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Research Paper Title – Writing Guide and Example

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Research Paper Title

Research Paper Title

Research Paper Title is the name or heading that summarizes the main theme or topic of a research paper . It serves as the first point of contact between the reader and the paper, providing an initial impression of the content, purpose, and scope of the research . A well-crafted research paper title should be concise, informative, and engaging, accurately reflecting the key elements of the study while also capturing the reader’s attention and interest. The title should be clear and easy to understand, and it should accurately convey the main focus and scope of the research paper.

Examples of Research Paper Title

Here are some Good Examples of Research Paper Title:

  • “Investigating the Relationship Between Sleep Duration and Academic Performance Among College Students”
  • “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Employment: A Systematic Review”
  • “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “Exploring the Effects of Social Support on Mental Health in Patients with Chronic Illness”
  • “Assessing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
  • “The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Consumer Behavior: A Systematic Review”
  • “Investigating the Link Between Personality Traits and Leadership Effectiveness”
  • “The Effect of Parental Incarceration on Child Development: A Longitudinal Study”
  • “Exploring the Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence and Cross-Cultural Adaptation: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “Assessing the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Chronic Pain Management”.
  • “The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “The Impact of Climate Change on Global Crop Yields: A Longitudinal Study”
  • “Exploring the Relationship between Parental Involvement and Academic Achievement in Elementary School Students”
  • “The Ethics of Genetic Editing: A Review of Current Research and Implications for Society”
  • “Understanding the Role of Gender in Leadership: A Comparative Study of Male and Female CEOs”
  • “The Effect of Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial”
  • “The Impacts of COVID-19 on Mental Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison”
  • “Assessing the Effectiveness of Online Learning Platforms: A Case Study of Coursera”
  • “Exploring the Link between Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance”
  • “The Effects of Income Inequality on Social Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of OECD Countries”
  • “Exploring the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Mental Health in Adolescents”
  • “The Impact of Climate Change on Crop Yield: A Case Study of Maize Production in Sub-Saharan Africa”
  • “Examining the Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-Analysis”
  • “An Analysis of the Relationship Between Employee Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment”
  • “Assessing the Impacts of Wilderness Areas on Local Economies: A Case Study of Yellowstone National Park”
  • “The Role of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education: A Review of the Literature”
  • “Investigating the Effects of Technology on Learning in Higher Education”
  • “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Opportunities and Challenges”
  • “A Study of the Relationship Between Personality Traits and Leadership Styles in Business Organizations”.

How to choose Research Paper Title

Choosing a research paper title is an important step in the research process. A good title can attract readers and convey the essence of your research in a concise and clear manner. Here are some tips on how to choose a research paper title:

  • Be clear and concise: A good title should convey the main idea of your research in a clear and concise manner. Avoid using jargon or technical language that may be confusing to readers.
  • Use keywords: Including keywords in your title can help readers find your paper when searching for related topics. Use specific, descriptive terms that accurately describe your research.
  • Be descriptive: A descriptive title can help readers understand what your research is about. Use adjectives and adverbs to convey the main ideas of your research.
  • Consider the audience : Think about the audience for your paper and choose a title that will appeal to them. If your paper is aimed at a specialized audience, you may want to use technical terms or jargon in your title.
  • Avoid being too general or too specific : A title that is too general may not convey the specific focus of your research, while a title that is too specific may not be of interest to a broader audience. Strive for a title that accurately reflects the focus of your research without being too narrow or too broad.
  • Make it interesting : A title that is interesting or provocative can capture the attention of readers and draw them into your research. Use humor, wordplay, or other creative techniques to make your title stand out.
  • Seek feedback: Ask colleagues or advisors for feedback on your title. They may be able to offer suggestions or identify potential problems that you hadn’t considered.

Purpose of Research Paper Title

The research paper title serves several important purposes, including:

  • Identifying the subject matter : The title of a research paper should clearly and accurately identify the topic or subject matter that the paper addresses. This helps readers quickly understand what the paper is about.
  • Catching the reader’s attention : A well-crafted title can grab the reader’s attention and make them interested in reading the paper. This is particularly important in academic settings where there may be many papers on the same topic.
  • Providing context: The title can provide important context for the research paper by indicating the specific area of study, the research methods used, or the key findings.
  • Communicating the scope of the paper: A good title can give readers an idea of the scope and depth of the research paper. This can help them decide if the paper is relevant to their interests or research.
  • Indicating the research question or hypothesis : The title can often indicate the research question or hypothesis that the paper addresses, which can help readers understand the focus of the research and the main argument or conclusion of the paper.

Advantages of Research Paper Title

The title of a research paper is an important component that can have several advantages, including:

  • Capturing the reader’s attention : A well-crafted research paper title can grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to read further. A captivating title can also increase the visibility of the paper and attract more readers.
  • Providing a clear indication of the paper’s focus: A well-written research paper title should clearly convey the main focus and purpose of the study. This helps potential readers quickly determine whether the paper is relevant to their interests.
  • Improving discoverability: A descriptive title that includes relevant keywords can improve the discoverability of the research paper in search engines and academic databases, making it easier for other researchers to find and cite.
  • Enhancing credibility : A clear and concise title can enhance the credibility of the research and the author. A title that accurately reflects the content of the paper can increase the confidence readers have in the research findings.
  • Facilitating communication: A well-written research paper title can facilitate communication among researchers, enabling them to quickly and easily identify relevant studies and engage in discussions related to the topic.
  • Making the paper easier to remember : An engaging and memorable research paper title can help readers remember the paper and its findings. This can be especially important in fields where researchers are constantly inundated with new information and need to quickly recall important studies.
  • Setting expectations: A good research paper title can set expectations for the reader and help them understand what the paper will cover. This can be especially important for readers who are unfamiliar with the topic or the research area.
  • Guiding research: A well-crafted research paper title can also guide future research by highlighting gaps in the current literature or suggesting new areas for investigation.
  • Demonstrating creativity: A creative research paper title can demonstrate the author’s creativity and originality, which can be appealing to readers and other researchers.

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Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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How to Make a Research Paper Title with Examples

what is a good title for a research essay

What is a research paper title and why does it matter?

A research paper title summarizes the aim and purpose of your research study. Making a title for your research is one of the most important decisions when writing an article to publish in journals. The research title is the first thing that journal editors and reviewers see when they look at your paper and the only piece of information that fellow researchers will see in a database or search engine query. Good titles that are concise and contain all the relevant terms have been shown to increase citation counts and Altmetric scores .

Therefore, when you title research work, make sure it captures all of the relevant aspects of your study, including the specific topic and problem being investigated. It also should present these elements in a way that is accessible and will captivate readers. Follow these steps to learn how to make a good research title for your work.

How to Make a Research Paper Title in 5 Steps

You might wonder how you are supposed to pick a title from all the content that your manuscript contains—how are you supposed to choose? What will make your research paper title come up in search engines and what will make the people in your field read it? 

In a nutshell, your research title should accurately capture what you have done, it should sound interesting to the people who work on the same or a similar topic, and it should contain the important title keywords that other researchers use when looking for literature in databases. To make the title writing process as simple as possible, we have broken it down into 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Answer some key questions about your research paper

What does your paper seek to answer and what does it accomplish? Try to answer these questions as briefly as possible. You can create these questions by going through each section of your paper and finding the MOST relevant information to make a research title.

“What is my paper about?”  
“What methods/techniques did I use to perform my study?
“What or who was the subject of my study?” 
“What did I find?”

Step 2: Identify research study keywords

Now that you have answers to your research questions, find the most important parts of these responses and make these your study keywords. Note that you should only choose the most important terms for your keywords–journals usually request anywhere from 3 to 8 keywords maximum.

-program volume
-liver transplant patients
-waiting lists
-outcomes
-case study

-US/age 20-50
-60 cases

-positive correlation between waitlist volume and negative outcomes

Step 3: Research title writing: use these keywords

“We employed a case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years to assess how waiting list volume affects the outcomes of liver transplantation in patients; results indicate a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and negative prognosis after the transplant procedure.”

The sentence above is clearly much too long for a research paper title. This is why you will trim and polish your title in the next two steps.

Step 4: Create a working research paper title

To create a working title, remove elements that make it a complete “sentence” but keep everything that is important to what the study is about. Delete all unnecessary and redundant words that are not central to the study or that researchers would most likely not use in a database search.

“ We employed a case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years to assess how the waiting list volume affects the outcome of liver transplantation in patients ; results indicate a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis after transplant procedure ”

Now shift some words around for proper syntax and rephrase it a bit to shorten the length and make it leaner and more natural. What you are left with is:

“A case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcome of transplantation and showing a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis” (Word Count: 38)

This text is getting closer to what we want in a research title, which is just the most important information. But note that the word count for this working title is still 38 words, whereas the average length of published journal article titles is 16 words or fewer. Therefore, we should eliminate some words and phrases that are not essential to this title.

Step 5: Remove any nonessential words and phrases from your title

Because the number of patients studied and the exact outcome are not the most essential parts of this paper, remove these elements first:

 “A case study of 60 liver transplant patients around the US aged 20-50 years assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcomes of transplantation and showing a positive correlation between increased waiting list volume and a negative prognosis” (Word Count: 19)

In addition, the methods used in a study are not usually the most searched-for keywords in databases and represent additional details that you may want to remove to make your title leaner. So what is left is:

“Assessing the impact of waiting list volume on outcome and prognosis in liver transplantation patients” (Word Count: 15)

In this final version of the title, one can immediately recognize the subject and what objectives the study aims to achieve. Note that the most important terms appear at the beginning and end of the title: “Assessing,” which is the main action of the study, is placed at the beginning; and “liver transplantation patients,” the specific subject of the study, is placed at the end.

This will aid significantly in your research paper title being found in search engines and database queries, which means that a lot more researchers will be able to locate your article once it is published. In fact, a 2014 review of more than 150,000 papers submitted to the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) database found the style of a paper’s title impacted the number of citations it would typically receive. In most disciplines, articles with shorter, more concise titles yielded more citations.

Adding a Research Paper Subtitle

If your title might require a subtitle to provide more immediate details about your methodology or sample, you can do this by adding this information after a colon:

“ : a case study of US adult patients ages 20-25”

If we abide strictly by our word count rule this may not be necessary or recommended. But every journal has its own standard formatting and style guidelines for research paper titles, so it is a good idea to be aware of the specific journal author instructions , not just when you write the manuscript but also to decide how to create a good title for it.

Research Paper Title Examples

The title examples in the following table illustrate how a title can be interesting but incomplete, complete by uninteresting, complete and interesting but too informal in tone, or some other combination of these. A good research paper title should meet all the requirements in the four columns below.

Advantages of Meditation for Nurses: A Longitudinal StudyYesNoNoYesYes
Why Focused Nurses Have the Highest Nursing ResultsNoYesYesNoYes
A Meditation Study Aimed at Hospital NursesNoNoNoNoYes
Mindfulness on the Night Shift: A Longitudinal Study on the Impacts of Meditation on Nurse ProductivityYesYesYesYesNo
Injective Mindfulness: Quantitative Measurements of Medication on Nurse Productivity YesYesYesYesYes

Tips on Formulating a Good Research Paper Title

In addition to the steps given above, there are a few other important things you want to keep in mind when it comes to how to write a research paper title, regarding formatting, word count, and content:

  • Write the title after you’ve written your paper and abstract
  • Include all of the essential terms in your paper
  • Keep it short and to the point (~16 words or fewer)
  • Avoid unnecessary jargon and abbreviations
  • Use keywords that capture the content of your paper
  • Never include a period at the end—your title is NOT a sentence

Research Paper Writing Resources

We hope this article has been helpful in teaching you how to craft your research paper title. But you might still want to dig deeper into different journal title formats and categories that might be more suitable for specific article types or need help with writing a cover letter for your manuscript submission.

In addition to getting English proofreading services , including paper editing services , before submission to journals, be sure to visit our academic resources papers. Here you can find dozens of articles on manuscript writing, from drafting an outline to finding a target journal to submit to.

Enago Academy

6 Important Tips on Writing a Research Paper Title

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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 you may write a good research paper with interesting contents. This shows the importance of coming up with a good title for your research paper when drafting your own manuscript.

Importance of a Research Title

The research title plays a crucial role in the research process, and its importance can be summarized as follows:

Importance of a Research Title

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:

  • Benefits of Meditation for the Nursing Profession: A Quantitative Investigation
  • Why Mindful Nurses Make the Best Communicators
  • Meditation Gurus
  • Nurses on the Move: A Quantitative Report on How Meditation Can Improve Nurse Performance

All four of these research paper 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:

  • It should predict the content of the research paper .
  • It should be interesting to the reader .
  • It should reflect the tone of the writing .
  • 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 how to make a research title.

Title Predicts content? Interesting? Reflects tone? Important keywords?

Yes No No Yes

No Yes Yes No

No Yes No No

Yes Yes Yes Yes

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.

Related: You’ve chosen your study topic, but having trouble deciding where to publish it? Here’s a comprehensive course to help you identify the right journal .

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 :

  • 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 : Meditation makes nurses perform better: a qualitative study of mindfulness meditation among German nursing students
  • 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 .
  • Make sure your title is between 5 and 15 words in length.
  • 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.
  • Use a descriptive phrase to convey the purpose of your research efficiently.
  • Most importantly, use critical keywords in the title to increase the discoverability of your article.

what is a good title for a research essay

Resources for Further Reading

In addition to the tips above, there are many resources online that you can use to help write your research title. Here is a list of links that you may find useful as you work on creating an excellent research title:

  • The University of Southern California has a guide specific to social science research papers: http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/title
  • The Journal of European Psychology Students has a blog article focusing on APA-compliant research paper titles: http://blog.efpsa.org/2012/09/01/how-to-write-a-good-title-for-journal-articles/
  • This article by Kristen Hamlin contains a step-by-step approach to writing titles: http://classroom.synonym.com/choose-title-research-paper-4332.html

Are there any tips or tricks you find useful in crafting research titles? Which tip did you find most useful in this article? Leave a comment to let us know!

  • Hairston, M., & Keene, M. 2003. Successful writing . 5th ed. New York: Norton.
  • University of Southern California. 2017. Organizing your social sciences research paper: choosing a title . [Online] Available at: http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/title

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Thank you so much:) Have a nice day!

Thank you so much, it helped me.. God bless..

Thank you for the excellent article and tips for creating a research work, because I always forget about such an essential element as the keywords when forming topics. In particular, I have found a rapid help with the formation of informative and sound titles that also conforms to the standards and requirements.

