A grounded theory on abstracts quality: Weighting variables and attributes

Summary

The goal is to deepen the knowledge of both sides of the abstract/ing topic: abstracting variables and abstract attributes. Six abstracting variables (representing abstract, represented source, abstracting means, documentary goal, cognitive domain and user needs) and eight abstract attributes (representativeness, comprehensiveness, usefulness, accuracy, consistency, coherence, density and perceived quality) are proposed and weighted. While abstracting means is uncovered as the main abstracting variable, the representativeness and accuracy attributes stand out, and usefulness, comprehensiveness, consistency, coherence and density are regarded as the basic ones. The feedback of this quality model is performed by the perceived quality attribute, which depends exclusively on users.