Abstract Writing Conventions

The English summary is to be written as abstract according to the usual conventions. The length of the abstract should not exceed 20 lines. The final editing of the abstract will be done by the KZfSS editorial staff.

Please do not use any abbreviations in the text.

Notes for writing abstracts
Abstracts are included in all major social science information services and databases. Thus they are disseminated worldwide. The following notes have been prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations of SOLIS of the Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften (IZ), the conventions of sociological abstracts and based on specific notes by L. Chall, the founder of sociological abstracts. Within the framework of a cooperation agreement we pass on the German and English summaries to SOLIS; the abstracts are published on the KZfSS website as well.

Aim
The aim of the abstract is to inform the reader as concisely and precisely as possible about the content, the methodological approach and the results presented in the article and thus about its value and usefulness for the reader’s own investigations.

Content
The abstract should not (vaguely) report what the article is about, but should concisely refer to the concrete content, whereby no information or evaluations going beyond the article itself should be communicated. The abstract should contain the essential content of the article.

Form
You should avoid repeating the information given in the title in the abstract. Instead of the introductory phrases "The article deals, presents, discusses, assesses..." or similar, the first sentence should directly express the question or objective of the investigation. Choose short and clearly structured sentences without unnecessary idioms; mention the key terms of the essay, and explain/define newly introduced terms so that the abstract is self-explanatory.