I am doing a research work on sales girls or shop girls using qualititative method. Basicly I am from Pakistan and writing on the scenario of mycountry. I am really confused about my research title can you kindly give some suggestions and give me an approperaite tilte

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Hi Zubair, Thank you for your question. However, the information you have provided is insufficient for drafting an appropriate title. Information on what exactly you intend to study would be needed in order to draft a meaningful title. Meanwhile, you can try drafting your own title after going through the following articles our website: https://www.enago.com/academy/top-10-tips-on-choosing-an-attractive-research-title/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/writing-a-good-research-title-things-to-avoid/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/write-irresistible-research-paper-title/ We would be happy to give you feedback and suggest changes if required. Did you get a chance to install our free Mobile App? https://www.enago.com/academy/mobile-app/ . Make sure you subscribe to our weekly newsletter https://www.enago.com/academy/subscribe-now/ .

thanks for helping me like this!!

Thank you for this. It helped me improve my research title. I just want to verify to you the title I have just made. “Ensuring the safety: A Quantitative Study of Radio Frequency Identification system among the selected students of ( school’s name ).

(I need your reply asap coz we will be doing the chap. 1 tomorrow. Thank u in advance. 🙂 )

I am actually doing a research paper title. I want to know more further in doing research title. Can you give me some tips on doing a research paper?

Hi Joan, Thank you for your question. We are glad to know that you found our resources useful. Your feedback is very valuable to us. You can try drafting your own title after going through the following articles on our website: https://www.enago.com/academy/top-10-tips-on-choosing-an-attractive-research-title/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/writing-a-good-research-title-things-to-avoid/ , https://www.enago.com/academy/write-irresistible-research-paper-title/

We would be happy to give you feedback and suggest changes if required. Did you get a chance to install our free Mobile App? https://www.enago.com/academy/mobile-app/ . Make sure you subscribe to our weekly newsletter https://www.enago.com/academy/subscribe-now/ .

That really helpful. Thanks alot

Thank you so much. It’s really help me.

Thanks for sharing this tips. Title matters a lot for any article because it contents Keywords of article. It should be eye-catchy. Your article is helpful to select title of any article.

nice blog that you have shared

This blog is very informative for me. Thanks for sharing.

nice information that you have shared

i’m found in selecting my ma thesis title ,so i’m going to do my final research after the proposal approved. Your post help me find good title.

I need help. I need a research title for my study about early mobilization of the mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thank you for posting your query on the website. When writing manuscripts, too many scholars neglect the research title. This phrase, along with the abstract, is what people will mostly see and read online. Title research of publications shows that the research paper title does matter a lot. Both bibliometrics and altmetrics tracking of citations are now, for better or worse, used to gauge a paper’s “success” for its author(s) and the journal publishing it. Interesting research topics coupled with good or clever yet accurate research titles can draw more attention to your work from peers and the public alike. You can check through the following search results for titles on similar topics: https://www.google.com/search?q=early+mobilization+of+the+mechanically+ventilated+patients+in+the+icu&rlz=1C1GCEU_enIN907IN907&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59.4920093j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 .

We hope this would be helpful in drafting an attractive title for your research paper.

Please let us know in case of any other queries.

I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours these days, but I never found any interesting article like yours. It is lovely worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made just right content material as you did, the internet will be much more helpful than ever before.

Wonderful article! We will bee linking to this particularly great post on our site. Keep up the good writing.

Wow that was odd. I just wrote an very long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say fantastic blog!

In case the topic is new research before you’re writing. And then to stand out, you end up being different.and be inclined to highlight yourself.

There are many free directories, and more paid lists.

To be honest your article is informative. I search many site to know about writing but I didn’t get the information I needed. I saw your site and I read it. I got some new information from here. I think some of your tips can be applied to those too! Thank you so very much for such informative and useful content.

Nice and well written content you have shared with us. thanks a lot!

Thanks for sharing these tips… Rockwide

Its helpful. a person can grab knowledge through it.

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what is a good title for a research essay

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How to Write a Good Research Paper Title: Tips and Examples

Learn how to create good titles for research papers with our comprehensive guide. Discover tips, techniques, and examples to make your research stand out.

what is a good title for a research essay

Kate Windsor

Jun 16, 2024

How to Write a Good Research Paper Title: Tips and Examples

Writing a research paper is a crucial part of academic life, but crafting a compelling title can be just as important as the content itself. A good research paper title not only captures the essence of your work but also attracts potential readers and helps your paper stand out in a sea of academic literature. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the importance of good titles for research papers, provide tips on creating effective titles, and share examples to inspire your own title-writing process.

Understanding the Importance of a Research Paper Title

Why a good research paper title matters.

A suitable research paper title matters because:

a) It draws readers in and makes a research study stand out.

b) An effective research paper title is less likely to be overlooked.

c) It contributes to the professionalism and impact of the research.

According to a study by Jamali and Nikzad (2011), articles with shorter titles tend to be downloaded more often than those with longer titles. This highlights the importance of creating concise and engaging titles for your research papers.

Dr. John Smith, a renowned professor of psychology, states on research titles, "The title of a research paper is the first thing that readers, including peer reviewers and journal editors, will see. It's crucial to make a strong first impression with a clear, concise, and compelling title."

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The role of a title in a research paper

A research title plays a critical role in the research process as it:

a) Facilitates the dissemination of knowledge.

b) Contributes to the professionalism and impact of the research.

c) Serves as a critical component of the overall research communication process.

Moreover, a well-crafted and good title or a good research title can increase the chances of your research paper being accepted for publication in your target journal or a reputable journal. Editors and reviewers often use the title as a first screening tool to determine the relevance and quality of the research.

Crafting a Compelling Research Paper Title

what is a good title for a research essay

Identifying research study keywords for a strong title

Research titles matter. The best research paper title starts with:

a) Finding the most important parts of your research questions.

b) Choosing only the most important terms for your keywords.

c) Drawing 3 to 8 keywords maximum, avoiding very lengthy titles.

When selecting keywords for your research paper title, consider using tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to identify high-traffic, relevant keywords in your field of study.

Look at social science research papers or for example, looking at a research paper in the field of environmental science might have a title like: "The Impact of Deforestation on Biodiversity: A Meta-Analysis of Neotropical Rainforests." This title effectively uses keywords such as "deforestation," "biodiversity," and "Neotropical rainforests" to convey the main focus of the research.

Using keywords to create a working research paper title

Descriptive research titles draw keywords.

a) Use the identified keywords to create a research title

b) Ensure the title accurately captures what you have done

c) Keep the title concise and relevant

Easily pronounces technical words in any field

Characteristics of Effective Research Paper Titles

Key qualities of a good research paper title.

A good research title should have the elements below to make it stand out.

a) A good research title should be concise and to the point

b) Accurately reflects or the research title describes the content of the research paper.

c) Easy to understand and remember.

d) Unique and not easily confused with other research titles.

What makes a research paper title stand out

A good title should:

a. Predict the content of the research paper.

b. Be interesting to the reader.

c. Reflect the tone of the writing.

d. Contain important keywords for easier location during a keyword search.

Supporting Evidence:

A study by Habibzadeh and Yadollahie (2010) found that articles with questions in their titles are more likely to be cited than those without. Consider incorporating a question into your research paper title to pique readers' curiosity and encourage engagement.

For instance, a research paper in a particular academic journal like the field of psychology might have a title like: "Can Mindfulness Meditation Reduce Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression? A Randomized Controlled Trial." This title effectively uses a question to grab the reader's attention and clearly conveys the main focus of the research.

Writing a Research Paper Title that Grabs Attention

what is a good title for a research essay

Techniques for crafting a compelling research paper title

a) Use a clear and concise format, such as [method] study of [topic] among [sample].

b) Use keywords from the research topic to make the title more discoverable.

c) Keep the title short and to the point, avoiding unnecessary words or phrases.

When writing your research paper title, consider the writing tips and best practices for writing scientific papers to ensure your title is effective and engaging.

Avoiding common mistakes in research paper titles

a) Avoid using abbreviations or acronyms unless they are commonly used in the field and are essential to convey the research focus.

b) Eliminate any nonessential words and phrases from your title.

c) Aim for a word count of 16 words or fewer.

The Role of Subtitles in Research Paper Titles

When to use a subtitle and how to write one effectively.

Add a subtitle after a colon to provide more immediate details about methodology or sample. Be aware of the specific journal author instructions for research paper titles.

If your research paper includes an annex , consider mentioning it in the subtitle to provide additional context for your readers.

Examples of Good Research Paper Titles

Analyzing effective research paper titles.

Titles can be interesting but incomplete, complete but uninteresting, or too informal in tone

Examples of research paper titles that work

Good titles that are concise and contain all relevant terms increase citation counts and Altmetric scores.

Here are a few examples of effective research paper titles:

  • " The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: A Systematic Review ". This title effectively uses keywords such as "social media," "adolescent," and "mental health" to convey the main focus of the research. The use of "systematic review" indicates the comprehensive nature of the study.
  • " Exploring the Relationship Between Exercise and Cognitive Function in Older Adults ". This title clearly states the main variables being investigated (exercise and cognitive function) and the specific population (older adults). It is concise and easy to understand.
  • " Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Chronic Pain Management ". This title effectively communicates the intervention being studied (mindfulness-based stress reduction) and the specific application (chronic pain management). It is specific and informative.
  • " The Role of Exosomes in Cancer Progression: A Comprehensive Review ". This title uses keywords such as "exosomes" and "cancer progression" to convey the main focus of the research. The use of "comprehensive review" indicates the depth and breadth of the study.
  • " Machine Learning Approaches for Predicting Stock Market Trends: A Comparative Analysis ". This title effectively communicates the main techniques being investigated (machine learning approaches) and the specific application (predicting stock market trends). The use of "comparative analysis" suggests that different approaches will be evaluated and compared.

Refining Your Research Paper Title

Refining your title: removing nonessential words and phrases.

Eliminate any nonessential words and phrases from your title and keep the title concise and relevant. Aim for a word count of 16 words or fewer.

Getting feedback on your research paper title

Consider delegating your most complex tasks to skilled writers. Get feedback from peers, mentors, or editors to refine your title.

When refining your research paper title, consider the order of authors and how it may impact the perceived importance of each contributor.

It is crucial to seek feedback and guidance from your advisors and colleagues when refining your research paper title. They can provide valuable insights and help ensure that your title accurately represents your research and aligns with the requirements of your specific academic discipline. Don't hesitate to reach out to your network for support and advice throughout the title-writing process.

Final Tips for a Good Research Paper Title

Additional tips for writing a good research paper title.

Keep in mind the formatting, word count, and content when writing a research paper title and aim for a concise and relevant title. Use a good research paper title to make a significant difference in the success of a research study

In her book "Stylish Academic Writing," Helen Sword (2012) emphasizes the importance of crafting engaging and informative titles to capture readers' attention and effectively communicate the content of your research.

Best practices for research paper titles

A good research paper title should be concise, informative, and accurately represent the content and purpose of the study. Paperpal can help generate outstanding research titles in a click.

Consider the UK's Research Excellence Framework when crafting your title. The UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

When crafting your research paper title, consider how it aligns with the REF's criteria for research quality, which include originality, significance, and rigor. A well-crafted title that effectively communicates the value and impact of your research can contribute to a stronger REF submission.

Joshua Schimel's "Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded" (2012) provides valuable insights into the art of scientific writing, including the importance of creating compelling research paper titles that accurately reflect the content and significance of your work.

Additional Resources for Crafting Effective Research Paper Titles:

1. The Academic Phrasebank - A useful resource for finding appropriate phrases and terminology for your research paper title.

2. Paperpal Title Generator - An online tool that helps generate effective research paper titles based on your keywords and research focus.

In conclusion, writing a good research paper title is a critical aspect of the research process, as it can significantly impact the visibility and success of your work. By understanding the importance of titles, following best practices, and refining your title based on feedback, you can create compelling titles that accurately represent your research and attract the attention of your target audience. Whether you're conducting theoretical research or applied research , a well-crafted title is essential for effectively communicating your findings to the scientific community.

As Michael Alley notes in his book "The Craft of Scientific Writing" (2018), a well-written research paper title not only captures the essence of your work but also serves as a critical tool for attracting readers and increasing the impact of your research.

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How to write a good research paper title

“Unread science is lost science .”

what is a good title for a research essay

Credit: Mykyta Dolmatov/Getty

“Unread science is lost science.”

28 July 2020

what is a good title for a research essay

Mykyta Dolmatov/Getty

With the influx of publications brought on by the pandemic, it’s become more challenging than ever for researchers to attract attention to their work.

Understanding which elements of a title will attract readers – or turn them away – has been proven to increase a paper’s citations and Altmetric score .

“In the era of information overload, most students and researchers do not have time to browse the entire text of a paper,” says Patrick Pu , a librarian at the National University of Singapore.

“The title of a paper, together with its abstract, become very important to capture and sustain the attention of readers.”

1. A good title avoids technical language

Since the primary audience of a paper is likely to be researchers working in the same field, using technical language in the title seems to make sense.

But this alienates the wider lay audience, which can bring valuable attention to your work . It can also alienate inexperienced researchers, or those who have recently entered the field.

“A good title does not use unnecessary jargon,” says Elisa De Ranieri , editor-in-chief at the Nature Communications journal (published by Springer Nature, which also publishes Nature Index.) “It communicates the main results in the study in a way that is clear and accessible, ideally to non-specialists or researchers new to the field.”

How-to: When crafting a title, says De Ranieri, write down the main result of the manuscript in a short paragraph. Shorten the text to make it more concise, while still remaining descriptive. Repeat this process until you have a title of fewer than 15 words.

2. A good title is easily searchable

Most readers today are accessing e-journals, which are indexed in scholarly databases such as Scopus and Google Scholar.

“Although these databases usually index the full text of papers, retrieval weightage for ‘Title’ is usually higher than other fields, such as ‘Results’,” Pu explains.

At the National University of Singapore, Pu and his colleagues run information literacy programmes for editors and authors. They give advice for publishing best practice, such as how to identify the most commonly used keywords in literature searches in a given field.

“A professor once told us how he discovered that industry experts were using a different term or keyword to describe his research area,” says Pu.

“He had written a seminal paper that did not include this ‘industry keyword’. He believes his paper, which was highly cited by academics, would have a higher citation count if he had included this keyword in the title. As librarians, we try to highlight this example to our students so that they will consider all possible keywords to use in their searches and paper titles.”

How-to: Authors should speak to an academic librarian at their institution to gain an understanding of keyword and search trends in their field of research. This should inform how the paper title is written.

3. A good title is substantiated by data

Authors should be cautious to not make any claims in the title that can’t be backed up by evidence.

“For instance, if you make a discovery with potential therapeutic relevance, the title should specify whether it was tested or studied in animals or humans/human samples,” says Irene Jarchum , senior editor at the journal Nature Biotechnology (also published by Springer Nature, which publishes the Nature Index.)

Jarchum adds that titles can be contentious because different authors have different views on the use of specific words, such as acronyms, or more fundamentally, what the main message of the title should be.

Some authors may over-interpret the significance of their preliminary findings, and want to reflect this in the title.

How-to: If you know your paper will be contentious within the scientific community, have the data ready to defend your decisions .

4. A good title sparks curiosity

A one-liner that sparks a reader’s interest can be very effective.

