Resource of the Week #156: “Finding the Right Title . . . ”

Hello again. This week’s resource gives guidance on writing titles for journal articles. Its own title is “Finding the Right Title for Your Article: Advice for Academic Authors”.

The authors of this article note 3 types of bad titles:

• titles that are too short and so contain too little information
• titles that are not descriptive (for example, ones that sound clever but do not say what the article is about)
• titles that are too long, for example because they include unnecessary details

Then the authors give advice for writing titles. Among their suggestions are the following:

• To start drafting your title, write the main words that describe the research. Then try arranging these words in different orders.
• Include terms that researchers are likely to use when searching for articles on your subject.
• After drafting your title, get feedback from others. If relevant, include a native speaker of English.
• When you read articles or attend conferences, notice titles and learn from them.

The article ends with a good reminder: “Remember, your title should be ‘selling’ your article to potential readers and at the same time accurately describing the contents of the paper.”

This article appeared in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology. I thank Andy Nobes from INASP/AuthorAID for mentioning it.

Until the next post—

Barbara