Every paper has a title. This is the first thing readers see when doing a literature review. This is also the last thing people see if they don't like the paper and decide not to continue reading it.
In today's academic landscape with publication influx, researchers do not have time to read all newly published works. Instead, when monitoring the literature, they make split-second decisions to click or not to click on a particular paper. The title of a paper is usually the decisive factor in this selection process.
Yet, we often leave the work on the title for last, not paying enough attention to this crucial part of the paper. Today I want to talk about the art of writing good effective titles for research papers.
Useful links:
1. Nature journal formatting guide www.nature.com/nature/for-authors/formatting-guide
2. How to write a good research paper title www.nature.com/nature-index/news/how-to-write-a-good-research-science-academic-paper-title
3. Recent Nature Energy publications www.nature.com/nenergy/research-articles
00:00 Intro
02:54 Avoid: abbreviations and acronyms
06:47 Avoid: long titles
12:48 Use short concise titles
15:46 Start with a question
19:03 Start with an action
20:40 Don’t overhype
21:18 Examples from Nature journal
25:51 How I monitor new papers
28:36 Final thoughts
Andrey Churkin (Андрей Чуркин) 2024
andreychurkin.ru/