CHOOSING A RESEARCH TITLE

SYNOPTICAL OUTLINE:
a) Introduction
b) How to choose a title
c) Characteristics of a good title
d) Types of titles
e) Drafting a suitable title

INTRODUCTION

The first thing journal editors and reviewers will see upon receiving your research
paper is the title, and will immediately form a view on what they should expect in
your research paper. Moreover, the tile of your research paper is the only aspect
that will be freely available to readers through search engines or indexing
databases. It is therefore imperative that you write a clear, persuasive title that
leads readers to know more about your research.

A title is the main organizing principle guiding the analysis of your research paper.
Titles offer us an occasion for writing and a focus that governs what we want to
say. Titles represent the core subject matter of scholarly communication, and the
means by which we arrive at other topics of conversations and discover new
knowledge.
HOW TO BEGIN: YOUR PROFESSOR LEAVES IT UP TO YOU
TO CHOOSE A TOPIC

1. Under this scenario, the key process is turning an idea or general thought into a
topic that can be cast as a research problem. When given an assignment where you
choose the research topic, don't begin by thinking about what to write about, but
rather, ask yourself the question, "What do I want to know?" Treat an open-ended
assignment as an opportunity to learn about something that's new or exciting to
you.

2. If you lack ideas, or wish to gain focus, try some or all of the following
strategies:

 Review your course readings, particularly the suggested readings, for topic
ideas. Don't just review what you've already read but jump ahead in the
syllabus to readings that have not been covered yet.
 Search the library Catalog for a good, recent introductory book and, if
appropriate, more specialized works related to the discipline area of the
course.
 Browse through some current journals in your subject discipline. Even if
most of the articles are not relevant, you can skim through the contents
quickly. You only need one to be the spark that begins the process of
wanting to learn more about a topic. Consult a librarian or your professor
about the core journals within your subject discipline.
 Think about essays you have written for past classes and other coursework
you have taken or academic lectures and programs you have attended.
Thinking back, what most interested you? What would you like to know
more about?
  Search online media sources, such as Journals, Book Reviews, Seminar
Publications, Research Articles or Newspaper Articles, to see if your idea
has been covered in the news. Use this coverage to refine your idea into
something that you'd like to investigate further but in a more deliberate,
scholarly way based on a problem to research.

3. To build upon your initial idea, use the suggestions below to help narrow,
broaden, or increase the timeliness of your idea so you can write it out as a
research problem.

TIPS ON WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER TITLE

When you are searching for a research study on a particular topic, you probably
notice that articles with interesting, descriptive research titles draw you in. By
contrast, research paper titles that are not descriptive are usually passed over, even
though they may be good research papers with interesting contents. This shows the
importance of coming up with a good title for your research paper when drafting
your own manuscript.

WHY DO RESEARCH TITLES MATTER?

Before we look at how to title a research paper, let’s look at a research title
example that illustrates why a good research paper should have a strong title.

Imagine that you are researching meditation and nursing, and you want to find out
if any studies have shown that meditation makes nurses better communicators.
You conduct a keyword search using the keywords “nursing”, “communication”,
and “meditation.” You come up with results that have the following titles:
 1. Benefits of Meditation for the Nursing Profession: A Quantitative
Investigation
2. Why Mindful Nurses Make the Best Communicators
3. Meditation Gurus
4. Nurses on the Move: A Quantitative Report on How Meditation Can
Improve Nurse Performance

All four of these titles may describe very similar studies—they could even be titles
for the same study! As you can see, they give very different impressions.

 Title 1 describes the topic and the method of the study but is not particularly
catchy.
 Title 2 partly describes the topic, but does not give any information about
the method of the study—it could simply be a theoretical or opinion piece.
 Title 3 is somewhat catchier but gives almost no information at all about the
article.
 Title 4 begins with a catchy main title and is followed by a subtitle that gives
information about the content and method of the study.

As we will see, Title 4 has all the characteristics of a good research title.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD RESEARCH TITLE

According to rhetoric scholars Hairston and Keene, making a good title for a paper
involves ensuring that the title of the research accomplishes four goals as
mentioned below:

1. It should predict the content of the research paper.

2. It should be interesting to the reader.
 3. It should reflect the tone of the writing.
4. It should contain important keywords that will make it easier to be located
during a keyword search.

Let’s return to the examples in the previous section to see if they meet these four
criteria.

Predicts Important
Interesting Reflect
Title content keywords
? s tone?
? ?

Benefits of Meditation for the

Nursing Profession: A
Quantitative Investigation Yes No No Yes

Why Mindful Nurses Make the

Best Communicators No Yes Yes No

Meditation Gurus
No Yes No No

Nurses on the Move: A Yes Yes Yes Yes

Quantitative Report on How
Meditation Can Improve Nurse
 Performance

As you can see in the table above, only one of the four example titles fulfills all of
the criteria of a suitable research paper title.

