Most if not all research articles published in journals require the author to write an abstract regardless of academic field. However, abstract writing in English is a highly specialized genre on its own. In this light, the purpose of this study is to investigate differences in journal article abstracts written in English by Korean and native English scholars. 90 research paper abstracts written in English by Korean national scholars, US-educated Korean scholars and native English scholars were compared according to rhetorical organization. A generalized rhetorical scheme was used in analysis which was based on Graetz (1985) and Swales (1990): Background-Purpose-Method-Result-Conclusion. In addition, the use of conjunctions as a cohesive device was analyzed based on the categories proposed by Halliday and Hasan (1976). Analyses of the research paper abstracts showed that the majority of the abstracts included the purpose, method and result components. However, while approximately 70 percent of native English writers used research background in the abstract, only 26 percent of Korean national scholars did so. Regarding the use of conjunctions, Korean-national scholars overused and inappropriately used additive and temporal conjunctions. The US-educated Korean scholars showed similar patterns to the native English speakers. The findings obtained here imply that there is a need to provide academic writing instruction of abstracts to non-native scholars.