Indicative
The indicative abstract indicates the contents of the document. It does not report on the methods or results.
Following are some of the kinds of articles and the types of abstracts that would be appropriate.
Most of the articles in Compendex fall into the first category. They are papers presented at conferences, reports of research or journal articles. In this case you would write an informative abstract that contains the subject and scope of the work, the methodology used, results and conclusions.
In the case of a literature review, you would use an indicative abstract, and only give a description of the subject and scope of the work.
For a detailed state of the art review, you would also use an indicative abstract, give a description of the subject and scope, and also the conclusion reached.
Case Studies should have an informative abstract, just like the one for conference papers and journal articles. For example:
Telephone interviews conducted in 1985 with 655 Americans, brought these results:
Most (54-56%) think US aid to Israel and Egypt should be reduced; most (65%) favor US participation in a peace conference that includes the PLO; more than 80% consider it important
That the US should maintain friendly relations with both Israel and the Arab countries; 70%
Believe that the US should favor neither side; most (55%) think that the establishment of a Palestinian state is essential to peace in the Region.
Note that in this example the methodology (telephone interviews), the detailed results are given.
来源：
