35measured by X&amp;Y. That's a problem.
19:40What's missing, However, we know that
19:4340% of chlamydia does not respond and
19:46we need novel treatments to do it.
19:48So that's the gap, what is missing?
19:51And then the hook what you're doing about it.
19:54So approaches to treat chlamydia have
19:57been largely based on novel antibiotics.
20:00In addition, our work has expanded
20:04non pharmacological interventions
20:06such as community, blah blah blah.
20:09So suddenly I'm interested because
20:10it's not the the same old same
20:13old so problem gap hook.
20:15If you think about this,
20:16whenever you write that first
20:18few paragraphs in a paper,
20:20it's very, very helpful.
20:21Our brains are primed in this way because
20:24it's a little bit of a scientific
20:27story and and we are social animals,
20:29we're storytelling animals.
20:31So this is a way of following that.
20:36Your research question should flow
20:38very naturally out of this and in fact
20:40the hook and the research question
20:42can become a little bit of a blend.
20:45This is what we did in this cluster
20:47randomized community controls trial.
20:50So PGH, problem gap, gap hook,
20:54the 2nd and I think I'm only
20:56going to give you 2 acronyms,
20:58but this one should be known.
21:01This is the the better known I think is PICO.
21:04And this all of epidemiology can
21:07be summarized really to PICO.
21:10So the population,
21:12the exposure or the intervention,
21:15the comparison or control when applicable.
21:18Sometimes there are no control.
21:21Oops, the outcome.
21:23And time so again and we didn't
21:26we didn't rehearse this, Dana,
21:28but I'm just going here so the population
21:30is going to be you know 15 to 20 year old,
21:34transitionally age youth
21:35in the city of New Haven.
21:38That might be our population and
21:40the exposure is going to be those
21:42who had sex without protection,
21:45and the comparison will be those who
21:51did not have it did have protection.
21:54However, we want to define it to condom use.
21:57For example, our outcome was positivity
22:00under the serological tests, I guess.
22:02And the time is that we did this
22:05over the course of five months.
22:07So those are the key elements.
22:09And even if you just put
22:10those words or those concepts,
22:11it's already starting to take shape.
22:13You don't need to write an abstract on
22:15day one with full sentences and worry
22:18about the beauty of your prose and the
22:21elegance of your Times New Romance font.
22:23Now you just need to put down the main ideas.
22:26Sometimes we get stuck around those things,
22:29so let's give an example. Again,
22:31this is from my field in child psychiatry,
22:33so children 8 to 12 years of age at
22:37of parents with bipolar one disorder.
22:39So these were children at risk, by the way.
22:43Make things easy on your reader.
22:45So if you're going to define
22:46something that we don't know,
22:47like at Risk or an acronym like
22:50AR that we don't know, define it.
22:53Name it the first time.
22:55Otherwise,
22:56we spend time just looking
22:57and looking and looking.
23:01The comparison here is of parents without
23:05any psychiatric disorder, healthy controls
23:12and what was done here is
23:14diagnostic assessment with MRI.
23:16The amygdala was measured,
23:18the volumes of the amygdala and this was done
23:21at baseline and then a two years follow up.
23:23So these are just the elements.
23:25This is not an abstract, but this,
23:27this is the guts of an abstract by the way
23:31I underlined were evaluated and were used.
23:34If it didn't give you a little
23:36bit of a conniption fit,
23:38it gives me a conniption fit.
23:39So hopefully it will to you as well.
23:42I'm originally from Mexico,
23:43so English is my second, second language.
23:45So this was not something that came naturally
23:48to me because we don't have it in Spanish.
23:50But in English we have this thing
23:53called the active tense and the pass,
23:55the active voice and the passive voice.
23:59And it's remarkable how many people
24:02use the passive voice, you know,
24:04were evaluated were used as
24:06opposed to we evaluated, we used,
24:08you know, there always needs to be
24:11an agent when there's an action.
24:13So who is it that did what?
24:16So be mindful of your own use,
24:19if any, of the passive voice.
24:22And then we come to the result,
24:24which is the,
24:24you know,
24:25the the main event that we've
24:27been all waiting for.
24:29And some of the tips there are
24:32to be lean and numerical.
24:35You avoid descriptions without numbers
24:37which sound a little bit fluffy.
