i s pra.ctica.1, a b s t r a c t s .for t h e MSRIS a r e informative.
Numbers t h a t r e -
quire lengthy exp1anatio:n and qualifica.tions t o be meaningful (fuel-cycle c o s t s , for example) a r e avoided, however.
Some documents, such a s prog-
r e s s r e p o r t s and review s r t i c l e s , which cover a wide range of t o p i c s , lend themselves only t o i n d i c a t i v e a b s t r a c t s .
I n most other cases, an a c t u a l
a b s t r a c t will probably tend t o be a combination of i n d i c a t i v e and i n f o r ma t i v e
.
Whether i n d i c a t i v e o r inf'ormative, t h e a b s t r a c t should be w r i t t e n c l e a r l y and concisely s o a s t o be quick and easy t o read.
There i s no
f i x e d l i m i t on MSRIS a b s t r a c t s , b u t few should exceed about 2CO words i n length.
Having a l l a b s t r a c t s a s succinct a s p o s s i b l e i s a g r e a t advantage
t o t h e user of t h e f i l e ; g r e a t enough t o warrant s p e c i a l e f f o r t s on t h e p a r t of t h e w r i t e r .
I n writing an a b s t r a c t , one should f i r s t of a l l j o t
down t h e items of information t h a t he wants t o include. d r a f t t h e a b s t r a c t , using d i r e c t , concise sentences.
Then he should
Next t h e w r i t e r
should e d i t his d r a f t t o eliminate superfluous words and, i f necessary, s e l e c t i v e l y c u t t h e content t o g e t the length down t o about 200 words. F i n a l l y , he should c r i t i c a l l y reread h i s a b s t r a c t t o make sure t h a t each sentence i s s t i l l complete and c l e a r and t h a t t h e most important i n f o r mation i s s t i l l included. Choice of Kevwords The MSRIS i s intended t o help anyone seeking information on a chosen s u b j e c t t o f i n d a b s t r a c t s of a l l documents containing information p e r t i n e n t t o t h a t subject.
Without any knowledge of r e p o r t t i t l e s , authors' names
o r t h e l i k e , he should be a b l e t o p u l l t h e r i g h t a b s t r a c t s from among a
multitude of o t h e r s and 'be confident t h a t he has n o t missed any e s s e n t i a l information.
The keyword index i s a mechanism designed t o f a c i l i t a t e t h i s .
Each e n t r y i n t h e MSRIS includes a s e t of keywords chosen from t h e MSR Keyword L i s t which appears i n Appendix A.*
*
I n assigning keywords t o a
It may be d e s i r a b l e f o r t h e published document i t s e l f t o c a r r y some keywords not included i n t h e MSRIS l i s t . For example, "molten-salt r e a c t o r s " i s a very important t a g f o r MSR documents i n any broader information system, b u t it would be superfluous i n t h e MSRIS since i t would appear on almost every e n t r y .