Abstracts not only occur before the texts of research articles but also are usually accessible for free either online at journals' websites or in scientific literature databases.The purpose is to inform the potential reader of the content of the article . Since an abstract is a succinct summary of the entire article you may start by reading the abstract . It usually hightlights the main questions the authors investigaged , provides the key results of the experiments , and gives an overview of the author's conclusions.Reading the abstract will help you decide if the aritcle is what you are looking for and is worth your time and effort .More important , it helps you prepare for better understanding when you read the whole paper .

