Hello everyone. I have an abstract to send until tomorrow to a call for papers of an international conference. They ask for an abstract of 500-word maximum. I've written 220 and I am quite happy about it. Do you think for them might be too short? Sorry for the eventually silly question...
Thanks!

200 words is usually a good abstract size and I think 500 words is a bit long unless they want detailed methods&results. Do they give any guidance on what to include and have you covered all those points?

I think I'd be looking to make it longer. I recently had to do a 600 word one and could easily have done it in 200 or 300. But I guessed that b/c they were stipulating max 600 words they had an expectation that it should be more detailed than usual. I'd bump it up by 100 (at least). Not just fluffy words but more specific and technical detail so that they can make a more informed review about whether to accept it or not.

For an international conference I attended last year, they specified that abstracts be one side of A4 at most. I've just checked the book of abstracts and the shortest was two and a half lines. Several others were between four and six lines and some filled the whole page. I'm sure your 220 words is sufficient.

Sounds like it then. I guess the main thing is that you feel enough information is there for them to make a judgment about the quality of the research. Brevity is a good thing.

Thank you everyone for your answers. This forum keeps helping me a lot!