24:40I'll give a couple of examples
24:43and to be selective once again,
24:45lead with your strong point
24:48with your main questions.
24:50Tie things as much as possible to
24:52your objective to research question.
24:54And then if you need to put a
24:55negative finding, by all means,
24:56by all means, But don't start there.
24:59Start strong and then go to the excuses.
25:02Sometimes folks wanting to be so
25:06pristine in their scientific ethics,
25:09they put everything to the point that
25:11even in an abstract they bore us to tears.
25:14And when you bore someone that's not good,
25:16they won't read your paper.
25:19Not every single result needs to be exciting.
25:21Not everything needs to have a big P value.
25:23Not everything needs to be a
25:26positive finding.
25:26But again,
25:27you don't need to put everything down either.
25:32This is an example of using a
25:34lot of words and few numbers.
25:37Again an example from my
25:39specialty of child psychiatry.
25:40But you see external factors
25:43are more predictive.
25:44Well, how much more predictive
25:48specifically? Well, if you're so specific,
25:50why aren't you being specific?
25:52They're associated with higher how much
25:54higher and higher than what? And lower.
25:56So when you see a lot of these,
25:58ER, words, resist that and start
26:02thinking of adding numbers.
26:05What kind of numbers?
26:08Well, there's a range of numbers.
26:09I would say that there's an
26:11evolutionary ladder ladder to numbers.
26:13The the worst ones are the ones
26:14that I was just talking about.
26:16The vague ones, the ones that try
26:18to convey were numbers with words.
26:20Smaller, larger, not terribly helpful.
26:23You can use them once in a while,
26:24but don't rely too much on them.
26:27Sample size or ends and percentages
26:30are OK P values are really good.
26:32We all love them.
26:33We all like them, but don't give by
26:36and large don't give naked P values,
26:38just the P value.
26:40Try to include it with the
26:41result of the statistical test,
26:43or even better with a confidence interval.
26:47The finding of the confidence
26:49interval because that tells
26:50the story of significance and
26:52of just how much significance.
26:54So choose whatever works
26:56depending on on on your research.
26:59But numbers are good to to a degree.
27:03You don't want to pepper things
27:06with too many numbers either.
27:08So by the time that you
27:11get to the conclusion,
27:13the conclusion should really be
27:14self-evident by the time that you read it,
27:16that you read it in the in in my
27:21attempt at being a chlamydiologist,
27:23I would say that the conclusion might
27:25be you know I don't know community
27:30based treatments connected with
27:32healthcare centers are have a positive
27:37impact in the treatment of committee,
27:39the prevention of chlamydia,
27:40something like that.
27:41It it's a statement,
27:43this thing actually does something,
27:46so it should be self-evident.
27:49He distills the take home message
27:51usually in one line, maybe 2 lines.
27:53You don't need much more than that.
27:55Numbers are not welcome here.
27:56You know numbers aren't the result.
27:58So if you're putting a number
27:59in the conclusion take it away.
28:01It doesn't belong there.
28:04Please don't pontificate or editorialize.
28:07It's a another big pool that we have.
28:09Let me tell you what it all means.
28:11Let me tell you why my negative
28:12findings are not really negative.
28:14No, this is not a place to do that.
28:17And do not surprise.
28:19Oh, and by the way, everybody got pregnant.
28:21No, don't, no, don't do that.
28:23OK? Avoid truisms.
28:27Another beloved, terrible thing to do.
28:30The findings indicate that cultural
28:32factors must be taking into account.
28:35Well, we we know that that that
28:37doesn't really add anything.
28:38It's it's a little bit of pablum.
28:41Helping adolescents to deal with safe
28:44social relations is important, right?
28:47And then my unfavorite of all is this one.
28:51Further research is needed,
28:52but we know that that's what we're
28:54doing this It doesn't add anything.
28:56And you just lost four precious words there,
28:59so don't add obvious truisms.
29:04So I've I've been telling you like
29:05a schoolmarm, what you shouldn't do.
29:07But let me tell you some things
29:09that you might want to do.
29:11You should really dare to be understated.
29:16You take a stand to say what you have
29:19found because you worked hard for it.
29:21So you know, oops, don't be vague about it.
29:25Go for it and to.
29:27Less is more when it comes to
29:29the conclusion, so don't bother.