“A title has to pique the interest of the person searching for literature in a split-second – enough that they click on the title to read the abstract. Unread science is lost science,” says Christine Mayer , editor-in-chief of the journal Advanced Therapeutics .

Paper titles such as, "White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic" ( 2019 Science ), and “Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking” ( 2019 Science Advances ) are good examples of this principle. Both papers have high Altmetric Attention scores, indicating that they have been widely read and discussed online.

How-to: Take note of the characteristics of paper titles that spark your own interest. Keep a record of these and apply the same principles to your own paper titles.

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Research Paper Guide

Research Paper Title

John K.

Crafting a Winning Research Paper Title: A Complete Guide

how to write a good research paper title

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Ever find it hard to come up with a catchy title for your research paper? You're not alone! Many people struggle with creating titles that grab attention and show what their work is about.

It can be frustrating because your title is like a first impression. If it's not interesting, people might ignore your research. 

But no worries! 

In this blog, we'll give you practical tips and examples to make sure your research paper title stands out. 

Whether you're a beginner or an expert, we want to help you write research paper titles that would make others excited about your work!

So, let’s get started.

Arrow Down

  • 1. What is a Research Paper Title, and Why Does it Matter?
  • 2. How to Write a Good Research Paper Title in 5 Steps
  • 3. Step 2: Keep it Clear and Concise
  • 4. Research Paper Title Examples
  • 5. Tips for Writing an Effective Research Paper Title

What is a Research Paper Title, and Why Does it Matter?

A research paper title is like the name tag for your work. It tells people what your research paper is about. It's the first thing readers see, and it's important because it helps them decide if they want to read more.

Think of it like this: Have you ever picked up a book because the title sounded interesting? It's kind of the same idea. A good title grabs attention and makes people curious about what's inside.

In the world of research, a well-crafted title is crucial because it sets the stage for your whole paper. 

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Key Characteristics of a Good Research Paper Title

Here are some important factors that create an engaging and interesting research paper title:

  • Clarity and Precision: Clearly conveys the main idea.
  • Relevance to Content: Reflects core focus and findings.
  • Conciseness: Keeps title brief and to the point.
  • Keywords and Phrases: Includes important search keywords.
  • Captivating Language: Engages interest without sacrificing accuracy.
  • Reflects Paper's Tone: Matches the research paper's tone and style.

How to Write a Good Research Paper Title in 5 Steps

Writing an effective research paper title doesn't have to be difficult. Follow these five straightforward steps to craft a title that not only reflects your research but also captures the reader's interest.

Step 1: Understand Your Paper's Main Message

Think of your research as a big idea or a story. Imagine it as the most important thing you want to share with others. 

Ask yourself: What's the main thing or research problem I want people to know about my research? 

Once you're clear on this, you're ready to move on.

If your research study is about the benefits of reading for mental well-being. Your main message could be: "The Magic of Books: Reading for a Happier Mind."

Step 2: Keep it Clear and Concise

When making your title, make it short and simple. Don't use too many words or make it confusing. 

The goal is to make it easy for people to understand what your paper is about right away. Think of it like telling a quick and clear story with your title!

Suppose your research is about the positive effects of outdoor activities on mental well-being. 

A clear and concise title could be: "Nature's Therapy: Boosting Mental Health Outdoors."

Step 3: Be Specific, Not Too General

When writing your title, make sure it talks about your research and not just anything general. Don't use titles that could fit lots of different studies. 

Being specific helps people know exactly what your paper is going to tell them. It's like giving them a clear roadmap to your research!

General Title: "The Impact of Music on People"

Specific Title: "Harmony in the Classroom: Exploring Music's Influence on Student Concentration in Learning Environments"

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Step 4: Inject a Hint of Creativity or Intrigue

Make your title a little exciting! Use engaging words or ask a fun question to make people curious. Imagine your title as a little mystery that makes them want to learn more

For a study on the benefits of laughter on mental health, a creative title could be: "Giggle Therapy: The Joyful Impact on Mental Well-being."

Step 5: Check for Keywords and Relevance

Think about the words people might use when searching for research like yours. Use those words in your title to help people find your work. 

Including relevant keywords can improve the visibility of your paper in searches.

Suppose your study is about the use of social media in relationships. A relevant title might be: "Social Connect: Navigating Relationships in the Digital Age."

Adding a Research Paper Subtitle

A research paper subtitle is like an extra description that comes after the main title. It gives more details about what your research is about. 

Adding a subtitle is a choice, but it can be helpful. If your main title is short and you want to say more about your research, a subtitle is a good idea. 

It's like a bonus that provides extra information for readers. Consider using a subtitle when you want to give a bit more insight into your research topic.

Let's say your main title is "The Impact of Climate Change on Wildlife." If you want to add more specifics, you can include a subtitle like "Adapting Habits and Conservation Strategies." 

Research Paper Title Examples

Check out the examples below and see how they perform in front of different factors:

"Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Modern Society"GoodGoodGoodGood
"Investigating the Relationship Between Exercise and Overall Well-being in Adults"GoodGoodAverageGood
"A Comparative Study of Different Renewable Energy Sources for Sustainable Solutions"AverageGoodGoodGood
"Analyzing the Effects of Social Media on the Behavior of Adolescents in the Digital Age"GoodGoodGoodGood
"Urban Gardening: Enhancing Sustainable Living in Modern Cities"GoodGoodGoodGood

Tips for Writing an Effective Research Paper Title

Follow these tips to make your research paper title engaging and attention-grabbing:

  • Add important words related to your research for better search results.
  • Make your title brief and clear to convey your research focus effectively.
  • Use words that grab attention and spark curiosity about your study.
  • Craft a title that anyone, whether an expert or newcomer, can understand.
  • Aim for a title that's not too general or too technical, striking the right balance.

In conclusion,

Writing a standout research paper title is a crucial step to ensure your work gets the attention it deserves. Following the simple tips shared in this guide can help you create a title that is clear, engaging, and perfectly aligned with your research focus. 

Remember, your title is the first thing readers see, so making it count is key!

However, if you need writing assistance, MyPerfectWords.com is here for you. Our skilled writers are not only ready to help with writing compelling titles but can also write custom research paper just for you.

So don’t wait! Reach out and buy custom essay online today and take your academic writing to the next level!

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John K.

John K. is a professional writer and author with many publications to his name. He has a Ph.D. in the field of management sciences, making him an expert on the subject matter. John is highly sought after for his insights and knowledge, and he regularly delivers keynote speeches and conducts workshops on various topics related to writing and publishing. He is also a regular contributor to various online publications.

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Title

Maximize search-ability and engage your readers from the very beginning

Your title is the first thing anyone who reads your article is going to see, and for many it will be where they stop reading. Learn how to write a title that helps readers find your article, draws your audience in and sets the stage for your research!

How your title impacts the success of your article

Researchers are busy and there will always be more articles to read than time to read them.  Good titles help readers find your research, and decide whether to keep reading. Search engines use titles to retrieve relevant articles based on users’ keyword searches. Once readers find your article, they’ll use the title as the first filter to decide whether your research is what they’re looking for. A strong and specific title is the first step toward citations, inclusion in meta-analyses, and influencing your field. 

what is a good title for a research essay

What to include in a title

Include the most important information that will signal to your target audience that they should keep reading.

Key information about the study design

Important keywords

What you discovered

Writing tips

Getting the title right can be more difficult than it seems, and researchers refine their writing skills throughout their career. Some journals even help editors to re-write their titles during the publication process! 

what is a good title for a research essay

  • Keep it concise and informative What’s appropriate for titles varies greatly across disciplines. Take a look at some articles published in your field, and check the journal guidelines for character limits. Aim for fewer than 12 words, and check for journal specific word limits.
  • Write for your audience Consider who your primary audience is: are they specialists in your specific field, are they cross-disciplinary, are they non-specialists?
  • Entice the reader Find a way to pique your readers’ interest, give them enough information to keep them reading.
  • Incorporate important keywords Consider what about your article will be most interesting to your audience: Most readers come to an article from a search engine, so take some time and include the important ones in your title!
  • Write in sentence case In scientific writing, titles are given in sentence case. Capitalize only the first word of the text, proper nouns, and genus names. See our examples below.

what is a good title for a research essay

Don’t

  • Write your title as a question In most cases, you shouldn’t need to frame your title as a question. You have the answers, you know what you found. Writing your title as a question might draw your readers in, but it’s more likely to put them off.
  • Sensationalize your research Be honest with yourself about what you truly discovered. A sensationalized or dramatic title might make a few extra people read a bit further into your article, but you don’t want them disappointed when they get to the results.

Examples…

Format: Prevalence of [disease] in [population] in [location]

Example: Prevalence of tuberculosis in homeless women in San Francisco

Format: Risk factors for [condition] among [population] in [location]

Example: Risk factors for preterm births among low-income women in Mexico City

Format (systematic review/meta-analysis): Effectiveness of [treatment] for [disease] in [population] for [outcome] : A systematic review and meta-analysis

Example: Effectiveness of Hepatitis B treatment in HIV-infected adolescents in the prevention of liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Format (clinical trial): [Intervention] improved [symptoms] of [disease] in [population] : A randomized controlled clinical trial

Example: Using a sleep app lessened insomnia in post-menopausal women in southwest United States: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Format  (general molecular studies): Characterization/identification/evaluation of [molecule name] in/from [organism/tissue] (b y [specific biological methods] ) 

Example: Identification of putative Type-I sex pheromone biosynthesis-related genes expressed in the female pheromone gland of Streltzoviella insularis

Format  (general molecular studies): [specific methods/analysis] of organism/tissue reveal insights into [function/role] of [molecule name] in [biological process]  

Example: Transcriptome landscape of Rafflesia cantleyi floral buds reveals insights into the roles of transcription factors and phytohormones in flower development

Format  (software/method papers): [tool/method/software] for [what purpose] in [what research area]

Example: CRISPR-based tools for targeted transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in plants

Tip: How to edit your work

Editing is challenging, especially if you are acting as both a writer and an editor. Read our guidelines for advice on how to refine your work, including useful tips for setting your intentions, re-review, and consultation with colleagues.

  • How to Write an Abstract
  • How to Write Your Methods
  • How to Report Statistics
  • How to Write Discussions and Conclusions
  • How to Edit Your Work

The contents of the Peer Review Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

The contents of the Writing Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

There’s a lot to consider when deciding where to submit your work. Learn how to choose a journal that will help your study reach its audience, while reflecting your values as a researcher…

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  • Academic writing

Forging good titles in academic writing

Published on March 20, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023.

The title is the first thing your reader will see, and most readers will make their first judgements of your work based on it. For this reason, it’s important to think about your titles carefully.

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Table of contents

Informative, striking, appropriate, title templates, writing effective headings, other interesting articles, informative title.

Your title should, above all else, convey the topic of your paper. In other words, no matter how witty, clever, original, or otherwise appealing your title may be, it fails if it is not informative.

Decide whether you’ve given a sense of the paper’s topic and claims by comparing your title’s content to the most important aspect(s) of your dissertation statement or hypothesis and conclusions.

Striking title

A striking title is one that entices your audience to read, so know your audience’s tastes.

The analogy of cultivating sexual attraction in a prospective mate is useful here: some audiences will be enticed by a title’s edginess (as with, for example, V. Alneng’s “‘What the Fuck is a Vietnam?’ Touristic Phantasms and the Popcolonization of [the] Vietnam [War],” published in Critique on Anthropology ); others will almost always prefer a more straightforward title (as with J.C. Henderson’s “War as a tourist attraction: The case of Vietnam,” published in the International Journal of Tourism Research ).

You should be able to gauge how edgy your title can be by the tone of your discipline or the publication you’re submitting to, and your main concern should be forming a title that appeals to your readers’ specific tastes.

Consider also that a title that highlights the paper’s fresh insights will often be striking.

An endocrinologist, for example, might become very excited upon seeing the collaboratively authored article “Comparison of the effects on glycaemic control and β-cell function in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients of treatment with exenatide, insulin or pioglitazone: A multicentre randomized parallel-group trial,” published in 2015 in the Journal of Internal Medicine .

This rather long title is more acceptable in the sciences, where what readers tend to find provocative in a title is the degree to which it reveals the paper’s specifics.

Appropriate title

Ensuring that your title is appropriate in a way of making sure not only that your audience understands it, but also that its appeal contributes to its meaning. To make sure the title will be understood, you need to consider how familiar your research topic will be to your audience.

In an academic essay, you can use highly technical terms in your title, but generally avoid terms that the average well-read person in your discipline might not know.

In any writing that has a broad audience, titles need to avoid language that is too sophisticated; a news article, for example, should be easily understood by all.

As a second consideration of appropriateness, make sure that your title does not entice without substance.

The title of Alneng’s paper, for example, does not use “fuck” merely to shock and therefore entice the reader; the uncommon use of a swearword here helps convey the topic of the article: more or less vulgar representations of Vietnam.

The same is true for other striking titles, such as Nancy Tuana’s “Coming to Understand: Orgasm and the Epistemology of Ignorance,” published in Hypatia .

The title’s sexually charged play on words (“coming to understand”) hooks the audience, but is not merely a hook. The pun is directly relevant to the essay’s argument, which is that sexual pleasure offers an important form of knowledge.

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  • Use key terms. Find words that your audience can easily identify as markers of the topic matter. These will include, for example, terms that convey the field of research, central concepts, or subjects of study.
  • Identify the context (sometimes called “the location”). By context, I mean the source or the setting of the discussion, depending on discipline. In a history paper this might be a certain century or era; in literary studies a certain book or author; and in the sciences an organism or compound.

The following is a list of title formats, with examples of each. I’ve given the names of the publications in brackets to give a sense of how different disciplines treat titles.

Note that these are not mutually exclusive patterns (i.e. it’s possible to have various combinations; e.g. General & interesting: Informative & specific). Note also that this is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

  • Striking: Informative – The Specter of Wall Street: “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and the Language of Commodities ( American Literature )
  • Informative: Striking – Carbon capture and storage: How green can black be? ( Science )
  • General: Specific – The issues of the sixties: An exploratory study in the dynamics of public opinion ( Public Opinion Quarterly )
  • “Quotation”: Discussion (social studies) – “I’d rather not talk about it”: Adolescents’ and young adults’ use of topic avoidance in stepfamilies ( Journal of Applied Communication Research )
  • “Quotation”: Discussion (literary studies) – “I Would Prefer Not To”: Giorgio Agamben, Bartleby and the Potentiality of the Law ( Law and Critique )
  • Simple and precise – Methodological issues in the use of Tsimshian oral Traditions (Adawx) in Archaeology ( Canadian Journal of Archaeology )
  • Topic: Method – Mortality in sleep apnea patients: A multivariate analysis of risk factors ( Sleep )
  • Topic: Significance – LC3 binds externalized cardiolipin on injured mitochondria to signal mitophagy in neurons: Implications for Parkinson disease ( Autophagy )
  • Technical and very specific – Single-shot quantum nondemolition measurement of a quantum-dot electron spin using cavity exciton-polaritons ( Physical Review )

Although similar, headings are not the same as titles. Headings head paragraphs and help structure a document. Effective headings make your paper easily scannable.

