How to Write the Title for a Scientific Paper

A title is one of the most important parts of a scientific paper or article. After all, it’s what everyone sees first. Thousands of people will see or read the title of your paper. However, only a few will go on to continue reading it. 

Therefore, the title provides a chance to achieve a first good impression for your research and yourself as a researcher. The title serves many important functions. A proper title immediately informs your readers what your article or research is about.

Also, a carefully chosen title with all the right keywords makes it easy for your published paper to be indexed and searched in scientific databases and indexes such as Scopus and Web of Science. A carelessly chosen title means that your paper may never get a chance to be discovered. 

So what is a good title? A good title can be described as a label that uses as few words as possible to describe the contents of a scientific paper. In this article, I will discuss the basic principles involved in making sure you write a proper title. 

What is the title of a scientific paper?

The title of the scientific paper can be thought of as a descriptive label for a scientific report that makes it easy to identify the paper's possible content. One of the most important aspects of a title is length. There is always a danger of a title being too short. However, it is far more likely that a title is too long. Authors are often tempted to choose a lengthy title to make sure that they leave nothing out. 

To make sure that your title is the right length, focus on making it as brief as possible. This means that you should only words that are necessary to give a complete idea of what is included in your research or paper. 

This requires being careful in the words you use. For example, “Cellulolytic enzymes” is too brief a title and at the same time too broad. What about “cellulolytic enzymes did you study?  Was it its mechanism of action, structure, or both? 

A better or more accurate title would be:

The structure and mechanism of action of cellulolytic enzymes

This would suggest that your study broadly examined both the structure and mechanism of action for cellulolytic enzymes. In other words, your title should be specific.

Your title should be specific 

What does it mean for a title to be specific? It means that you should ask basic questions such as the who, what, and why of the study. In addition to that, you should think of the relationships between variables in your study and how your title can reflect that. 

There are some instances where brevity may have to be sacrificed in the name of being specific in that process. For example, “The Mediterranean diet and multi-morbidity” is too short exactly because it is not specific enough. 

 A more specific study would look like this: 

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet in Cyprus and its relationship to multi-morbidity: An epidemiological study

This is a much longer title. However, it has specific details to make its context clearer. The who here is the population of Cyprus. The Table below lays out the relationship and elements of the study.

Questions	Elements in Title
Who?	The population of Cyprus
What?	Mediterranean diet + multi-morbidity
The Relationship	Mediterranean diet → Multi-morbidity in the Cyprus population

Use proper syntax

A crucial principle of a well-written title is proper syntax. The title is often not a complete sentence and has to include much information in a brief phrase. This presents alot of opportunities for faulty syntax.

So, when writing your title, think of making sure a friend or even a professional editor goes over it. Here’s an example of faulty syntax:

Preliminary Canine and Clinical Evaluation of a New Antitumor Agent, Streptovitacin.

The title gives the impression that dogs were responsible for evaluating Streptovitacin. A more appropriate title would read as follows: 

Preliminary Evaluation of an Antitumor Agent—Streptovitacin—in Canine and Clinical Contexts

Such a title makes it clear that the study evaluated the effects of streptovitacin on dogs and humans (clinical contexts). 

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The title as a label

Another important function of the title is that it’s a label. This is true, especially for databases and indexes. Your title is the label by which your paper will be identified in databases and machine-indexing systems. 

As a result, your title normally has the following characteristics: 

• It usually is not a sentence

• You should avoid jargon or abbreviations in your title

• Use running titles in cases where the title is too long and unwieldy

In conclusion, the title is the first impression of your paper, and it serves as a label for your paper. You should take care to make sure that you strike the balance between being specific and being brief. Good luck with your research writing!

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, August 22). How to Write a Title for a Scientific Paper. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/how-to-write-the-title