1. MBS Doctoral Research Conference: Briefing Professor Stuart Hyde Director of Postgraduate Research

2. MBS Doctoral Conference MBS Doctoral Conference will be held on Monday May 11 th and Tuesday May 12th. It is an early opportunity to present your research ideas to Faculty and other students. Alongside your sessions there will be research workshops. This year there will also be Faculty presentations on funded research projects and impact. First you need to submit an abstract about your proposed research (presentation).

3. When/ why do you need to write an abstract? MBS doctoral conference : submit by Friday March 13 th. External conferences and workshops: - Some require full papers for acceptance - Many require abstract only  Many good conferences (including doctoral events) are competitive; your abstract needs to persuade the organisers to select your paper  Your abstract may be used to schedule papers; you want to ensure you end up in an appropriate session  Abstracts are published in proceedings; a well-written abstract may persuade people to come to your session When submitting your thesis  Your abstract will be accessible to other researchers When submitting journal articles  A well written abstract will help to make your work visible in online searches and put it in front of other researchers

4. What does a good abstract look like? An abstract is a summary (of your research project, of your paper, of your thesis) A well-written abstract should leave your reader wanting to read more (eg to download the paper, to come to your conference session…) It should be informative & sell your research (but not misrepresent it) It should be self-contained (you can’t refer to the paper)

5. What does a good abstract look like? In general terms, should cover the following: Problem statement &/or motivation – what are you doing & why is it interesting/ important; what kind of question are you addressing (theoretical, empirical, practical…); avoid lots of background Methods or approach – what are doing/ what did you do to address this question Findings – what have you learnt (in general, not great detail) Conclusions and implications, including contribution

6. What does a good abstract look like? For the MBS doctoral conference (early stage abstract): The nature of the problem; or the topic (be specific); research questions Why it is interesting and worthwhile Key pointers from the literature Methodology chosen (& why) Any problems you might expect Potential contribution, expected results [plus pilot study design, initial findings etc]

7. General advice Follow the requirements set  Word length (do not exceed; use the available words)  Format (some journals specify headings in the abstract e.g. Emerald journals require ‘structured abstracts’ with precise set of headings); sometimes you need to provide keywords (think carefully about how someone would be searching; match themes of conference, special issue etc) Connect with themes of conference, journal or event (make sure the abstract helps to sell the paper as relevant, especially for competitive doctoral colloquia, prestige peer reviewed events etc) Make sure you meet any criteria for selection (eg type of research); be explicit that you do

8. General advice Pay careful attention to proof reading: carelessness creates a poor impression Allow sufficient time to draft and redraft; it can take several attempts to get it right; make sure the text is fluent i.e. connect the sentences rather than random sentences Write clearly and concisely: you need to communicate effectively (your reader may not be a specialist in this area); try to avoid jargon, less well-known acronyms etc; avoid unnecessary detail

9. General advice You need to know what the paper or presentation is about, before you can write an abstract; otherwise it will be too vague about the objectives, methods, data and findings etc References/ bibliographic citations not required (though you might want to refer to a key text if that helps explain your motivation) Don’t be lazy: generally it won’t work to simply take a paragraph from your intro or conclusion Give it to someone else to read: be friendly critics