Abstracts As Acceptance Criteria in Scientific Research: A Study of the 68th ETRAN Conference Proceedings

In light of the importance of understanding the structure of an abstract or summary for the effective promotion of scientific research, this study analyzes the application of Hyland's model, which consists of five „moves‟ or phases, in conference abstracts whose authors belong to the Serbian language community. The aim of this paper is to examine whether the authors of abstracts from Proceedings of the 68th ETRAN conference adhered to Hyland's model when composing their abstracts. This exploratory approach provides valuable insights into writing patterns and helps improve authors’ ability to communicate key information. This paper employs both quantitative and qualitative analyses of the abstracts to identify and evaluate the presence of each of the five "moves" in Hyland's model — Introduction, Goal, Methodology, Product, and Conclusions — across 21 sections of the Proceedings. The results of this research indicate that two-thirds of the analyzed abstracts demonstrated average (1 section) or above-average (13 sections) compliance with the established criteria within the Serbian language community. In contrast, one-third of the abstracts (7 sections) fell below the average compliance level. In addition, this paper considers possible differences in the approaches of different authors, as well as the potential obstacles they face when writing abstracts. In conclusion, this research offers recommendations for future authors to improve the quality of their abstracts and contribute to better visibility and impact of their scientific works.