29:31We're reading all of this,
29:33blah blah blah about a very
29:35large study study on obsessive
29:36compulsive disorder done in kids.
29:39I put it here to show you that there's,
29:41you know, many numbers, many details.
29:43It's one of these JAMA articles with
29:46lots and lots of details. But whoops.
29:48But what is really important here?
29:50Is this the conclusion?
29:51So even if you don't are not a child
29:54psychiatrist and don't know all the numbers,
29:57we can all understand the children and
29:59adolescents with Obsessive Compulsive
30:01disorder should begin treatment with a
30:04combination of cognitive behavioral therapy
30:06plus an SSRI like Prozac or with CBT alone.
30:09It's it's very clear, right?
30:11It it's taking a stand,
30:13it's not opining,
30:15It's very clean because,
30:17you know,
30:18these authors have earned it after
30:19doing all of their hard work.
30:24I mentioned that I do qualitative work,
30:27so wanted to show you just a little bit
30:29of a difference with a qualitative study.
30:32This is a study that we published last year
30:34and look at that colon, Look at that colon.
30:37So we have perceptions of racism in a
30:40children's psychiatric inpatient unit.
30:42That's the what and a qualitative study
30:44of entrenching and uprooting factors.
30:47This is the the how or the detail.
30:50So what I want to show you is that
30:53in the abstract, just for a second,
30:56it's a qualitative study.
30:56So we're not going to have P values and
30:59numbers and all the things that I told you,
31:02but some simple similar principles
31:04apply of being orderly, of enumerating,
31:07of making it easy on the reader
31:10even on as complex a paper.
31:13So this is what we did.
31:14We identified 2 processes,
31:16entrenching factors that sustain or increase
31:20racism and they come in these three flavors,
31:23Predisposing factors,
31:25precipitating factors and perpetuating.
31:28And the second one,
31:30uprooting factors that rectify or reduce
31:33racism so they prevent they punctuate
31:37as something is happening in real time
31:39or they prohibit and you see that.
31:42In this case we played with the the letter P,
31:46the alliteration.
31:46So we organized each of the elements
31:50into a 6P model along the temporal
31:53sequence around Sentinel racist events.
31:56And for each one,
31:57we looked at contributing factors,
31:58emotional reactions,
31:59behavioral responses.
32:00So this is a very different kind
32:02of an abstract, right?
32:03There aren't the number findings,
32:05there aren't the parentheses,
32:06there aren't the P values.
32:08But it's still very clearly organized
32:11and it flows from the interviews and
32:15the the thematic analysis and what.
32:18So just wanted to throw in
32:21a word about qualitative.
32:22So whatever else you do you remember.
32:25I started with that.
32:26So let me finish with that.
32:28Whatever else you do,
32:29do not leave your abstract
32:30as an afterthought.
32:34In fact, get to your abstract last.
32:37This is exactly the opposite of what I
32:39said in the beginning, but both are true.
32:42You want to get to your
32:44abstract at the very beginning,
32:46even before you really start writing.
32:49And you want to be polishing it as you are
32:52writing your paper, your presentation,
32:54your PowerPoint, whatever it is.
32:56And the day before presenting your paper,
32:58your PowerPoint,
32:59or the day before submitting,
33:00you still want to be polishing
33:02it so that it is exactly right,
33:04so that it is exactly right.
33:06Most journals, most venues,
33:09look for abstracts of about 250 words,
33:13so it's not a lot of words.
33:15But again Pascal,
33:16you know writing brief is
33:18much harder than writing long.
33:21I'm going to finish with and
33:23and I would love it, love it,
33:25love it if people had questions
33:26we'll have time.
33:27I'm going to add with 12 tips
33:30or summary points most of which
33:32I think we have covered.
33:35So whatever else you do start with
33:38your abstract what I just mentioned
33:40respect the abstract's demarcations.
33:42So in Rad you may be familiar.
33:46This is the introduction,
33:48methods, results and discussion.
33:50So these are the typical elements
33:53of of an article.
33:55And what I mean by the demarcations
33:58is you don't want one section
34:00bleeding into the next.
34:02You don't want numbers in the
34:04discussion I mentioned that.
34:05But you don't want methods seeping
34:07into the results or methods into you.
