Rules to Entitle Research Paper

Most of the readers will select an article, paper or a book judging from its title. And no matter what kind of content is hidden behind the heading, if the latter isn’t hackneyed, even the most captivating plot may remain undiscovered.

But when it goes about scientific research paper entries, it’s not only title informativeness that matters. There are more important aspects to keep in mind.

Make research paper title a self-sustainable one

A title isn’t just a logical beginning of the paper. In fact, it’s a paper in itself though in a very concise form. Simply put, research paper heading should reflect the subject and the main purpose of the whole scientific work. If the title, taken separately from the content, doesn’t give an idea about the paper, it won’t attract readers’ attention either.

Long or short title? - Make the one required by research paper type

Many think that the shorter heading is, the more attractive it looks. Not always. Generally, all titles are divided into three categories: topic or nominal titles, statement or compound and sentence-long headings. Normally, nominal titles, that are the ones consisting of a few words, usually nouns, are the most popular. They are brief and laconic, but provide little information about the paper. Thus, they are more characteristic of an entertaining genre of writing.

However, sentence-long titles aren’t peculiar for all research papers either. If, you’ve got an extended psychology research, for instance, then full-sentence heading is the best way to give a reader a focus of your paper. But in the rest of the cases up to 10-word long titles are preferable.

Use appropriate language

Writing a title for a research paper many limit themselves to a formal tone only. However, there are more “dos and don’ts” in crafting linguistically-correct heading for a research paper.

Here is what you should do, when writing research paper title:

Use scientific terms or words that define the nature of the research paper
Use words or phrases that invite a reader to have a closer look at your research paper
Use proper articles
Make all notional words of the title capitalized

And here is what can spoil your title and make it incorrect in terms of language use:

Misuse of punctuation. While commas and even exclamatory mark are allowed to use in a title, other signs of punctuation such as semicolon and slash are forbidden
Use of abbreviations
Quotation marks that capture the whole title

Remember that title is the first thing read. So, make it powerful using the rules above.