Open letter to technical journal editors regarding structured abstracts: this letter proposes that structured abstracts be required for all technical journal articles

research journals in order for submitted manuscripts to qualify for publication. These abstracts are sub-divided, using sub-headings, into clear separate sub-sections. However, structured abstracts are presently not required by most technical journals. We believe this to be detrimental to the technical community, and ultimately to authors and journals as well. The purpose of this letter is to indicate how publishing structured abstracts in technical journals can benefit the users of this literature. Further, based upon our experience with structured abstracts over the past decade, we will argue that the benefits of using structured abstracts far outweigh the costs. Finally, we will present examples of structured abstracts. This letter is an expansion of an abridged version recently published in Science [1]. It provides more detailed recommendations and supporting material for structured abstracts formats and guidelines. We would be grateful if readers would forward the present letter to any other journal editors that they believe may have an interest in this topic.