How to Compose or Select a Title for Research Paper?
When we compose or select a title for a research paper, the following possibilities must have to be considered. A title should
- portray the paper’s contents
- discriminate from other papers which have similar topics
- grasp the reader’s concentration and interest
- be searchable on the internet so that people can find your paper and cite it
Before writing a title:
- Before writing a paper, we should do the necessary research on literature and know what the world is searching for these days and this will give us some idea about the title.
- Your title should be the mirror of your research theme. It will act like a foundation and thus needs hard work.
- Know your audience and work in that direction. If your audiences are research critics then you are supposed to give them whatever they like to read.
- It’s important to have keywords which will help your article to get ranked in searches else wise it will disappear in thousands of searches and will be forgotten
- Example for better understanding: Assume that there is a research paper about robotics. Earlier research methods depended on deterministic methods and now we have discovered the Probabilistic Pathfinding method. Now the title might be Probabilistic Path Finding: Beyond Deterministic Methods for Navigation in Rough Terrain.
- It is noticeable that the old paper contains the Deterministic method while the new paper contains the new idea of the Probabilistic Conclusively, the title composition of meaningful title is very important, which not only differentiates but also gives a proper search path for the readers seeking for the respective research paper.
Writing your title:
- Be clear and concise while writing a title.
- Your title should be around 10-16 words.
- Seo-Optimization of the title is very important. This way you will be able to rank your article thus increasing your visibility.
- It is a bad idea to choose a provoking title alone.
- For example, what are the ants doing? But if we do like this What are the ants doing? Vision-based tracking and reconstruction of control programs. Now it becomes clearer and more provocative.
- A strong and useful title for a research paper encourages people to stick around.
- For example, ‘GRAMMPS: A generalized mission planner for multiple robots in unstructured environments.’ If people wish to read titles that contain a colon. i.e. two-part description of the paper title, then you should go for that idea. Household robotics: autonomous devices for vacuuming and lawn mowing
Do’s and Don’ts of Title:
Do’s:
- Avoid using passive voice in your title.
- Every first letter of the title should be capitalised.
- Don’t add unnecessary colons and commas.
Don’ts:
- Avoid using unscientific language.
- Overuse of commas and colons should be avoided.
- Don’t add results to your title that are not discussed in your paper.
Conclusion:
Following these steps will not only rank your title of research but will also make your article readable to thousands of students worldwide. Remember the foundation of the article and your success depends on it.
you are doing a great work .. keep it up 😀
very educational post.. thanks for sharing