Writing an Effective Title for Journal Submission
With the exception of your covering letter, the title and abstract of your paper are the first things encountered by the editor considering your submission (and the very first things if you are not able to submit any sort of covering letter). While preparing your article for submission, think of the paper itself as dinner and its title and abstract (as well as any keywords you provide) as appetisers. You want the editor, the reviewers who will hopefully follow and your future readers if the paper is published to be tantalised by your appetisers – to enjoy the texture and flavour of these delicacies while building a hearty appetite and on that basis to expect good things from the dinner (paper) to follow. You do not want them to feel glutted by too much nourishment that is too richly seasoned or repulsed by a dull product of so low a quality that they leave the table before dinner arrives.
The Title
Very few elements of an academic or scientific article have to accomplish as much in as few words as the title does. According to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, ‘a title should summarize the main idea of the manuscript simply and, if possible, with style’ (2010, p.23). It should concisely inform your readers about the research you carried out in your study, mentioning the variables or theoretical issues you investigated and the relationship between them, and it can also hint at what you discovered. Secondly, it should do both in an interesting and engaging way that allows the language you use to carry nuances and learned allusions while providing the necessary details with precision. However, titles are also best if they are as short as possible, and the guidelines of many journals set strict word or character limits on titles, so there are both practical and creative reasons for avoiding all unnecessary words in your title: adverbs and adjectives are rarely necessary and should be used sparingly and to maximum effect, while words such as ‘study’, ‘method’ and ‘results’ are almost always extraneous and can simply burden a title and render it more awkward. Do check the journal guidelines, however, as some journals are happy to accept longer titles and a few even ask that the type of study or methodology be identified in a subtitle. Many journals also require specific formatting for titles, such as capitalisation, special fonts and punctuation, so be sure to check and follow all the guidelines with precision.
In addition, a well-written title should ideally be worded in a way that accommodates the journal’s range and specialisation and prioritises its concerns and focuses. For example, if your article studies the relationship between personality traits and the incidence of different types of cancer, it may find a home in either a psychology or a medical journal. You will probably choose the journal depending on your own emphasis (psychological or medical) in the paper, but it may be that you do not emphasise either or see the two as interconnected and inseparable. Even if the latter is the case, emphasising the focus of your chosen journal by highlighting as appropriate either the psychological or the medical aspects of your study can be effective in winning the editor’s sympathy. Remember that your title will also serve as a search tool for potential readers once your article is published, so the vocabulary you use should anticipate the words readers might use (and the journal editor might imagine them using) when searching for work on your topic. The same is the case with keywords, which exist primarily for this purpose and should be chosen with an eye to both the accurate representation of your paper’s content and the journal’s range and specialisation.
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If you are in the process of preparing an article for an academic or scientific journal, or planning one for the near future, you may well be interested in a new book, Guide to Journal Publication, which is available on our Tips and Advice on Publishing Research in Journals website.
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