Abstract Guidelines for the Medical Student Research Symposium      

Medical students participating in the annual Medical Student Research Symposium should follow these abstract guidelines.

General recommendations:
  • Start by discussing the abstract with your mentor including the due date. During this conversation discuss the author list and order and what information you want to include in your abstract. Abstracts for the Medical Student Research Symposium should be 250-300 words. 
Title:
  • Use a concise and descriptive title that reflects the content (often major conclusion) of your research. The title should be catchy/interesting and reflect what is in the poster/presentation.
  • Avoid abbreviations or jargon
Author Information:
  • You should be listed first (presenter).
  • Your mentor is generally listed last
  • Discuss with your mentor the co-authors and order.
  • Include where the research took place (affiliations)
Abstract Body (250-300 words total):
  • Abstracts should not have figures embedded or citations.
  • Consider your audience—will this abstract be presented at a specialized meeting or a more general meeting?
Introduction (2-3 sentences):
  • Concisely state the big picture/area that the research addresses
  • State what is known about the problem (background), disease, or research area.
  • This leads to the unknown—describe your research objective or hypothesis
Methods/Approach (~2 sentences):
  • Concisely describe the overall experimental design, methods, or approach.
  • Can include study samples, materials, statistical methods.
  • Highlight if an aspect of the methods are new.
Results (this is the largest part of an abstract):
  • Describe each of the major results in logical order—and order presented on poster
  • Use numbers and statistics to describe each result
  • Do these results prove or disprove your hypothesis or address the overall goal?
Summary/Conclusions (1 sentence):
  • Big picture conclusion of the research in your poster
Final sentence (optional):
  • Describe the larger impact of the work.
  • Where do these findings fit into what is known
  • May include a statement research in progress/future goals