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 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.

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