MORE INFORMATIVE ABSTRACTS REVISITED

Following proposals in 1987 and 1988, several medical journals have pr ovided more informative abstracts (''structured abstracts'') for artic les of clinical interest, Structured abstracts for original studies re quire authors to systematically disclose the objective, basic research design, clinical setting, participants, interventions (if any), main outcome measurements, results, and conclusions; and for literature rev iews the objective, data sources, methods of study selection, data ext raction and synthesis, and conclusions, More informative abstracts of this kind can facilitate peer review before publication, assist clinic al readers to find articles that are both scientifically sound and app licable to their practices, and allow more precise computerized litera ture searches, We review the feasibility, acceptability, and dissemina tion of structured abstracts, reassess the underlying strategy, and de scribe modifications of the approach, This innovation can aid communic ation from scientists to clinicians, and other clinical journals are i nvited to join this effort.