Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
An ASCO 2023 abstract published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology supplement
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A full peer-reviewed conference paper in proceedings is not a conference abstract
Editorial commentary
A conference abstract is a short summary of research findings or planned work, submitted to a conference for selection as an oral or poster presentation and published in the conference’s abstract book or a journal supplement. It is citable as a distinct publication but does not typically represent full peer review of the underlying research — review is usually limited to the abstract text itself, assessed for relevance and quality by a scientific programme committee.
How this differs from a conference proceeding
A conference abstract is a short summary only, whereas a conference proceeding is a full peer-reviewed paper appearing in the conference’s published proceedings — the abstract is what gets a presentation accepted, while a proceedings paper is a complete, independently peer-reviewed piece of scholarship in its own right. ICMJE’s overlapping-publications guidance treats a conference abstract as a preliminary disclosure of findings, not as prior publication that would bar later full publication of the same work in a journal.
Practical note
Abstract word limits are set per meeting rather than standardised across the field — commonly ranging from roughly 150 to 350 words, with 250 words a frequently seen cap. For sponsor-funded (pharmaceutical/biotech/device) research specifically, the GPCAP guideline (Good Practice for Conference Abstracts and Presentations) sets additional expectations covering abstracts, posters, and oral-presentation slides.
Example
A conference abstract published in a specialty society’s annual-meeting supplement, summarising preliminary trial results ahead of full peer-reviewed publication of the complete study.
Also known as
Meeting abstract · Abstract publication
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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