Transcript Chapter 4 How to Prepare the Title

Chapter 3
How to Prepare the Title
Writing and Publishing
International Journal Paper
• First impressions are strong impressions;
a title ought therefore to be well studied,
and to give, so far as its limits permit, a
definite and concise indication of what is to
come. －T. Clifford Allbutt
agenda
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Importance of the title
Length of the title
Need for specific titles
Importance of syntax
The title as a label
Abbreviations and Jargon
Series titles
Importance of the title
• That title will be read by thousands of
people.
– all words in the title should be chosen with
great care, and their association with one
another must be carefully managed.
• What is a good title?
– it as the fewest possible that adequately
describe the contents of the paper.
Length of the title
• Occasionally, titles are too short.
– It was not very helpful to the potential reader.
– it provided some information at least.
• Much more often, titles are too long.
– most excessively long titles contain “waste”
words.
• Ironically, long titles are often less
meaningful than short ones.
Need for specific titles
• Most titles that are too short because they
include general rather than specific terms.
– Action of Antibiotics on Bacteria
– Action of Streptomycin on Mycobacterium
tuberculosis
– Inhibition of Growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by
Streptomycin
Importance of syntax
• In titles, be especially careful of syntax.
• Most of the grammatical errors in titles are
due to faulty word order.
The title as a label
• The title of a paper is a label.
• The meaning and order of the words in the title
are of importance to the potential reader who
sees title in the journal table of contents.
• Most of the indexing and abstracting services
are geared to “key word” systems, generating
either KWIC（key word in context）or KWOC
（key word out of context）entries.
Abbreviations and Jargon
• Titles should almost never contain
abbreviations, chemical formulas,
proprietary names, jargon, and the like.
• Actually, the larger secondary services
have computer programs that are capable
of bringing together entries such as
deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, and even
ADN（acide deoxyribonucleique）.
Series titles
• Today, many editors believe that it is
important, especially for the reader, that
each published paper “should present the
results of an independent, cohesive study;
thus, numbered series titles are not
allowed.
• The series systems is annoying to editors
because of scheduling problems and
delays.
The end