TIPS FOR WRITING AN EFFECTIVE RESEARCH PAPER

TITLE

When writing a research title, you can use the four criteria listed above as a guide.
Here are a few other tips you can use to make sure your title will be part of the
recipe for an effective research paper:

1. Make sure your research title describes (a) the topic, (b) the method, (c) the
sample, and (d) the results of your study. You can use the following formula:

(Result): A (Method) study of (topic) among (Sample)

Example: Mediation makes nurses perform better: a qualitative study of

mindfulness mediation among Kenyan nursing students

2. Avoid unnecessary words and jargons. Keep the title statement as concise as
possible. You want a title that will be comprehensible even to people who
are not experts in your field. Check our article for a detailed list of things to
avoid when writing an effective research title.
3. Make sure your title is between 5 and 15 words in length.
4. If you are writing a title for a university assignment or for a particular
academic journal, verify that your title conforms to the standards and
requirements for that outlet. For example, many journals require that titles
 fall under a character limit, including spaces. Many universities require that
titles take a very specific form, limiting your creativity.
5. Use a descriptive phrase to convey the purpose of your research efficiently.
6. Most importantly, use critical keywords in the title to increase the
discoverability of your article.

TYPES OF TITLES

Titles can be descriptive, declarative, or interrogative. They can also be classified

as nominal, compound, or full-sentence titles.

DESCRIPTIVE OR NEUTRAL TITLE

This has the essential elements of the research theme, that is, the patients/subjects,
design, interventions, comparisons/control, and outcome, but does not reveal the
main result or the conclusion. Such a title allows the reader to interpret the findings
of the research paper in an impartial manner and with an open mind. These titles
also give complete information about the contents of the article, have several
keywords (thus increasing the visibility of the article in search engines), and have
increased chances of being read and (then) being cited as well. Hence, such
descriptive titles giving a glimpse of the paper are generally preferred.

DECLARATIVE TITLE

This title states the main finding of the study in the title itself; it reduces the
curiosity of the reader, may point toward a bias on the part of the author, and hence
is best avoided.
INTERROGATIVE TITLE

This is the one which has a query or the research question in the title. Though a
query in the title has the ability to sensationalize the topic, and has more
downloads (but less citations), it can be distracting to the reader and is again best
avoided for a research article (but can, at times, be used for a review article).

From a sentence construct point of view, titles may be nominal (capturing only the
main theme of the study), compound (with subtitles to provide additional relevant
information such as context, design, location/country, temporal aspect, sample
size, importance, and a provocative or a literary; for example, see the title of this
review), or full-sentence titles (which are longer and indicate an added degree of
certainty of the results). Any of these constructs may be used depending on the
type of article, the key message, and the author's preference or judgement.

DRAFTING A SUITABLE TITLE

A stepwise process can be followed to draft the appropriate title. The author should
describe the paper in about three sentences, avoiding the results and ensuring that
these sentences contain important scientific words/keywords that describe the main
contents and subject of the paper. Then the author should join the sentences to
form a single sentence, shorten the length (by removing redundant words or
adjectives or phrases), and finally edit the title (thus drafted) to make it more
accurate, concise (about 10–15 words), and precise. Some journals require that the
study design be included in the title, and this may be placed (using a colon) after
the primary title.

The title should try to incorporate the Patients, Interventions, Comparisons and
Outcome (PICO). The place of the study may be included in the title (if absolutely
necessary), that is, if the patient characteristics (such as study population,
socioeconomic conditions, or cultural practices) are expected to vary as per the
country (or the place of the study) and have a bearing on the possible outcomes.
Lengthy titles can be boring and appear unfocused, whereas very short titles may
not be representative of the contents of the article; hence, optimum length is
required to ensure that the title explains the main theme and content of the
manuscript.

Abbreviations (except the standard or commonly interpreted ones such as HIV,

AIDS, DNA, RNA, CDC, FDA, ECG, and EEG) or acronyms should be avoided in
the title, as a reader not familiar with them may skip such an article and
nonstandard abbreviations may create problems in indexing the article. Also, too
much of technical jargon or chemical formulas in the title may confuse the readers
and the article may be skipped by them.

Numerical values of various parameters (stating study period or sample size)

should also be avoided in the titles (unless deemed extremely essential). It may be
worthwhile to take an opinion from an impartial colleague before finalizing the
title. Thus, multiple factors (which are, at times, a bit conflicting or contrasting)
need to be considered while formulating a title, and hence this should not be done
in a hurry. Many journals ask the authors to draft a “short title” or “running head”
or “running title” for printing in the header or footer of the printed paper. This is an
abridged version of the main title of up to 40–50 characters, may have standard
abbreviations, and helps the reader to navigate through the paper.

CHECKLIST FOR A GOOD TITLE

Below is a checklist/useful tips for drafting a good title for a research paper. Table
2 presents some of the titles used by the author of this article in his earlier research
papers, and the appropriateness of the titles has been commented upon. As an
individual exercise, the reader may try to improvise upon the titles (further) after
reading the corresponding abstract and full paper.

CHECKLIST/USEFUL TIPS FOR DRAFTING A GOOD TITLE FOR A

RESEARCH PAPER

1. The title needs to be simple and direct

2. It should be interesting and informative

3. It should be specific, accurate, and functional (with essential scientific

“keywords” for indexing)

4. It should be concise, precise, and should include the main theme of the
paper

5. It should not be misleading or misrepresentative

6. It should not be too long or too short (or cryptic)

7. It should avoid whimsical or amusing words

8. It should avoid nonstandard abbreviations and unnecessary acronyms (or

 technical jargon)

9. Title should be SPICED, that is, it should include Setting, Population,

Intervention, Condition, End-point, and Design

10.Place of the study and sample size should be mentioned only if it adds to
the scientific value of the title

11.Important terms/keywords should be placed in the beginning of the title

12.Descriptive titles are preferred to declarative or interrogative titles

13.Authors should adhere to the word count and other instructions as

specified by the target journal