Common high level headings in dissertations and research papers are “Methods”, “Research results”, and “Discussion”. Lower level headings are often more descriptive.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

  • Choosing a Title
  • Purpose of Guide
  • Design Flaws to Avoid
  • Independent and Dependent Variables
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  • Reading Research Effectively
  • Narrowing a Topic Idea
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  • Academic Writing Style
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  • Footnotes or Endnotes?
  • Further Readings
  • Generative AI and Writing
  • USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
  • Bibliography

The title summarizes the main idea or ideas of your study. A good title contains the fewest possible words needed to adequately describe the content and/or purpose of your research paper.

Importance of Choosing a Good Title

The title is the part of a paper that is read the most, and it is usually read first . It is, therefore, the most important element that defines the research study. With this in mind, avoid the following when creating a title:

  • If the title is too long, this usually indicates there are too many unnecessary words. Avoid language, such as, "A Study to Investigate the...," or "An Examination of the...." These phrases are obvious and generally superfluous unless they are necessary to covey the scope, intent, or type of a study.
  • On the other hand, a title which is too short often uses words which are too broad and, thus, does not tell the reader what is being studied. For example, a paper with the title, "African Politics" is so non-specific the title could be the title of a book and so ambiguous that it could refer to anything associated with politics in Africa. A good title should provide information about the focus and/or scope of your research study.
  • In academic writing, catchy phrases or non-specific language may be used, but only if it's within the context of the study [e.g., "Fair and Impartial Jury--Catch as Catch Can"]. However, in most cases, you should avoid including words or phrases that do not help the reader understand the purpose of your paper.
  • Academic writing is a serious and deliberate endeavor. Avoid using humorous or clever journalistic styles of phrasing when creating the title to your paper. Journalistic headlines often use emotional adjectives [e.g., incredible, amazing, effortless] to highlight a problem experienced by the reader or use "trigger words" or interrogative words like how, what, when, or why to persuade people to read the article or click on a link. These approaches are viewed as counter-productive in academic writing. A reader does not need clever or humorous titles to catch their attention because the act of reading research is assumed to be deliberate based on a desire to learn and improve understanding of the problem. In addition, a humorous title can merely detract from the seriousness and authority of your research. 
  • Unlike everywhere else in a college-level social sciences research paper [except when using direct quotes in the text], titles do not have to adhere to rigid grammatical or stylistic standards. For example, it could be appropriate to begin a title with a coordinating conjunction [i.e., and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet] if it makes sense to do so and does not detract from the purpose of the study [e.g., "Yet Another Look at Mutual Fund Tournaments"] or beginning the title with an inflected form of a verb such as those ending in -ing [e.g., "Assessing the Political Landscape: Structure, Cognition, and Power in Organizations"].

Appiah, Kingsley Richard et al. “Structural Organisation of Research Article Titles: A Comparative Study of Titles of Business, Gynaecology and Law.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies 10 (2019); Hartley James. “To Attract or to Inform: What are Titles for?” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 35 (2005): 203-213; Jaakkola, Maarit. “Journalistic Writing and Style.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication . Jon F. Nussbaum, editor. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018): https://oxfordre.com/communication.

Structure and Writing Style

The following parameters can be used to help you formulate a suitable research paper title:

  • The purpose of the research
  • The scope of the research
  • The narrative tone of the paper [typically defined by the type of the research]
  • The methods used to study the problem

The initial aim of a title is to capture the reader’s attention and to highlight the research problem under investigation.

Create a Working Title Typically, the final title you submit to your professor is created after the research is complete so that the title accurately captures what has been done . The working title should be developed early in the research process because it can help anchor the focus of the study in much the same way the research problem does. Referring back to the working title can help you reorient yourself back to the main purpose of the study if you find yourself drifting off on a tangent while writing. The Final Title Effective titles in research papers have several characteristics that reflect general principles of academic writing.

  • Indicate accurately the subject and scope of the study,
  • Rarely use abbreviations or acronyms unless they are commonly known,
  • Use words that create a positive impression and stimulate reader interest,
  • Use current nomenclature from the field of study,
  • Identify key variables, both dependent and independent,
  • Reveal how the paper will be organized,
  • Suggest a relationship between variables which supports the major hypothesis,
  • Is limited to 5 to 15 substantive words,
  • Does not include redundant phrasing, such as, "A Study of," "An Analysis of" or similar constructions,
  • Takes the form of a question or declarative statement,
  • If you use a quote as part of the title, the source of the quote is cited [usually using an asterisk and footnote],
  • Use correct grammar and capitalization with all first words and last words capitalized, including the first word of a subtitle. All nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that appear between the first and last words of the title are also capitalized, and
  • Rarely uses an exclamation mark at the end of the title.

The Subtitle Subtitles are frequently used in social sciences research papers because it helps the reader understand the scope of the study in relation to how it was designed to address the research problem. Think about what type of subtitle listed below reflects the overall approach to your study and whether you believe a subtitle is needed to emphasize the investigative parameters of your research.

1.  Explains or provides additional context , e.g., "Linguistic Ethnography and the Study of Welfare Institutions as a Flow of Social Practices: The Case of Residential Child Care Institutions as Paradoxical Institutions." [Palomares, Manuel and David Poveda.  Text & Talk: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Language, Discourse and Communication Studies 30 (January 2010): 193-212]

2.  Adds substance to a literary, provocative, or imaginative title or quote , e.g., "Listen to What I Say, Not How I Vote": Congressional Support for the President in Washington and at Home." [Grose, Christian R. and Keesha M. Middlemass. Social Science Quarterly 91 (March 2010): 143-167]

3.  Qualifies the geographic scope of the research , e.g., "The Geopolitics of the Eastern Border of the European Union: The Case of Romania-Moldova-Ukraine." [Marcu, Silvia. Geopolitics 14 (August 2009): 409-432]

4.  Qualifies the temporal scope of the research , e.g., "A Comparison of the Progressive Era and the Depression Years: Societal Influences on Predictions of the Future of the Library, 1895-1940." [Grossman, Hal B. Libraries & the Cultural Record 46 (2011): 102-128]

5.  Focuses on investigating the ideas, theories, or work of a particular individual , e.g., "A Deliberative Conception of Politics: How Francesco Saverio Merlino Related Anarchy and Democracy." [La Torre, Massimo. Sociologia del Diritto 28 (January 2001): 75 - 98]

6.  Identifies the methodology used , e.g. "Student Activism of the 1960s Revisited: A Multivariate Analysis Research Note." [Aron, William S. Social Forces 52 (March 1974): 408-414]

7.  Defines the overarching technique for analyzing the research problem , e.g., "Explaining Territorial Change in Federal Democracies: A Comparative Historical Institutionalist Approach." [ Tillin, Louise. Political Studies 63 (August 2015): 626-641.

With these examples in mind, think about what type of subtitle reflects the overall approach to your study. This will help the reader understand the scope of the study in relation to how it was designed to address the research problem.

Anstey, A. “Writing Style: What's in a Title?” British Journal of Dermatology 170 (May 2014): 1003-1004; Balch, Tucker. How to Compose a Title for Your Research Paper. Augmented Trader blog. School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech University; Bavdekar, Sandeep B. “Formulating the Right Title for a Research Article.” Journal of Association of Physicians of India 64 (February 2016); Choosing the Proper Research Paper Titles. AplusReports.com, 2007-2012; Eva, Kevin W. “Titles, Abstracts, and Authors.” In How to Write a Paper . George M. Hall, editor. 5th edition. (Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, 2013), pp. 33-41; Hartley James. “To Attract or to Inform: What are Titles for?” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 35 (2005): 203-213; General Format. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; Kerkut G.A. “Choosing a Title for a Paper.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Physiology 74 (1983): 1; “Tempting Titles.” In Stylish Academic Writing . Helen Sword, editor. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012), pp. 63-75; Nundy, Samiran, et al. “How to Choose a Title?” In How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries? A Practical Guide . Edited by Samiran Nundy, Atul Kakar, and Zulfiqar A. Bhutta. (Springer Singapore, 2022), pp. 185-192.

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  • v.13(Suppl 1); 2019 Apr

Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise, precise, and meticulous is the key

Milind s. tullu.

Department of Pediatrics, Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

This article deals with formulating a suitable title and an appropriate abstract for an original research paper. The “title” and the “abstract” are the “initial impressions” of a research article, and hence they need to be drafted correctly, accurately, carefully, and meticulously. Often both of these are drafted after the full manuscript is ready. Most readers read only the title and the abstract of a research paper and very few will go on to read the full paper. The title and the abstract are the most important parts of a research paper and should be pleasant to read. The “title” should be descriptive, direct, accurate, appropriate, interesting, concise, precise, unique, and should not be misleading. The “abstract” needs to be simple, specific, clear, unbiased, honest, concise, precise, stand-alone, complete, scholarly, (preferably) structured, and should not be misrepresentative. The abstract should be consistent with the main text of the paper, especially after a revision is made to the paper and should include the key message prominently. It is very important to include the most important words and terms (the “keywords”) in the title and the abstract for appropriate indexing purpose and for retrieval from the search engines and scientific databases. Such keywords should be listed after the abstract. One must adhere to the instructions laid down by the target journal with regard to the style and number of words permitted for the title and the abstract.

Introduction

This article deals with drafting a suitable “title” and an appropriate “abstract” for an original research paper. Because the “title” and the “abstract” are the “initial impressions” or the “face” of a research article, they need to be drafted correctly, accurately, carefully, meticulously, and consume time and energy.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ] Often, these are drafted after the complete manuscript draft is ready.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] Most readers will read only the title and the abstract of a published research paper, and very few “interested ones” (especially, if the paper is of use to them) will go on to read the full paper.[ 1 , 2 ] One must remember to adhere to the instructions laid down by the “target journal” (the journal for which the author is writing) regarding the style and number of words permitted for the title and the abstract.[ 2 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 12 ] Both the title and the abstract are the most important parts of a research paper – for editors (to decide whether to process the paper for further review), for reviewers (to get an initial impression of the paper), and for the readers (as these may be the only parts of the paper available freely and hence, read widely).[ 4 , 8 , 12 ] It may be worth for the novice author to browse through titles and abstracts of several prominent journals (and their target journal as well) to learn more about the wording and styles of the titles and abstracts, as well as the aims and scope of the particular journal.[ 5 , 7 , 9 , 13 ]

The details of the title are discussed under the subheadings of importance, types, drafting, and checklist.

Importance of the title

When a reader browses through the table of contents of a journal issue (hard copy or on website), the title is the “ first detail” or “face” of the paper that is read.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 13 ] Hence, it needs to be simple, direct, accurate, appropriate, specific, functional, interesting, attractive/appealing, concise/brief, precise/focused, unambiguous, memorable, captivating, informative (enough to encourage the reader to read further), unique, catchy, and it should not be misleading.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 9 , 12 ] It should have “just enough details” to arouse the interest and curiosity of the reader so that the reader then goes ahead with studying the abstract and then (if still interested) the full paper.[ 1 , 2 , 4 , 13 ] Journal websites, electronic databases, and search engines use the words in the title and abstract (the “keywords”) to retrieve a particular paper during a search; hence, the importance of these words in accessing the paper by the readers has been emphasized.[ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 12 , 14 ] Such important words (or keywords) should be arranged in appropriate order of importance as per the context of the paper and should be placed at the beginning of the title (rather than the later part of the title, as some search engines like Google may just display only the first six to seven words of the title).[ 3 , 5 , 12 ] Whimsical, amusing, or clever titles, though initially appealing, may be missed or misread by the busy reader and very short titles may miss the essential scientific words (the “keywords”) used by the indexing agencies to catch and categorize the paper.[ 1 , 3 , 4 , 9 ] Also, amusing or hilarious titles may be taken less seriously by the readers and may be cited less often.[ 4 , 15 ] An excessively long or complicated title may put off the readers.[ 3 , 9 ] It may be a good idea to draft the title after the main body of the text and the abstract are drafted.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]

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.[ 3 , 4 , 12 , 16 ] Such a title allows the reader to interpret the findings of the research paper in an impartial manner and with an open mind.[ 3 ] 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.[ 4 ] Hence, such descriptive titles giving a glimpse of the paper are generally preferred.[ 4 , 16 ]

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.[ 3 , 4 , 12 , 16 ]

Interrogative title

This is the one which has a query or the research question in the title.[ 3 , 4 , 16 ] 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).[ 3 , 6 , 16 , 17 ]

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).[ 4 , 6 , 9 , 16 ] Any of these constructs may be used depending on the type of article, the key message, and the author's preference or judgement.[ 4 ]

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.[ 1 , 4 , 6 , 12 ] 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.[ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 9 ] Some journals require that the study design be included in the title, and this may be placed (using a colon) after the primary title.[ 2 , 3 , 4 , 14 ] The title should try to incorporate the Patients, Interventions, Comparisons and Outcome (PICO).[ 3 ] 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.[ 3 , 6 ] 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.[ 4 , 5 , 9 ] 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.[ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 9 , 12 ] Also, too much of technical jargon or chemical formulas in the title may confuse the readers and the article may be skipped by them.[ 4 , 9 ] Numerical values of various parameters (stating study period or sample size) should also be avoided in the titles (unless deemed extremely essential).[ 4 ] It may be worthwhile to take an opinion from a impartial colleague before finalizing the title.[ 4 , 5 , 6 ] 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.[ 4 , 6 ] 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.[ 3 , 12 ] 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.[ 3 , 12 , 14 ]

Checklist for a good title

Table 1 gives a checklist/useful tips for drafting a good title for a research paper.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 12 ] 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

The title needs to be simple and direct
It should be interesting and informative
It should be specific, accurate, and functional (with essential scientific “keywords” for indexing)
It should be concise, precise, and should include the main theme of the paper
It should not be misleading or misrepresentative
It should not be too long or too short (or cryptic)
It should avoid whimsical or amusing words
It should avoid nonstandard abbreviations and unnecessary acronyms (or technical jargon)
Title should be SPICED, that is, it should include Setting, Population, Intervention, Condition, End-point, and Design
Place of the study and sample size should be mentioned only if it adds to the scientific value of the title
Important terms/keywords should be placed in the beginning of the title
Descriptive titles are preferred to declarative or interrogative titles
Authors should adhere to the word count and other instructions as specified by the target journal

Some titles used by author of this article in his earlier publications and remark/comment on their appropriateness

