Structured abstracts have several advantages for authors and readers. These formats were developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s to assist health professionals in selecting clinically relevant and methodologically valid journal articles. They also guide authors in summarizing the content of their manuscripts precisely, facilitate the peer-review process for manuscripts submitted for publication, and enhance computerized literature searching.

This Structured Abstracts in MEDLINE^® resource provides information about U.S. National Library of Medicine^® (NLM^®) research on Structured Abstracts.

• Structured abstracts contain distinct labeled sections for key information from articles they summarize.
• The NLM Label List and Category Mappings are freely available by downloading from this site. See Implementation Information for documentation.

Contact NLM: Your comments and questions are welcome. Please put "Structured Abstracts" in the subject box.