34:10You want to keep each one very clear
34:17title. I gave you some pointers,
34:19hopefully helpful.
34:20This is often overlooked
34:22and yet is really core.
34:24Really, really core.
34:27In fact, in a poster the abstract
34:29may be the only thing that is
34:31seen and and certainly when
34:33you're looking at the literature,
34:34the title can open the doors or not.
34:36So spending time with the
34:38title is really important.
34:41An abstract is not a summarized article.
34:43So hopefully I've made my point that
34:45you don't want to have your paper all
34:48beautifully written and then try to distill
34:51it or to cannibalize it into 250 words.
34:56You you lost an opportunity there because
34:59an article is an expanded abstract.
35:02If you start with those 250 words
35:04with a solid bone structure,
35:06then you're going to be able
35:08to build a rich paper.
35:09It's a small but really important
35:12difference in my, in my view,
35:17follow the basic principles of epidemiology
35:19that are the pico that we talked about.
35:21It's almost colored by number and
35:24numbers and literally that's what I did,
35:26colored by numbers.
35:27If you can think of that,
35:29did you hit on everything?
35:30You're going to be in
35:33really much better shape.
35:34Include numbers when it's
35:36not a qualitative study,
35:37although there's even some
35:39numbers there in the right dose.
35:40You know, don't overdo it.
35:42Don't shove numbers down our throat.
35:45Just the key.
35:47Take home numerical messages.
35:51Shut the fluff.
35:52Every every word counts.
35:54You only have 250,
35:56so words must do work.
35:58Use vigorous verbs.
36:00Forget about adjectives.
36:02Forget, forget.
36:03Forget about adverbs
36:07and put muscular words in there.
36:12Be understated.
36:13A good abstract speaks for itself.
36:15It doesn't need any fancy
36:18words to to do its job.
36:22Do not editorialize.
36:23This is not a New York Times editorial.
36:26You need to be very direct,
36:31very objective,
36:33and not tell everyone
36:35just how smart you are,
36:37even though you know we
36:39all have that desire
36:43typos. A single typo can
36:46just shoot your ship down.
36:49So please, please, please, you know,
36:51make sure to look at typos.
36:55There are now several things beyond typos.
36:59So for example those of you
37:01who have not tried Grammarly or
37:04not familiar with Grammarly,
37:06I highly recommended the Grammarly Free
37:09version will look at all your typos.
37:12It's like a word on steroids.
37:15It will find grammar and all those
37:17little things, so that's good.
37:20But Grammarly, the one that you pay for,
37:23not expensive at all.
37:25That one also has a tool for, yeah,
37:28plagiarism. And you say me, plagiarism.
37:31Who is he? I think he's talking to?
37:35But it's surprising that when the
37:37number of references that we use
37:39and that we cite things like the
37:41methods can be very difficult to
37:43write completely cleanly out of,
37:45you know,
37:46So there's a certain amount of plagiarism,
37:48auto plagiarism,
37:49that happens in the best of times,
37:51and it's good to see it in Grammarly
37:53to show it to you.
37:54And with some small changes you can
37:57get rid of that and prevent the,
37:59you know,
38:00the horribleness of being said
38:02that you are plagiarizing.
38:06And as I said, whatever else you do,
38:08finish with your abstract.
38:10I'm going to ask Linda,
38:11if you don't mind.
38:12Linda, these 12 tips are included
38:16and elaborated in this short
38:18little paper that I had mentioned,
38:19the one with that title
38:24and you know there you have
38:25it if it is if it is helpful.
38:29I think that with that we
38:33can 01 more business thing.
38:35The business thing is that it would be
38:37wonderful is as we open it up for comments,
38:40if you could scan that code or Linda
38:43will also put the the the code.
38:45You could tell us you know
38:47your thoughts about this talk.
38:49It's the first time that we do
38:51it and we wanna be helpful.
38:53So I think that I will pass it to Dana now.
38:58Is that how it goes, Dana?
39:00Sure. Let's give them a little count.
39:03The clock is counting down.
39:04So we'll we'll I'll be quiet
39:08just for a few seconds to let
39:10people and myself rate you.
39:37Thank you. We really do appreciate
39:39you letting us know what's useful
39:41to you or not useful to you as
39:43we expand these sessions to be
39:46more relevant to more faculty.