TitleComment/remark on the contents of the title
Comparison of Pediatric Risk of Mortality III, Pediatric Index of Mortality 2, and Pediatric Index of Mortality 3 Scores in Predicting Mortality in a Pediatric Intensive Care UnitLong title (28 words) capturing the main theme; site of study is mentioned
A Prospective Antibacterial Utilization Study in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Referral CenterOptimum number of words capturing the main theme; site of study is mentioned
Study of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia in a Pediatric Intensive Care UnitThe words “study of” can be deleted
Clinical Profile, Co-Morbidities & Health Related Quality of Life in Pediatric Patients with Allergic Rhinitis & AsthmaOptimum number of words; population and intervention mentioned
Benzathine Penicillin Prophylaxis in Children with Rheumatic Fever (RF)/Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD): A Study of ComplianceSubtitle used to convey the main focus of the paper. It may be preferable to use the important word “compliance” in the beginning of the title rather than at the end. Abbreviations RF and RHD can be deleted as corresponding full forms have already been mentioned in the title itself
Performance of PRISM (Pediatric Risk of Mortality) Score and PIM (Pediatric Index of Mortality) Score in a Tertiary Care Pediatric ICUAbbreviations used. “ICU” may be allowed as it is a commonly used abbreviation. Abbreviations PRISM and PIM can be deleted as corresponding full forms are already used in the title itself
Awareness of Health Care Workers Regarding Prophylaxis for Prevention of Transmission of Blood-Borne Viral Infections in Occupational ExposuresSlightly long title (18 words); theme well-captured
Isolated Infective Endocarditis of the Pulmonary Valve: An Autopsy Analysis of Nine CasesSubtitle used to convey additional details like “autopsy” (i.e., postmortem analysis) and “nine” (i.e., number of cases)
Atresia of the Common Pulmonary Vein - A Rare Congenital AnomalySubtitle used to convey importance of the paper/rarity of the condition
Psychological Consequences in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Survivors: The Neglected OutcomeSubtitle used to convey importance of the paper and to make the title more interesting
Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease: Clinical Profile of 550 patients in IndiaNumber of cases (550) emphasized because it is a large series; country (India) is mentioned in the title - will the clinical profile of patients with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease vary from country to country? May be yes, as the clinical features depend on the socioeconomic and cultural background
Neurological Manifestations of HIV InfectionShort title; abbreviation “HIV” may be allowed as it is a commonly used abbreviation
Krabbe Disease - Clinical ProfileVery short title (only four words) - may miss out on the essential keywords required for indexing
Experience of Pediatric Tetanus Cases from MumbaiCity mentioned (Mumbai) in the title - one needs to think whether it is required in the title

The Abstract

The details of the abstract are discussed under the subheadings of importance, types, drafting, and checklist.

Importance of the abstract

The abstract is a summary or synopsis of the full research paper and also needs to have similar characteristics like the title. It needs to be simple, direct, specific, functional, clear, unbiased, honest, concise, precise, self-sufficient, complete, comprehensive, scholarly, balanced, and should not be misleading.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 17 ] Writing an abstract is to extract and summarize (AB – absolutely, STR – straightforward, ACT – actual data presentation and interpretation).[ 17 ] The title and abstracts are the only sections of the research paper that are often freely available to the readers on the journal websites, search engines, and in many abstracting agencies/databases, whereas the full paper may attract a payment per view or a fee for downloading the pdf copy.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 ] The abstract is an independent and stand-alone (that is, well understood without reading the full paper) section of the manuscript and is used by the editor to decide the fate of the article and to choose appropriate reviewers.[ 2 , 7 , 10 , 12 , 13 ] Even the reviewers are initially supplied only with the title and the abstract before they agree to review the full manuscript.[ 7 , 13 ] This is the second most commonly read part of the manuscript, and therefore it should reflect the contents of the main text of the paper accurately and thus act as a “real trailer” of the full article.[ 2 , 7 , 11 ] The readers will go through the full paper only if they find the abstract interesting and relevant to their practice; else they may skip the paper if the abstract is unimpressive.[ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ] The abstract needs to highlight the selling point of the manuscript and succeed in luring the reader to read the complete paper.[ 3 , 7 ] The title and the abstract should be constructed using keywords (key terms/important words) from all the sections of the main text.[ 12 ] Abstracts are also used for submitting research papers to a conference for consideration for presentation (as oral paper or poster).[ 9 , 13 , 17 ] Grammatical and typographic errors reflect poorly on the quality of the abstract, may indicate carelessness/casual attitude on part of the author, and hence should be avoided at all times.[ 9 ]

Types of abstracts

The abstracts can be structured or unstructured. They can also be classified as descriptive or informative abstracts.

Structured and unstructured abstracts

Structured abstracts are followed by most journals, are more informative, and include specific subheadings/subsections under which the abstract needs to be composed.[ 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 17 , 18 ] These subheadings usually include context/background, objectives, design, setting, participants, interventions, main outcome measures, results, and conclusions.[ 1 ] Some journals stick to the standard IMRAD format for the structure of the abstracts, and the subheadings would include Introduction/Background, Methods, Results, And (instead of Discussion) the Conclusion/s.[ 1 , 2 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 17 , 18 ] Structured abstracts are more elaborate, informative, easy to read, recall, and peer-review, and hence are preferred; however, they consume more space and can have same limitations as an unstructured abstract.[ 7 , 9 , 18 ] The structured abstracts are (possibly) better understood by the reviewers and readers. Anyway, the choice of the type of the abstract and the subheadings of a structured abstract depend on the particular journal style and is not left to the author's wish.[ 7 , 10 , 12 ] Separate subheadings may be necessary for reporting meta-analysis, educational research, quality improvement work, review, or case study.[ 1 ] Clinical trial abstracts need to include the essential items mentioned in the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards Of Reporting Trials) guidelines.[ 7 , 9 , 14 , 19 ] Similar guidelines exist for various other types of studies, including observational studies and for studies of diagnostic accuracy.[ 20 , 21 ] A useful resource for the above guidelines is available at www.equator-network.org (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research). Unstructured (or non-structured) abstracts are free-flowing, do not have predefined subheadings, and are commonly used for papers that (usually) do not describe original research.[ 1 , 7 , 9 , 10 ]

The four-point structured abstract: This has the following elements which need to be properly balanced with regard to the content/matter under each subheading:[ 9 ]

Background and/or Objectives: This states why the work was undertaken and is usually written in just a couple of sentences.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 ] The hypothesis/study question and the major objectives are also stated under this subheading.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 ]

Methods: This subsection is the longest, states what was done, and gives essential details of the study design, setting, participants, blinding, sample size, sampling method, intervention/s, duration and follow-up, research instruments, main outcome measures, parameters evaluated, and how the outcomes were assessed or analyzed.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 ]

Results/Observations/Findings: This subheading states what was found, is longer, is difficult to draft, and needs to mention important details including the number of study participants, results of analysis (of primary and secondary objectives), and include actual data (numbers, mean, median, standard deviation, “P” values, 95% confidence intervals, effect sizes, relative risks, odds ratio, etc.).[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 ]

Conclusions: The take-home message (the “so what” of the paper) and other significant/important findings should be stated here, considering the interpretation of the research question/hypothesis and results put together (without overinterpreting the findings) and may also include the author's views on the implications of the study.[ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 ]

The eight-point structured abstract: This has the following eight subheadings – Objectives, Study Design, Study Setting, Participants/Patients, Methods/Intervention, Outcome Measures, Results, and Conclusions.[ 3 , 9 , 18 ] The instructions to authors given by the particular journal state whether they use the four- or eight-point abstract or variants thereof.[ 3 , 14 ]

Descriptive and Informative abstracts

Descriptive abstracts are short (75–150 words), only portray what the paper contains without providing any more details; the reader has to read the full paper to know about its contents and are rarely used for original research papers.[ 7 , 10 ] These are used for case reports, reviews, opinions, and so on.[ 7 , 10 ] Informative abstracts (which may be structured or unstructured as described above) give a complete detailed summary of the article contents and truly reflect the actual research done.[ 7 , 10 ]

Drafting a suitable abstract

It is important to religiously stick to the instructions to authors (format, word limit, font size/style, and subheadings) provided by the journal for which the abstract and the paper are being written.[ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ] Most journals allow 200–300 words for formulating the abstract and it is wise to restrict oneself to this word limit.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 22 ] Though some authors prefer to draft the abstract initially, followed by the main text of the paper, it is recommended to draft the abstract in the end to maintain accuracy and conformity with the main text of the paper (thus maintaining an easy linkage/alignment with title, on one hand, and the introduction section of the main text, on the other hand).[ 2 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] The authors should check the subheadings (of the structured abstract) permitted by the target journal, use phrases rather than sentences to draft the content of the abstract, and avoid passive voice.[ 1 , 7 , 9 , 12 ] Next, the authors need to get rid of redundant words and edit the abstract (extensively) to the correct word count permitted (every word in the abstract “counts”!).[ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 13 ] It is important to ensure that the key message, focus, and novelty of the paper are not compromised; the rationale of the study and the basis of the conclusions are clear; and that the abstract is consistent with the main text of the paper.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 9 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 ] This is especially important while submitting a revision of the paper (modified after addressing the reviewer's comments), as the changes made in the main (revised) text of the paper need to be reflected in the (revised) abstract as well.[ 2 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 22 ] Abbreviations should be avoided in an abstract, unless they are conventionally accepted or standard; references, tables, or figures should not be cited in the abstract.[ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 ] It may be worthwhile not to rush with the abstract and to get an opinion by an impartial colleague on the content of the abstract; and if possible, the full paper (an “informal” peer-review).[ 1 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 11 , 17 ] Appropriate “Keywords” (three to ten words or phrases) should follow the abstract and should be preferably chosen from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of the U.S. National Library of Medicine ( https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/search ) and are used for indexing purposes.[ 2 , 3 , 11 , 12 ] These keywords need to be different from the words in the main title (the title words are automatically used for indexing the article) and can be variants of the terms/phrases used in the title, or words from the abstract and the main text.[ 3 , 12 ] The ICMJE (International Committee of Medical Journal Editors; http://www.icmje.org/ ) also recommends publishing the clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract.[ 7 , 14 ]

Checklist for a good abstract

Table 3 gives a checklist/useful tips for formulating a good abstract for a research paper.[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 17 , 22 ]

Checklist/useful tips for formulating a good abstract for a research paper

The abstract should have simple language and phrases (rather than sentences)
It should be informative, cohesive, and adhering to the structure (subheadings) provided by the target journal. Structured abstracts are preferred over unstructured abstracts
It should be independent and stand-alone/complete
It should be concise, interesting, unbiased, honest, balanced, and precise
It should not be misleading or misrepresentative; it should be consistent with the main text of the paper (especially after a revision is made)
It should utilize the full word capacity allowed by the journal so that most of the actual scientific facts of the main paper are represented in the abstract
It should include the key message prominently
It should adhere to the style and the word count specified by the target journal (usually about 250 words)
It should avoid nonstandard abbreviations and (if possible) avoid a passive voice
Authors should list appropriate “keywords” below the abstract (keywords are used for indexing purpose)

Concluding Remarks

This review article has given a detailed account of the importance and types of titles and abstracts. It has also attempted to give useful hints for drafting an appropriate title and a complete abstract for a research paper. It is hoped that this review will help the authors in their career in medical writing.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgement

The author thanks Dr. Hemant Deshmukh - Dean, Seth G.S. Medical College & KEM Hospital, for granting permission to publish this manuscript.

How to Write a Good Research Paper Title

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Table of contents

  • 1 Characteristics of a Good Title
  • 2.1 Start with a Working Title
  • 2.2 Prioritize Important Terms
  • 2.3 Use Active Verbs
  • 2.4 Avoid Clickbait Techniques
  • 2.5 Keep It Short But Informative
  • 2.6 Limit Vague Statements
  • 2.7 Mention the Study Design
  • 2.8 Avoid Abbreviations
  • 2.9 Check for Similiar Titles
  • 2.10 Don’t Be Too Technical and Forgetting Your Audience
  • 3.1 Good and Bad Titles for a Research Paper
  • 3.2 How to Title Research Paper in Your Field
  • 4 Our Take on Crafting Research Paper Titles

While working on a scientific academic paper, writing a good research paper title is probably the least of your concerns. However, it becomes an “issue” down the drain when it comes to combining all the necessary elements of a great-sounding title in one heading.

The PapersOwl team wanted to help you figure it out, so we’ve created this guide on writing a catchy, topic-relevant title. Here’s what you’ll learn after going through this guide:

  • We will delve into the essential attributes that make a research paper title effective and attention-grabbing, helping you understand what constitutes a good title.
  • Give you practical tips on how to optimize your research paper heading in alignment with established academic guidelines.
  • We will walk you through a process outlining the steps you should take to create a heading.
  • Real-world examples of research paper headings will show how you can successfully encapsulate the essence of their respective papers.
  • Here, you will find strategies and considerations for phrasing your paper title to resonate with a specific research discipline.

Let’s take it one step at a time, so we’ll dive into the elements of a great heading to show you what your heading should sound like first.

Characteristics of a Good Title

To write a perfect research paper title, you’ll need to know about the different types of headings first:

  • Interrogative
  • Humorous or colloquial

The key point for all these types is to make a catchy title that captures the tone and the essence of the topic with relevant keywords . If you decide to name a research paper with the interrogative approach, you can use the phrasing of a question-type heading to entice the readers to look for an answer.

Suggestive headings are a bit different as they indicate that a reader will have to keep reading to get an answer to the outlined thesis, only without phrasing it as a question. This is where things get interesting and start depending on the topic more because a humorous or colloquial title can’t always be used.

You should use these only if the title of the research topic allows it to be phrased in a common language and colloquial. Finally, the combined approach takes something from all these types and often makes the best option for general topics. You can take a look at our list to see what we mean by these characteristics:

Yes No No Yes
No Yes Yes No
No Yes No No
Yes Yes Yes Yes

Tips for Crafting the Perfect Title

If you are wondering about how to write a title for a research paper, you’ll find a lot of common knowledge tips for writing research paper titles. You may hear that it needs to be on-point, short, yet catchy and that it has to be interesting enough without compromising on keywords.

We also recommend that you keep in mind the formatting guidelines, including the APA format or another requested format. Still, we think it’s better to give you a more detailed set of tips to follow, so here’s our list of the most useful steps to take:

Start with a Working Title

The first tip we’ll give you is not to waste too much time wondering how to title a research paper. You should start with a working title that can be edited, revised and changed afterward.

Make sure to finish writing your paper first, and only then can you truly dedicate your time to creating a perfect title. By that time, you’ll already get a few ideas along the way, so try to think about how each new chapter may contribute as inspiration for the final title of the research project.

Prioritize Important Terms

It’s no secret that good research paper tiles simply need to include important and relevant terms in the paper. Since you won’t be able to make it a mile-long heading, it’s important to start with those terms first and try to build the rest around them.

We recommend writing down a few key terms for your research and topic in the heading first and then brainstorming ideas on how to make it sound catchy and fill up the gaps afterward.

