Check the record itself for a separate English abstract field, then search the article title in a multilingual index to see whether a translated abstract appears. The two checks answer different questions: the record shows what the publisher or database supplied, while an index search can surface a translated version attached elsewhere.
- Open the full record and look for a distinct abstract field labeled English or a language toggle beside the abstract. If an English abstract field exists, read it and note the source record you used. If the record shows only the non-English abstract, treat the English version as unresolved at this stage.
- Search the article title in quotation marks in a multilingual index such as Google Scholar, which documents title searches with quotation marks. If a result displays an English abstract, open that result and confirm it matches the same article by title, authors, and year. If no English abstract appears, record that finding against the citation.
PubMed and Europe PMC support fielded searches, so you can also run the title as a phrase search in those databases to locate a duplicate record that carries an English abstract. A missing result in one database does not establish that no English abstract exists; it leaves the question open, and the next step is to check another index or the publisher's page for the same article.
Close the check with one of two documented outcomes: the English abstract text with its source record, or a note stating that no English abstract was found after checking the record field and the title search. That note lets a later reviewer repeat or extend the search without guessing what was already tried.