Abstract: a short summary of a scientific article — ideally meant to inform, too often designed to sell.

In theory, an abstract should:

*Concisely present the purpose, methods, results, and conclusions of a study.*

In practice, it frequently becomes:

*A marketing tool that oversimplifies findings, hides limitations, and exaggerates impact to catch attention.*

• Overuse of confident, vague language (“breakthrough”, “novel”, “promising”)
• Lack of detail on sample size, methodology, or limitations
• Disconnection from the actual results buried in the full text
• Written to impress reviewers or funders — not to inform clinicians

• Abstracts are often the only part most readers see
• Misleading abstracts propagate hype and citation inflation
• Clinical decisions based on abstracts alone can be misguided

A bad abstract sells a story. A good one exposes the evidence.