39:47So what What questions does anybody
39:50have or comments for Doctor
39:52Martin about abstract writing?
40:07I'll just start by saying I think
40:10your comment about a lot of
40:13things from from my standpoint of
40:15when we do educator development,
40:18I find that faculty were
40:19learning how to teach better,
40:21can learn a lot by observing teaching.
40:23By using kind of some best tips
40:25and practices in a rubric to
40:27watch others because it makes you,
40:29your muscle memory of the optimal
40:31kind of best effective behaviors be
40:33so reinforced when you're doing that.
40:35So your corollary for for you
40:37to be thinking about this when
40:40you're reviewing abstracts,
40:42I think will not only make you feel like it,
40:44it's it's nice to guide your to
40:46be a more effective reviewer,
40:47but it'll strengthen your work as well.
40:49So I I really appreciate that point.
40:53I don't know if you can see the
40:56chat Andres necessarily so I'm just
40:58going to read the people could
41:00also please feel free to raise
41:01your hand or just go off mic.
41:03But one person said I am currently
41:06first time guest editing a journal
41:09and this was right sized.
41:12So very much appreciated Diane.
41:15And then there's a question
41:17about any tips for English not
41:20as first language authors.
41:23Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
41:24Yeah. So 2 two things.
41:26And let let me maybe address both.
41:27So, Diane, that's terrific.
41:29I don't, I don't see you,
41:31but I know you're there somewhere.
41:34Yes. As a guest editor you're likely
41:37going to be seeing a lot of abstracts
41:40and your job in being selective
41:44about not accepting everything and
41:46not your rejecting everything and
41:55the the the, the,
41:56the T tool kit T as in Tom the Kathy.
42:00Kathy Deangelis was the Editor in
42:02Chief of JAMA and we we're good
42:04friends and she gave me this tool
42:06tip that might be helpful to you.
42:08She said that as an editor
42:09you need the following TS.
42:10Let me see if I can remember them all.
42:13You need to be tough minded.
42:16You need to be thin, thick skinned.
42:20You need to be tender hearted
42:23and you got to be tenacious.
42:26And you know that served me well
42:29because you're going to get you know,
42:31every time that someone,
42:32every time that anyone of us submits
42:34something, we're giving our, you know,
42:36our little heart here and please,
42:37please take good care of it.
42:39And rejection can be, can be hard.
42:42And being in the other end of the spectrum
42:45being the one rejecting can also be hard.
42:49But it's a great thing that you're an editor,
42:51so welcome.
42:52And Angie is asking about tips for English,
42:56not as a first language.
42:58Yeah.
43:01Yeah, So a couple of things.
43:05Probably the best thing is having
43:07and and we have it easy here, Angie,
43:09you and I I know Angie in Full disclosure
43:14and English is not our first language,
43:17although we speak it reasonably well.
43:20But I would say that for anyone who is at
43:22whatever level of proficiency of English,
43:24if it's not their first language,
43:26having a reader who will be
43:32again tenderhearted but tough
43:33minded in some way is very good.
43:36So whether that is a friend,
43:38a colleague, a family member,
43:40family members or loved ones can
43:43actually be interesting in that.
43:45Can they understand what it
43:46is that you're saying?
43:48You know they may not understand
43:49the log linear model.
43:50You know, whatever, whatever,
43:51Monte Carlo, whatever.
43:52But can they understand the English of it?
43:55And. And I think that that's one.
43:56So.
43:57So having readers who are friendly and
43:58who are going to be honest with you is 1.
44:01The second one is Grammarly,
44:02which is very, very good.
44:04I'm still trying to learn things
44:05in English that I didn't know,
44:07like does the comma go inside
44:09of the quotation or outside.
44:11And when I mean there are so many strange
44:13things about the beautiful English language.
44:16And Grammarly, I would say,
44:17is most of the time really on the money.
44:21It's free, except for the
44:24plagiarism stuff that I mentioned.
44:26And I would say that for authors,
44:28something that you will see very
44:30often mentioned is these polishing
44:32services that you send your manuscript
44:34and they Polish and make it pretty.
44:37In my experience,
44:38that's really expensive and
44:40they don't Polish so pretty,
44:42but you know,
44:43it's there.
44:47I don't know.