Use Active Verbs

If you look at the good research paper title examples, you’ll notice a common denominator. Most of these headings have active verbs, which means you shouldn’t use verbs like “Study on” or “Analysis of”.

Instead, you can use active verbs like “Evaluating”, “Examining”, “Establishing”, “Interpreting”, and so on.

Avoid Clickbait Techniques

One of the most important things is not to make the title of the research paper sound like clickbait. Sure, it’s important to make it sound catchy and enticing, but avoid using the same format as clickbait news or journals.

The biggest difference between these two types of headings is that clickbait often doesn’t contain that much information on what seems to be the key thesis of the topic. It only serves to attract more readers and clicks.

However, your scientific paper’s title has to be on point with relevant topic keywords.

Keep It Short But Informative

This one is worth its weight in gold since there’s usually a certain word count limit for the research paper title. It may not be enforced strictly, but it’s still important to make the title short and concise to avoid topic confusion for the readers.

You can aim for around 10 to 12 words, just like with our example of a good title listed in the table above. Make sure to use a few relevant terms about your research first, and then fill in the gaps to create a title.

Limit Vague Statements

As we dive into the research paper title format more and more, you’ll notice that some titles feature vague statements. These are among the worst mistakes you can make, even though it initially may seem like vague titles are more enticing.

In reality, these are not news articles, so you’ll have to make a title catchy in another way and keep the heading specifically related to your research.

Mention the Study Design

If you have enough room in your title, you can also mention the study design. This means you can lay out a few details about the nature of your research methodology or variables used to explain certain scientific occurrences.

There’s no need to overdo it; you can simply create a catchy title and add something like “Using the (method name) method”, so it reveals something topic-related and represents your research.

Avoid Abbreviations

When coming up with the research paper name, it’s crucial to avoid abbreviations. Of course, this doesn’t reflect on the measurement units or similar pieces of data, but it’s better to steer away from these titles for research papers altogether.

Things can get a bit complex here since abbreviations may not be considered wrong if previously defined, but that would also consume too much space. So, make it simple and avoid using any acronyms or abbreviations within the title itself, but rather in the content sections.

Check for Similiar Titles

Sadly, this happens a lot more often than you would imagine, especially if you are a student working on research that’s commonly used as a subject. You may run into a problem if previous generations of students have used too similar or possibly even the same titles.

So, it’s best to check all this beforehand, and it goes the same way for scientific studies outside the academic frame. Also, when looking for custom research papers for sale , it’s important to make sure that the headings aren’t copied in any way.

Don’t Be Too Technical and Forgetting Your Audience

Finally, we have to encourage you to always keep in mind the tone of your research when naming a research paper. If the tone allows, you can get into the technical details, but make sure not to overdo it if that doesn’t suit the tone of the paper.

Try to think about the audience and who will read the research. This is the best way to not only create catchy research paper titles but also to ensure the use of the right voice. It’s also important to use the right style, depending on whether you are required to use the MLA guidelines or another format.

Examples of Research Paper Titles

After going through the technicalities, it’s time to give you a sample of title headings to show you what we mean in practice. We’ll also be giving you good and bad research title examples with a focus on the mentioned tips and steps for crafting a great title.

Good and Bad Titles for a Research Paper

We know it’s difficult to come up with a title for a research paper at first, but looking at the examples might help differentiate between good titles for research papers and bad ones. For instance, differentiating between vague and solid titles gets easier when you look at these few examples:

Vague: “A Study On Birds”

Improved: “Analyzing Migration Patterns of North American Sparrows”

Here’s another example of a vague title – “A Study on Facebook,” so you can see it’s pretty vague and short. An improved version would be “The Effects of Social Media on Psychological Health and Well-Being.”

It also comes in handy to differentiate between overly technical titles and acceptable titles with a glimpse of technical details. For example, the title “The Effect of 2,4-Dinitrophenol on ATP Synthase Activity in Mitochondria” can be simplified for wider audiences if needed.

You can use something like “Understanding the Impact of 2,4-Dinitrophenol on Cellular Energy Production” to make the title a bit catchier and acceptable for a wider audience.

How to Title Research Paper in Your Field

If you are still having some doubts even after going through all these tips, we completely get you. It’s not so easy to form a title for a research paper in practice, so we’ll put some of our skills to use to give you a few creative examples to lean on when figuring out your heading:

Titles for psychology research papers:

  • Natural Methods For Fighting Stress Quickly and Effectively
  • How to Make People Do What You Want: 5 Most Effective Methods
  • A Full Guide on How Not to Be Influenced by Society
  • Correlation Between Aggressive Adult Behaviour And An Unhappy Childhood
  • How to Change Your Attitude to Life: Natural Methods That Really Work

Education and related topics:

  • How to Get As and Work at the Same Time: Time-Management Tips for Students
  • A Guide on How to Craft a Good Essay if You Have Only 1 Hour
  • You Mean Nothing to Society if You Don’t Have a Degree
  • Steps that Should be Taken to Improve the System of Education
  • Great Tricks for Motivating Students

Heading examples for business papers:

  • How to Start Your Own Business Without a Large Investment
  • Benefits of Being Self-Employed You Have Never Thought Of
  • 10 Great Business Ideas for Those Who Have No Money
  • The Most Common Mistakes Beginning Businessmen Do
  • The Secret Behind a Successful Business

Ideas for papers from the technology sphere:

  • The Greatest Innovations in Technology in the Last 5 Years
  • The Most Useful Technologies in Medicine
  • Original Technologies that Will Change the Future
  • The Role of Information Technology in Everyday Life
  • The Benefits of Living in a Highly-Technological World

You can also rely on a research paper proofreading service to help out with some minor details that could make a change both for the title and the paper itself.

If you are facing issues with the research paper title ideas, we recommend that you save it for last and finish your work first before crafting a title.

This usually helps as you’ll have more inspiration after you’ve gone in-depth with the topic, and the heading may come naturally to you. If not, you can always refer to the PapersOwl team and have it crafted by our experts.

Our Take on Crafting Research Paper Titles

To summarize, everyone can tell you how it is to make a title for a research paper by making it sound catchy and topic-relevant. However, we have outlined all the necessary details in-depth through this guide so you can truly craft an admirable title for a research project.

The key is to know your audience, avoid vague titles and short word forms, and keep an active voice with a focus on relevant terms. So, we hope that this guide will serve as a pathway toward a perfect scientific title for your project.

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what is a good title for a research essay

6 tips for writing a great title for your research article

what is a good title for a research essay

Title is the first thing the reader sees from your research article. Based on the title the reader decides to have a look at the article — or not. So a better title will attract more readers and quite possibly increase the impact of your research. If you wonder what makes a good title, and how you can formulate one for your paper as well, then check out our six tips for writing a great research article title.

Goal: catch the attention of the *right* reader

A good title helps the reader quickly recognize whether this paper is relevant for them. The title should give the reader an accurate picture of the article — and motivate the *right* reader to go on and read the article.

Additionally, an ideal title is memorable : researchers are reading many papers, some will be inevitably forgotten. A good title ensures that your paper will stick in your reader’s mind.

Case study: Important paper missed because of its title

Let me tell you an example from my own research, about an important paper that we missed because of its title.

Article entitled Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation has been published in July 2009 in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience .

A couple of months later I started to work on a project that later became my PhD thesis. And the above mentioned article turned out to be the most important study on which my whole work was based.

Yet when I started, I didn’t know about the paper. My supervisor and another professor working on similar topics didn’t know about it either.

They had surely seen the title since they were following the journal’s publications. But they didn’t recognize that this might be a relevant paper.

Eventually we learned about the paper from a collaborator from a different institute. Later when I was presenting my work at conferences, I encountered many other researchers who missed this paper, even though it was clearly relevant to them.

So, what’s the issue with this title? Read on my tips on how to write a great title , and learn along the way what is problematic with this title and how we can fix it.

1. Headline the main result, not the main effort

If your paper has a clear main finding that can be summarized in a sentence , put it in the title. Such a title is much more interesting (and informative) than a title describing your approach.

Prof. Kevin Plaxco gives the following examples in his commentary article The art of writing science :

  • Main effort (not optimal): A phylogenetic analysis of humans and chimps
  • Main result (preferred): Phylogenetic evidence indicates an exceptionally close relationship between humans and chimps

Here is another example:

  • Main result missing: Cognitive-behavioural stress management skills and quality of life in stress-related disorders
  • Main result in the title: Cognitive-behavioural stress management skills improve quality of life in stress-related disorders

Concerning our case study example, the title Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation does (kind of) contain the main result, albeit it is not formulated as a full sentence. We’ll see later how we can improve it.

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin?

Get your Revision Checklist

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts.

2. Adapt the level of detail to your target audience

If your article is intended for a broader audience (that is, you want to publish it in a general journal), your title should be more general , so that it is understandable to this broader audience.

On the other hand, if your article is intended for a specialized audience and a specialized journal, you can include more details and jargon in the title.

  • article published in the broad journal Nature: The hippocampus is crucial for forming non-hippocampal long-term memory during sleep
  • article on a similar topic published in the specialized journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory: Sleep enhances memory consolidation in the hippocampus-dependent object-place recognition task in rats

However, be careful with short and general titles . Such titles are typical for review articles , because they suggest a broad scope of the article. So your readers might mistaken your original research article for a review article.

For example, the title Axon Initial Segment–Associated Microglia sounds like it’s a review, but it is an original research article. Such a title is misleading for the readers, so it’s better to avoid it.

what is a good title for a research essay

Not every neuroscientist knows what is “Na V 1.6″ and “Na V 1.2″. My supervisor didn’t know either — and it turns out that this was one of the reasons why he and the other professor missed this article. “Na V 1.6″ and “Na V 1.2″ are sodium channels — and every neuroscientist knows what are those. So the keyword “sodium channels” should definitely be included in an article title published in such a general journal as Nature Neuroscience .

3. Avoid “fluff” at the beginning of the title

Beginning of the title is especially salient , especially visible to the reader. And often this is your only chance to convince your potential reader that this paper is relevant to them.

So it’s a mistake to start the title with “fluff”, that is, a phrase that doesn’t carry much content and can be safely omitted. Instead, begin your title with an important keyword .

For example:

  • Aspects of ​immune dysfunction in end-stage renal disease
  • Revisiting the role of xanthophylls in nonphotochemical quenching

Our case-study title Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation does not start with a meaningless phrase that can be simply deleted. However, it also doesn’t start with an important keyword. Let’s see in the next point what would be a better beginning of the title.

4. Use the Context – Emphasis structure

A great title follows the optimal sentence structure : The beginning of the title acts as context for the rest of the title while the end of the title is naturally emphasized (if the reader gets this far).

So a good strategy is to include at the beginning of the title a keyword that will be recognized by all of your target readers and at the end of the title a keyword that is specific to your paper and its contribution.

However, what is a general keyword and what is a specific contribution might depend on your audience .

For example, the title Selective Adsorption to Particular Crystal Faces of ZnO suggests that this article primarily targets researchers interested in adsorption processes: “selective adsorption” is the general process, which is examined in this paper for the particular case of ZnO. However, if the paper targets researchers working on ZnO (zinc oxide), then it would be better to mention “ZnO” at beginning of the title.

Now let’s consider our case study : Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation .

what is a good title for a research essay

Then, what is a specific keyword related to the contribution of this paper? I would say it could be “Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 sodium channels”: although there are some previous studies investigating these two channel types, this paper put all the puzzle pieces together and provided a coherent picture about the interplay of these two channel types in — you guessed it — action potential initiation and backpropagation.

So, let’s improve this title by putting “Action potential initiation and backpropagation” at the beginning and “Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 sodium channels” at the end. Then we can rearrange the rest such that it makes sense — and reveals the main message of the paper:

Action potential initiation and backpropagation is differentially regulated by Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 sodium channels

A much better title, don’t you think?

5. “Context: Details” structure also works

But what to do with papers that have no single take-home message that can be summarized in a sentence?

For explorative papers that cover several problems or aspects of a topic, the “Context: Details” structure is often suitable. Here, you start with the general contextual keyword(s) that grab the attention of the reader, and then supplement relevant details after the colon.

  • UCB revisited: Improved regret bounds for the stochastic multi-armed bandit problem
  • Single Cell Assay for Molecular Diagnostics and Medicine: Monitoring Intracellular Concentrations of Macromolecules by Two-photon Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging

Here are some examples that don’t work very well:

  • Noise statistics identification for Kalman filtering of the electron radiation belt observations: 2. Filtration and smoothing
  • A better oscillation detection method robustly extracts EEG rhythms across brain state changes: The human alpha rhythm as a test case

In these cases, the first part before the colon is too long, it provides much more information than just the context, and therefore the whole title becomes harder to understand and remember.

So for an effective “Context: Details” type of title, make sure that the first part before the colon is short and memorable . Then the second part after the colon can be longer and detailed, and the title will still create a clear image in reader’s mind.

6. Title as a question or catchy title? It depends…

Now you might ask yourself: can’t we write more interesting titles than those that accurately reflect the content of the paper? These can be pretty boring… What about titles formulated as questions? And “catchy” titles?

Well, the general rule is to follow the conventions of your field . If some of the research articles you are reading have catchy titles, then it’s most probably OK for you to do this as well.

For example, questions and catchy titles are quite common in research articles from psychology:

  • How often is p rep close to the true replication probability?
  • Must interesting things be pleasant? A test of competing appraisal structures.

On the other hand, I have rarely seen a question as a title in a research article from neuroscience.

However, in most fields catchy and even funny titles are appreciated in commentary and opinion articles . For example, the “news & views” commentary article introducing our case-study paper Distinct contributions of Na V 1.6 and Na V 1.2 in action potential initiation and backpropagation is entitled Who let the spikes out?

Also the titles of review articles might be less formal. Which brings us to the next point…

Titles of review articles

Titles of review articles tend to be more general and broad than titles of original research articles. This, of course, reflects the broader scope and content of review articles. For example:

  • Carbohydrate inhibitors of cholera toxin
  • Neural circuits underlying thirst and fluid homeostasis

These titles don’t consist of a full sentence — because there is rarely a main take-home message in a review article. However, what is helpful here is to follow the Context-Emphasis structure introduced in point 4.

Titles of review articles often include the word “review” in the title, for example:

  • Gap junctions in developing neocortex: a review
  • A systematic review of COVID-19 epidemiology based on current evidence

And as we said in the previous point, titles of review articles may be less formal and more catchy even in fields where such titles are not used for original research articles:

  • Spooky sodium balance
  • Remembering the past to imagine the future: the prospective brain

How to find the perfect title for your article

Now you have learned all the rules for good titles, but one question remains: How to proceed? How to come up with a great title for your article?

what is a good title for a research essay

Then I recommend the following procedure :

  • First, generate 10 possible titles . These 10 titles don’t have to be unique: some of them might only differ in one or two words or in the word order.
  • Next, select the best title . You can do this together with your co-authors. Or each co-author picks one or two favorites and then you discuss and select the final title together.

With this procedure it’s much easier to find the most suitable title for your paper than if you would create just one title and then try to improve it.

So that was quite some theory about how to write a great title. Now if you want to practice this new knowledge, here is a little exercise for you.

What is good and what is not optimal about these titles? How would you improve them?

  • Analysis of processes leading to localized electron enhancements in the outer radiation belt
  • Wild-type and cancer-related p53 proteins are preferentially degraded by MDM2 as dimers rather than tetramers
  • A New Murine Model to Define the Critical Pathologic and Therapeutic Mediators of Polymyositis

If you are currently writing a manuscript and would like to get feedback and suggestions for your title: please, feel free to post it as a comment . Alternatively, you can also ask for feedback in our Facebook group Academic writing — peer feedback .

Are you putting off the work on your manuscript? Writing a research paper doesn’t have to be a long and tedious process. Join our online program and get support & guidance to

Write Up Your Paper THIS SUMMER

Check it out This course is relevant for you if your research belongs to natural & life sciences, other STEM fields or quantitative social sciences. Registration deadline: July 01, 2024

3 thoughts on “ 6 tips for writing a great title for your research article ”

Dear Martina,

Thank you very much for another portion of valuable information! It’s really helpful!

I’d be very greatful if you could comment on a title for a review article I’m writting now. Which of the two title you think is better:

Novel approaches to epigenetic therapies Novel approaches to epigenetic therapies: from drug combinations to epigenetic editing

Thank you for your suggestion, Kind regards, Aleksandra

Dear Aleksandra,

I am happy to hear that you found the article helpful!

Concerning your question: I prefer the second, longer title. It gives the reader a much better idea of what your review article is about. “Novel approaches to epigenetic therapies” alone is rather unspecific…

All the best, Martina

That was my choice as well! Thank you for ensuring me about it!

All the best, Aleksandra

Comments are closed.

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what is a good title for a research essay

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How to Write a Research Paper Title

7 Tips to create the best research title for your paper

Knowing how to write a research paper title is an art that not every researcher possesses, and researchers often spend a lot of time skimming through articles to find the right research paper title.

According to an interesting estimate, researchers read more than 100 publications every year and spend long hours, weeks and months searching for and reading articles relevant to their field of study. 1 While open access publishing and online repositories have made it easier to find articles, researchers still need to browse through a sea of research, often using research paper titles, to find relevant information for their research study. Researchers also face the challenge of ensuring their work reaches a broader audience in order to get more citations. This is where the importance of a good title for a research paper becomes evident.

Your research paper title is one of the first things readers in your research paper and plays an important role in influencing whether they will actually go through the entire article. This makes it critical to have a good research paper title that captures the reader’s attention. In this article, we look at the key characteristics of a good research title and what to keep in mind to create a research title that works for you.

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What to keep in mind when writing a research paper title

  • Convey the key research findings: Before writing a research paper title, list down what your study is about, what you have achieved or discovered, and the methodology used. Try and identify the one or two key elements that make your study novel or significant in your subject area. Combine these elements to create the best research title that showcases your article accurately and effectively.
  • Choose a declarative research paper title : Declarative titles are more informative and help readers to quickly grasp what the body of the article may contain. Therefore, it is considered to be more impactful and more likely to attract the reader’s attention. Additionally, most editors agree that papers with declarative titles are more likely to be shared online, allowing researchers to reach a far wider audience. 2
  • A good research title must pique reader interest : Researchers browsing through online platforms during their literature search often spend only a few seconds to read the title and evaluate an article’s relevance. This makes it important to create a catchy title for your research paper that will spark curiosity in the minds of your audience, which may prompt them pause, read, share, and discuss your research paper.
  • Avoid making any unsubstantiated claims: This is an important aspect to keep in mind when creating research paper titles. While it may be tempting to write titles with claims that will immediately attract reader attention and get you more citations, your research should be able to back-up these claims with substantive, studied evidence. Failing to do so can create mistrust about the research and even hurt your reputation.
  • Keep it simple and avoid jargon: It’s tempting to use technical words in a research paper title when you know that your primary audience is most likely to be other researchers working in the same field. However, this can prove counter-productive as readers who are not familiar with these complicated words may end up skipping your article. Some early career researchers might also give your paper a pass as they may feel that it is too technical for them so avoid using jargon.

Let Paperpal generate a suitable title for your content in minutes. Try it now!

  • Use phrases to keep your research title concise: One mistake early career researchers make is using full sentences to write the research paper title. Avoid complex phrases and unnecessary details as it makes the title unnecessarily lengthy. Remember to ensure proper syntax when trying to rephrase the title to make it leaner. A good research paper title offers a concise summary of the paper’s content; keep your title to under 12 words as lengthy titles can be hard to understand and may seem unfocused and uninteresting.
  • Include keywords to make your article discoverable: Today most researchers turn to online databases and search engines like Google Scholar to find the right research. This makes it critical to identify and use the best keywords for your research subject/topic when creating a research title. The best research paper title is one that is easily discoverable, making it easy for your readers to find and read your article.

A review of more than 150,000 papers  submitted to UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) database found that the style of a research paper’s title impacted the number of citations it would typically receive. 3 Writing a good research paper title is worth the time and effort, and we’re sure the points listed above will help!

How to generate research paper titles with Paperpal?

A research paper title is the first impression for journal editors, reviewers, and readers to understand the aim and purpose of your research study. However, picking a research paper title that encapsulates your research’s content can be daunting. Your research paper title should accurately capture your work, contain highly searched keywords, and should also sound interesting to people who work on a similar topic.   

Paperpal’s secure generative AI helps you write research paper titles twice as fast, ensuring they align with your research topic. Follow these simple steps to create an impactful research paper title: 

  • Sign Up or Log In: Start by creating an account or logging into Paperpal . 
  • Paste your content: Once logged in, paste your research paper’s content or abstract onto the document. 
  • Generate your title: Click on ‘Templates’ in the side navigation pane, go to Titles, and select ‘Generate’ . 

Paperpal will analyze your content and propose a fitting research paper title. If it doesn’t quite hit the mark, simply click regenerate to get additional title options until you find the perfect one. Remember, while Paperpal provides a solid starting point, personalizing the title to capture the essence of your research is key to making it stand out.  

  • How Scientists Retrieve Publications: An Empirical Study of How the Internet Is Overtaking Paper Media. Journal of Electronic Publishing, December 2000. [Accessed November 3, 2022] Available at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jep/3336451.0006.202?view=text;rgn=main
  • Di Girolamo, N. Health care articles with simple and declarative titles were more likely to be in the Altmetric Top 100. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, December 2016. [Accessed November 3, 2022] Available at https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(16)30853-8/fulltext
  • Hudson, J. An analysis of the titles of papers submitted to the UK REF in 2014: authors, disciplines, and stylistic details. Scientometrics, July 2016. [Accessed November 3, 2022] Available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-016-2081-4

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

It is generally recommended to avoid using a question to write a good research paper title. Titles should be concise and informative, conveying the main focus of the study. While questions can be used in the introduction or research objectives, a clear and declarative title is preferred to accurately represent the content and purpose of the research.

A research paper title should be concise and to the point. Ideally, it should be around 10 to 12 words or less. A shorter title is more effective in grabbing readers’ attention and conveying the main idea succinctly. However, it’s important to ensure that the title still accurately represents the research and provides enough information for readers to understand the scope of the study.

Including specific keywords related to the research topic can be beneficial. Keywords help in indexing and searching for relevant papers. However, it is not necessary to include all keywords in the title. Instead, focus on incorporating essential and relevant keywords that reflect the core aspects of the study. Use keywords that are commonly used and recognized in the field to increase the discoverability and relevance of your research.

Abbreviations or acronyms should generally be avoided in the research paper title. The title should be clear and easily understandable to a broad audience. If an abbreviation is commonly used in the field and is essential to convey the research focus, it can be included, but it’s important to provide the full term upon its first mention in the paper for clarity.

Whether you can change the research paper title after submission depends on the specific guidelines and policies of the journal or conference. Some publications allow minor revisions, including title changes, during the review process. However, it is best to ensure that the title is carefully chosen and reviewed before submission. If a change is necessary, it is recommended to contact the editor or conference organizers for guidance on whether it’s permissible to modify the title.

The preferred formatting style for research paper titles varies depending on the specific guidelines of the target journal or conference. Generally, sentence case is commonly used, where only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized. However, some publications may prefer title case, where the first letter of each major word is capitalized. It is important to carefully review the submission guidelines or consult the specific style guide recommended by the publication to ensure consistency with their preferred formatting style.

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 21+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster.  

Get accurate academic translations, rewriting support, grammar checks, vocabulary suggestions, and generative AI assistance that delivers human precision at machine speed. Try for free or upgrade to Paperpal Prime starting at US$19 a month to access premium features, including consistency, plagiarism, and 30+ submission readiness checks to help you succeed.  

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Related Reads:

How to write a research paper outline: simple steps for researchers.

  • Manuscript Withdrawal: Reasons, Consequences, and How to Withdraw Submitted Manuscripts
  • Supplementary Materials in Research: 5 Tips for Authors
  • What is an Expository Essay and How to Write It

The Ethics of Using AI in Research and Scientific Writing

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1000+ FREE Research Topics & Title Ideas

If you’re at the start of your research journey and are trying to figure out which research topic you want to focus on, you’ve come to the right place. Select your area of interest below to view a comprehensive collection of potential research ideas.

Research topic idea mega list

Research Topic FAQs

What (exactly) is a research topic.

A research topic is the subject of a research project or study – for example, a dissertation or thesis. A research topic typically takes the form of a problem to be solved, or a question to be answered.

A good research topic should be specific enough to allow for focused research and analysis. For example, if you are interested in studying the effects of climate change on agriculture, your research topic could focus on how rising temperatures have impacted crop yields in certain regions over time.

To learn more about the basics of developing a research topic, consider our free research topic ideation webinar.

What constitutes a good research topic?

A strong research topic comprises three important qualities : originality, value and feasibility.

  • Originality – a good topic explores an original area or takes a novel angle on an existing area of study.
  • Value – a strong research topic provides value and makes a contribution, either academically or practically.
  • Feasibility – a good research topic needs to be practical and manageable, given the resource constraints you face.

To learn more about what makes for a high-quality research topic, check out this post .

What's the difference between a research topic and research problem?

A research topic and a research problem are two distinct concepts that are often confused. A research topic is a broader label that indicates the focus of the study , while a research problem is an issue or gap in knowledge within the broader field that needs to be addressed.

To illustrate this distinction, consider a student who has chosen “teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom” as their research topic. This research topic could encompass any number of issues related to teenage pregnancy such as causes, prevention strategies, health outcomes for mothers and babies, etc.

Within this broad category (the research topic) lies potential areas of inquiry that can be explored further – these become the research problems . For example:

  • What factors contribute to higher rates of teenage pregnancy in certain communities?
  • How do different types of parenting styles affect teen pregnancy rates?
  • What interventions have been successful in reducing teenage pregnancies?

Simply put, a key difference between a research topic and a research problem is scope ; the research topic provides an umbrella under which multiple questions can be asked, while the research problem focuses on one specific question or set of questions within that larger context.

How can I find potential research topics for my project?

There are many steps involved in the process of finding and choosing a high-quality research topic for a dissertation or thesis. We cover these steps in detail in this video (also accessible below).

How can I find quality sources for my research topic?

Finding quality sources is an essential step in the topic ideation process. To do this, you should start by researching scholarly journals, books, and other academic publications related to your topic. These sources can provide reliable information on a wide range of topics. Additionally, they may contain data or statistics that can help support your argument or conclusions.

Identifying Relevant Sources

When searching for relevant sources, it’s important to look beyond just published material; try using online databases such as Google Scholar or JSTOR to find articles from reputable journals that have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

You can also use search engines like Google or Bing to locate websites with useful information about your topic. However, be sure to evaluate any website before citing it as a source—look for evidence of authorship (such as an “About Us” page) and make sure the content is up-to-date and accurate before relying on it.

Evaluating Sources

Once you’ve identified potential sources for your research project, take some time to evaluate them thoroughly before deciding which ones will best serve your purpose. Consider factors such as author credibility (are they an expert in their field?), publication date (is the source current?), objectivity (does the author present both sides of an issue?) and relevance (how closely does this source relate to my specific topic?).

By researching the current literature on your topic, you can identify potential sources that will help to provide quality information. Once you’ve identified these sources, it’s time to look for a gap in the research and determine what new knowledge could be gained from further study.

How can I find a good research gap?

Finding a strong gap in the literature is an essential step when looking for potential research topics. We explain what research gaps are and how to find them in this post.

How should I evaluate potential research topics/ideas?

When evaluating potential research topics, it is important to consider the factors that make for a strong topic (we discussed these earlier). Specifically:

  • Originality
  • Feasibility

So, when you have a list of potential topics or ideas, assess each of them in terms of these three criteria. A good topic should take a unique angle, provide value (either to academia or practitioners), and be practical enough for you to pull off, given your limited resources.

Finally, you should also assess whether this project could lead to potential career opportunities such as internships or job offers down the line. Make sure that you are researching something that is relevant enough so that it can benefit your professional development in some way. Additionally, consider how each research topic aligns with your career goals and interests; researching something that you are passionate about can help keep motivation high throughout the process.

How can I assess the feasibility of a research topic?

When evaluating the feasibility and practicality of a research topic, it is important to consider several factors.

First, you should assess whether or not the research topic is within your area of competence. Of course, when you start out, you are not expected to be the world’s leading expert, but do should at least have some foundational knowledge.

Time commitment

When considering a research topic, you should think about how much time will be required for completion. Depending on your field of study, some topics may require more time than others due to their complexity or scope.

Additionally, if you plan on collaborating with other researchers or institutions in order to complete your project, additional considerations must be taken into account such as coordinating schedules and ensuring that all parties involved have adequate resources available.

Resources needed

It’s also critically important to consider what type of resources are necessary in order to conduct the research successfully. This includes physical materials such as lab equipment and chemicals but can also include intangible items like access to certain databases or software programs which may be necessary depending on the nature of your work. Additionally, if there are costs associated with obtaining these materials then this must also be factored into your evaluation process.

Potential risks

It’s important to consider the inherent potential risks for each potential research topic. These can include ethical risks (challenges getting ethical approval), data risks (not being able to access the data you’ll need), technical risks relating to the equipment you’ll use and funding risks (not securing the necessary financial back to undertake the research).

If you’re looking for more information about how to find, evaluate and select research topics for your dissertation or thesis, check out our free webinar here . Alternatively, if you’d like 1:1 help with the topic ideation process, consider our private coaching services .

