What’s a Research Paper Title?
A title is a key decision in writing an article that will be published in journals. The title of your research is what editors and reviewers look at when they first read it. It also serves as the information that peers will search for in a database. It has been proven that concise titles with all relevant terms are more effective in increasing citations and Altmetric scores.
Your title should reflect the essence of your research, as well as the problem or topic being researched. These elements should be presented in an accessible manner that will grab readers’ attention. These are the steps you need to follow to create a strong research title.
In 5 Easy Steps, How to Title a Research Paper
It is possible to wonder how you choose from the many titles in your manuscript. What will make you and your field’s colleagues see your research paper title in search engines?
In short, your research title must accurately represent what you have done. The title should also be engaging to people who work on similar or similar topics. We have simplified the process of creating a title into five steps.
Step 1: Answer key questions related to your research paper
What are the goals of your paper? These questions should be answered as quickly as possible. These questions can be created by looking through every section of your paper to find the most relevant information for making a research title.
Research question:
One sentence answer: “My paper studies the impact of program volume on outcomes for patients awaiting liver transplantation.”
Research question: “What techniques/methodologies did you use to conduct my study?”
One-sentence Answer: “It’s an example.”
Research question: Who or what was the subject?
One-sentence response: “I studied sixty cases of patients awaiting liver transplants in the United States, between 20-50 years old.”
Research question:
One-sentence answer to the question: “My study found a positive correlation between waitlist volumes and the prognosis for transplant procedures.”
Step 2: Identify keywords for your research study
Once you have found the answers to your research question, take the best parts and make these your study key words. Do not choose the most crucial terms as your keywords. Journals will typically ask for between 3 and 8 keywords.
One sentence answer: “My paper studies the impact of program volume on outcomes for patients awaiting liver transplantation.”
Title words/phrases:
Climate Change Impacts
Climate Change Effects
-program volume
-liver transplant patients
-waiting lists
-outcomes
Answer in one sentence: “This case study.”
Title words/expressions:
Original: A Study of the Impact of Climate Change
Paraphrased: Investigating the Effects of Global Warming
Case study
One-sentence response: “I studied sixty cases of patients awaiting liver transplants in the United States, between 20-50 years old.”
Title words/phrases:
Making Financial Decisions
Creating Smart Financial Choices
-US/age 20-50
-Sixty cases
One-sentence response: “My investigation revealed a positive relationship between waitlist quantity and negative prognosis on transplant procedure.”
Title keywords/phrases:
Original: The Benefits of Interval Training
Paraphrased: The Advantages of Interval Workouts
-positive correlation between waitlist volume and negative outcomes
Step 3: Write a research title: Use these keywords
“We did a case analysis of 60 people undergoing liver transplantation from the US. This was done to determine the effect of waiting list size on the outcome of the procedure. The results indicated a positive correlation of increased waiting list and poor prognosis.
The sentence you have just read is far too long to be considered a title for your research paper. In the next steps, you will trim and polish the title.
Step 4: Write a title for your working research paper
You can remove any elements that would make the title a “sentence”, but you should keep all that is relevant to the study’s purpose. All redundant or unnecessary words should be deleted.
“We conducted a case analysis of 60 US liver transplant patients aged 20-50 years. Our results show that there is a positive correlation in waiting list volume and poor outcomes after liver transplantation.
You can now move some words around to ensure proper syntax. Now you have:
“A case report of 60 US patients who received liver transplants between 20-50 year olds. It examined the impact of waitinglist volume on outcomes of transplantation. It showed a positive correlation of increased waitinglist volume and a less optimistic prognosis” (Word Count, 38).
This text is closer than we expected for a research title. That is because it contains the most essential information. This working title has 38 words. Published journal article titles are 16 words. We should remove words and phrases that do not contribute to the title.
Step 5: Get rid of any unnecessary words or phrases from your title
These elements are not essential to this paper.
“A case report of 60 US patients who had received liver transplants between 20 and 50 years ago. It assessed the impact on outcomes of the transplantation process and showed that there was a positive correlation among increased waiting lists and a more negative prognosis” Word Count: 19.
You may also want to delete additional details from your title to make it more searchable. What’s left?
“Assessing prognosis and outcome in patients undergoing liver transplantation” (Word Count 15).
This final title allows one to immediately identify the subject and the study’s objectives. It is important to note that the most important terms appear at both the end and beginning of the title. The main action of the research, Assessment, is at first, and Liver Transplantation Patients, the specific subject, at last.
This will increase the likelihood that your research papers title will be found by search engines and database queries. A review of more 150,000 papers submitted via the UK’s Research Excellence Framework Database (REF), in 2014 found that the title of a paper has a significant impact on the number and quality of citations. Articles with concise titles were more likely to be cited in most disciplines.
Adding Research Papers Subtitles
You can add a subtitle to your title if you need more information about your sample or methodology.
” : A Case Study of Adult Patients in the United States, 20-25 Years”
The word count rule may not apply if you strictly follow it. Each journal has its specific formatting and style guidelines. This is why it is important to review these guidelines before writing your manuscript.
Here are some tips for writing a good research paper title
Other than the above steps, here are some important tips to help you write a research article title. Formatting, word count and content are all important.
– After you’ve finished writing your abstract and paper, create the title
– Incorporate all essential terms into your paper
Keep it concise and to-the-point (16 words maximum)
Avoid unnecessary jargons, abbreviations, and acronyms
– Use keywords to describe the content in your paper
– A period should never be added to the end of a title.
Resources for Composing Research Papers
This article should have helped you craft your research paper title. However, it is worth looking into other types and formats of journal titles to see if they are better suited for you.
Our academic resources papers are a great place to start English proofreading before you submit to journals. You will find many articles about writing manuscripts, including how to create an outline and which journal you should submit it to.