44:48I I think that even things like,
44:51you know, I'm not endorsing this,
44:53but ChatGPT, which is in my
44:56mind after yesterday, you know,
44:58it can help Polish things, you know,
45:00take this and make it prettier.
45:03I haven't used it myself,
45:04but I wouldn't be surprised.
45:05You know you take like a beautiful
45:07abstract in your field and then
45:10your abstract that you're happy
45:11with and you go to ChatGPT and say
45:14take mine and do it in this form.
45:17It would be an interesting experiment.
45:18I think that it would improve it.
45:20Obviously you would still
45:21need to to check it closely.
45:26And my last point, Angie is a a
45:29website that I've come to love
45:31and use a lot called Deep Gram.
45:36Although Deep Gram is more for
45:40transcription than for writing,
45:42which is what we're doing.
45:43But Deep Gram can't
45:49capture text, capture voice into
45:51text in any number of languages.
45:53I don't know like 30 languages.
45:54And it's essentially free because
45:57most of these things are are very.
46:00Yeah, it's called deep where
46:03I am and you don't. Oops.
46:06No, that's misspelled. I'm sorry,
46:10Deep cramp. So as I oh, there it is.
46:14Yeah. Dana, as I mentioned,
46:15I do a lot of qualitative studies
46:17and you can put like long,
46:18long you know multiple hour long
46:21interviews and within less than a
46:24minute it transcribes it beautifully.
46:27So I think that we're,
46:28we're all learning about these tools.
46:31So those would be some of my thoughts.
46:32Thank you for, for that question.
46:37Another quick question. Yeah. So
46:41in deep Gram, if you're
46:44analyzing qualitatively, can
46:50HIPAA
46:52that sort of language. OK,
46:54not HIPAA compliant. OK. That's OK.
46:56Yeah. Not HIPAA compliant.
46:59OK, sounds good.
46:59Just wanted to make sure. OK,
47:01thank you. I don't, I don't know
47:02that the HIPAA police is going
47:03to come and find you but better
47:05not mess with the HIPAA police.
47:07Yeah. No, especially if you're
47:10if you're you know dealing with
47:12patients and and their. Yeah.
47:14OK, sounds good. Thank you.
47:19Any other questions or
47:22experiences people want to share?
47:30I know this is like such a common
47:32activity for so many on the call,
47:34whether they're residents,
47:35students or through the faculty.
47:38So I really learned a lot, Andreas.
47:40I'm looking, I'm going to look,
47:42go look back at my pending
47:45abstracts and this will dovetail
47:47nicely to your next session.
47:49Do you have the slide about
47:50the next sessions, Andreas,
47:54that will build build on this?
47:57Yeah, no, quite literally the
47:59the poster in some way really is
48:03just a glorified abstract. So
48:05we have first Friday of the next year a
48:10session on improving written feedback.
48:11We already had verbal feedback in the fall,
48:14and then Andreas's next session for
48:17writing will be the week after that.
48:21And we again, we have programming that'll
48:25run through through April at this point.
48:29We got show you 3 * 3 at a time.
48:31I see Donna has her hand up as well.
48:34Yeah. And Donna, just one quick second
48:36just to piggyback on what you said,
48:38Dana, that the reason we really are
48:41putting pressure on you to fill your
48:43evaluations is that this is the first
48:45time that we do this cycle of yes.
48:47So things that you think could be really
48:49good or have not been good or you know,
48:51we really want your feedback. But Donna,
48:55sorry I missed the first part.
48:56I was seeing patients this morning.
48:58Just, you know,
48:59some hints that I've found helpful.
49:02If you're submitting
49:03abstracts to an organization,
49:05often times they tell you or they
49:08should tell you the rubric by
49:10which they're grading abstracts.
49:13And I find that
49:14really helpful to know that in advance.
49:17So I know how to structure based
49:20on what they're looking for.
49:23That's a great point, great point.
49:30Thank you. Well,
49:33thanks to everyone for joining.
49:35We really, really appreciate you
49:37Andreas and everyone's participation.
49:40Hope you feel like this was
49:43useful and we'll hear from you if
49:45you did or you didn't hopefully
49:46and we'll see you next time.
49:49Happy holidays and thanks for
49:51joining us guys. Bye bye.
49:53Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays.