Restructured abstracts for research in The BMJ

This issue marks a shift in the way research articles will be presented in the print edition of The BMJ . We will continue to publish the definitive, unabridged version of accepted research papers online, with open access and no word limits. These articles will then be summarised for print in a newly designed, streamlined abstract format. It has been 17 years since we first abridged research papers for the print version of The BMJ . There is no definite agreed format for structured abstracts, although there is consensus about the key pieces of information that such abstracts should contain. Our first attempts to produce shortened print versions …