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Organizing Academic Research Papers: Choosing a Title

  • Purpose of Guide
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  • Glossary of Research Terms
  • Narrowing a Topic Idea
  • Broadening a Topic Idea
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  • Choosing a Title
  • Making an Outline
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  • Background Information
  • The Research Problem/Question
  • Theoretical Framework
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  • Evaluating Sources
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  • Limitations of the Study
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  • Dealing with Nervousness
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  • Multiple Book Review Essay
  • Reviewing Collected Essays
  • About Informed Consent
  • Writing Field Notes
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  • Acknowledgements

The title summarizes the main idea or ideas of your study. A good title contains the fewest possible words that adequately describe the contents and/or purpose of your research paper.

The title is without doubt the part of a paper that is read the most, and it is usually read first . If the title is too long it usually contains too many unnecessary words, e.g., "A Study to Investigate the...." On the other hand, a title which is too short often uses words which are too general. For example, "African Politics" could be the title of a book, but it does not provide any information on the focus of a research paper.

Structure and Writing Style

The following parameters can be used to help you formulate a suitable research paper title:

  • The purpose of the research
  • The narrative tone of the paper [typically defined by the type of the research]
  • The methods used

The initial aim of a title is to capture the reader’s attention and to draw his or her attention to the research problem being investigated.

Create a Working Title Typically, the final title you submit to your professor is created after the research is complete so that the title accurately captures what was done . The working title should be developed early in the research process because it can help anchor the focus of the study in much the same way the research problem does. Referring back to the working title can help you reorient yourself back to the main purpose of the study if you feel yourself drifting off on a tangent while writing. The Final Title Effective titles in academic research papers have several characteristics.

  • Indicate accurately the subject and scope of the study.
  • Avoid using abbreviations.
  • Use words that create a positive impression and stimulate reader interest.
  • Use current nomenclature from the field of study.
  • Identify key variables, both dependent and independent.
  • May reveal how the paper will be organized.
  • Suggest a relationship between variables which supports the major hypothesis.
  • Is limited to 10 to 15 substantive words.
  • Do not include "study of," "analysis of" or similar constructions.
  • Titles are usually in the form of a phrase, but can also be in the form of a question.
  • Use correct grammar and capitalization with all first words and last words capitalized, including the first word of a subtitle. All nouns,  pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that appear between the first and last words of the title are also capitalized.
  • In academic papers, rarely is a title followed by an exclamation mark. However, a title or subtitle can be in the form of a question.

The Subtitle Subtitles are quite common in social science research papers. Examples of why you may include a subtitle:

  • Explains or provides additional context , e.g., "Linguistic Ethnography and the Study of Welfare Institutions as a Flow of Social Practices: The Case of Residential Child Care Institutions as Paradoxical Institutions."
  • Adds substance to a literary, provocative, or imaginative title , e.g., "Listen to What I Say, Not How I Vote: Congressional Support for the President in Washington and at Home."
  • Qualifies the geographic scope of the research , e.g., "The Geopolitics of the Eastern Border of the European Union: The Case of Romania-Moldova-Ukraine."
  • Qualifies the temporal scope of the research , e.g., "A Comparison of the Progressive Era and the Depression Years: Societal Influences on Predictions of the Future of the Library, 1895-1940."
  • Focuses on investigating the ideas, theories, or work of a particular individual , e.g., "A Deliberative Conception of Politics: How Francesco Saverio Merlino Related Anarchy and Democracy."

Balch, Tucker. How to Compose a Title for Your Research Paper . Augmented Trader blog. School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech University;  Choosing the Proper Research Paper Titles . AplusReports.com, 2007-2012; General Format. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University.

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How to Create an Essay Title: 7 Best Practices

Stefani H.

Table of contents

The title of your essay is probably the first thing that your readers or professors will read, so it has to be perfect. If the title is appealing, you can consider half the battle won.

Your title is like a window to your mind and your power of expression. Through your title, your readers will determine if they are interested in reading your essay or not.

Choosing the right essay title gives a good impression, sets the tone of the paper, and augments the argument that is later discussed in the main body of the essay.

In this article, you will learn how to create an essay title that attracts attention and generates interest in your professor.

What are the Components of a Good Essay Title

A title can make or break the eagerness of wanting to read the entire essay. If you have an uninspiring title for an interesting, well-researched paper, your professor will most likely be put-off, making your entire effort go waste.

On the other hand, a clear and concise title helps to evoke inquisitiveness in your readers, making them open to what you have to say and the arguments you’ve addressed.

A good and clear title also emits the fact that you have researched and understood the prompt, you know what you want to write about, and you know how to frame it. This is a tremendous plus point as it's very important to bring your audience to attention so that you can get them to engage with and relate to your writing.

Before we talk about how to create an essay title, let’s take a look at the three components of a strong essay title:

  • A catchy hook - A creative way to introduce your subject argument to your readers. This is what draws your readers in.
  • Topic keywords - These keywords are related to the important topics that you will be exploring further and detailing in your essay. This is majorly relying on the “what” part of your paper.
  • Focus keywords or source - These stand firm on the “where/when” aspect of your essay. These keywords will help your readers understand a little more about the source of the argument and where the concepts that are to be discussed have originated from.

Example of an essay title for better understanding

“ What is the truth: Is Veganism a privilege for the 21st Century? ”

Hook : What is the truth?

Topic Keywords : Veganism; privilege

Source : 21st Century

7 Best Practices to Create an Essay Title and Captivate Readers

We know that the naming of the essay is just the first step, but it is one of the most important aspects of essay writing.

Here are seven practices to keep in mind while framing an essay title.

1. Craft the title at the end

People often waste too much time thinking about coming up with a good essay title first and then begin writing their essays.

It may seem like a logical thing to do, but it is not the most practical idea. If you still have a working headline in your mind, write it in the top corner of your essay for backup.

But as you write your essay, you will immediately come up with a variety of perfect essay titles that are brief and summarize the gist of the essay in a few words. This is because as you read and re-read your essay, you will have a clear idea as to what you are really saying in your draft and your title should represent the focus of your writing.

The time that you’ll spend thinking about your title could well be used to do research or creating an outline .

2. Use your thesis statement

A good title will influence your readers to be interested in your essay and explore it further. It will make them eager to know more about what you are writing. This is where your thesis statement plays an important role and provides a clear understanding of your title.

Your thesis statement and your title should be interdependent and since this statement is the focal argument of your paper, it should be incorporated at least as a part of your headline.

3. Consider the tone and audience of the essay

The title should grasp the reader's attention, and this can only be accomplished when you know who your target audience readers are going to be.

When you are submitting an essay as part of your college curriculum, you are reaching out to a learned faculty. It is important to keep your tone grave and your argument seriously. Avoid the usage of flippant language or slang because you are not talking to 16-year-olds. The audience is rooted in the transfer of knowledge, and your address to them should be likewise.

Similarly, in the case of the tone of the essay, a descriptive essay will have a fairly different tone from an argumentative essay. Since you are writing an academic essay, use a formal setting for writing your essay.

The subject of the essay also determines the tone. For instance, the way you title a fashion innovation essay would be quite different from the way you do a write-up about an archeological excavation.

The theme and audience of your essay should determine the method of crafting your essay title as well as give you a head start in framing your content.

Always make sure that the tone of your essay and your title match and have a similar theme, and don’t mislead the readers.

This video by Language Centre University of Groningen will help you determine the purpose, audience, and tone of your essay

4. Sum up your title in 5 words

Your essay title should be brief but should give your readers an idea regarding the main argument of your essay.

Think about it: if you had to summarize the focus of your essay in 5 words, what would it be? Long and detailed titles look cumbersome while making it tedious for readers to read or understand the context of your essay. The key is to get straight to the point.

5. Keep it simple

Don't use fancy or complicated words that might confuse your readers, instead go for straight-to-the-point words and avoid adding any unnecessary details in the title of your essay. Pick out important and useful keywords from your essay to frame a great title.

6. Look for creative quotes

There is no hard and fast rule for choosing essay titles from the content written. You can get creative and pick any quote, phrase or slogan that is relevant or appropriate to your specific paper and that suits as a headline.

You can also use popular phrases or idioms to generate that perfect title. This will make your topic look more approachable and relatable to your readers.

7. Avoid abbreviations

Why should you opt for using abbreviations, jargon, or slang in your essay title when you can write full, proper words?

You doesn't want all that hard work and commitment in crafting a great essay to go down the drain only because you used a “misc.” instead of writing ‘miscellaneous’ or a ‘vs.’ instead of ‘versus’.

Your readers will see an abbreviation on your essay title and think of your topic as too casual and not worth spending time on. Thus, they would move on to other topics and that will result in your essay being sidelined.

Conclusion: create a strong essay title

Generating a great essay title takes diligence, commitment, and proper time. The structure, each component, the appropriate words, and the clear but specific meaning and argument of your essay should be showcased in the title.

This ability, if cultivated well, will surely go a long way in earning you good grades and impressing your professors with your writing skills, your research competence, and your strengths in thinking through a topic.

When you need help in grabbing the reader's attention right from the outset, implementing these seven best practices will help you craft a strong essay title. If you’re not happy with your essay title or need help brainstorming, you can reach out to our experts at Writers Per Hour.

From researching topic ideas and framing essay titles to delivering an original, well-written fast essay - our professional essay writers are here to support you with all your essay writing needs!

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How to Write a Strong Title for an Argumentative Essay

Last Updated: June 4, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Diane Stubbs . Diane Stubbs is a Secondary English Teacher with over 22 years of experience teaching all high school grade levels and AP courses. She specializes in secondary education, classroom management, and educational technology. Diane earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Delaware and a Master of Education from Wesley College. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 168,127 times.

In most cases, a title for an essay is only required for college papers. A title for an argumentative essay isn't much different than a title for any other essay. You need to present what your essay is about in phrase form, as well as provide a hook to encourage the reader to read your essay. One main difference is you also need to make sure you establish your stance on the subject, so the reader knows where your argument is headed from the beginning. In order to create a strong title, you should write your essay before coming up with a title for it.

Summarizing Your Ideas

Step 1 Start brainstorming.

  • Also, read through your paper. Start making notes on the main ideas. If you organized your paper well, you should have the paper divided into several main ideas.
  • Write down any ideas you have about what you think should go in your title.

Step 2 Summarize your content.

  • In most cases, your thesis, or a version of it, is the best summary for the essay. The thesis should be stated at the end of your introduction, and perhaps restated at the beginning of your conclusion as well.
  • Try to get it down to one sentence if possible, such as, "Soup is significantly more flavorful when made with stock than when made with water."

Step 3 Make a list of keywords and phrases.

  • For instance, if you wrote a paper on why soup is better when made with stock than water, think about what words are essential to that paper.
  • Your list of keywords might include "soup," "stock," and "flavor," as an example.

Creating a Title

Step 1 Think about your audience and tone.

  • Also, think about the tone of your essay. If it's lighthearted, a lighthearted title will fit. For instance, an essay on stock and chicken soup lends itself to lightheartedness.
  • However, if your essay is very serious, stick to a serious title. For instance, if you're trying to convince people that poverty needs to end, that's a pretty serious topic and needs a serious title.

Step 2 Pull a sentence out.

  • Read over your paper. You can use this opportunity to proofread while you look for a good sentence.
  • Write out any sentence that may work. For instance, one sentence that might work is "Soup is delicious, but it is even more delicious when made with stock."
  • Shorten it up to work as a title: "Soup Is More Flavorful With Stock."

Step 3 Try a question.

  • For instance, you could write, "Why Does Stock Make Soup So Flavorful?" That establishes your topic, as well as invites your reader into your paper.
  • Just be sure you are answering the question you propose.
  • Choose a different question than the one you used for your hook, if applicable.

Step 4 Make it playful.

  • Come up with something that is contrasting or surprising. A concrete image works well, meaning something that invokes the senses. For instance, you could write something like "The Flavor of Boiled Chicken Bones Is the Best for Soup."
  • People don't necessarily think bones are tasty, but they are used to create your flavorful broth. Therefore, it's a bit surprising, but it plays into your essay.
  • Try to create a title that is both short and sweet.

Step 5 Make a pun or use a famous saying.

  • As an example, a pun you could use would be "Use Your Backbone to Make Soup." "Backbone" is a play both on the fact that you're using stock (made from bones) and that you need to use your backbone to stand up for stock.
  • As for a saying, you could use something like "Chicken Soup: Only the Opiate of the Masses If Made With Stock." "Opiate of the masses" is a reference to Karl Marx and will attract attention.

Finessing Your Title

Step 1 Give it some time.

  • That is, move words around to see if you can make a better statement.
  • Try mixing and matching among titles that you like. Pick the parts you like best.

Step 2 Be specific.

  • For instance, if you are discussing a specific type of soup, add that in: "Chicken Stock Makes the Best Chicken Soup."
  • If you are specifically talking about homemade stock, add that in "Homemade Chicken Stock Makes the Best Chicken Soup."
  • If possible, try to give the reader just an idea of which side you plan to argue in favor of in the essay.

Step 3 Use a subtitle.

  • The most common method is putting the creative part first as the main title, followed by the informative part in the subtitle. However, you can do it either way.
  • For example, you could write: "Use Your Backbone: Why You Should Advocate for Stock in Soup."
  • If the titles are on the same line, separate them by a colon. If not, you don't need the colon.

Step 4 Check for keywords.

  • Compare your title to the list you made earlier.

Step 5 Ensure you've covered your topic.

  • In the case of an argumentative essay, that not only means that you've presented what your topic is but also what your stance on that topic is.
  • Try it out on a parent. Ask her what she thinks the paper is about from your title.

Step 6 Skip abbreviations.

  • The exception to this rule is very common abbreviations or abbreviations that are appropriate for your audience.
  • For instance, using "HIV" probably wouldn't confuse your readers.

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • It can be helpful to look up titles of articles and essays for reference. Check major websites or networks for examples of effective titles. Remember to avoid “clickbait,” though! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

what is a good title for a research essay

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Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay

  • ↑ http://writing.umn.edu/sws/assets/pdf/quicktips/titles.pdf
  • ↑ https://umanitoba.ca/student/academiclearning/media/Writing_a_Great_Title_NEW.pdf
  • ↑ https://www.esu.edu/writing-studio/guides/hook.cfm
  • ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-write-a-great-title-.html
  • ↑ http://www.editage.com/insights/3-basic-tips-on-writing-a-good-research-paper-title

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IMAGES

  1. How to Start a Research Paper: Guide with Examples

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  2. 💣 Strong titles for an essay. How to Title an Essay: Tips and Examples

    what is a good title for a research essay

  3. How to Title an Essay: Tips and Examples

    what is a good title for a research essay

  4. 💄 Essay title ideas. Interesting Essay Title Guide With 40+ Topics

    what is a good title for a research essay

  5. How to Title an Essay: Tips and Examples

    what is a good title for a research essay

  6. How to Title an Essay? The Complete Guide to Essay Title

    what is a good title for a research essay

VIDEO

  1. Research Essay Writing PPWVIDEO pptx

  2. Critical Appraisal Processes for Quantitative Research

  3. Process of Research

  4. How to Write a Thesis Title Thesis Tutorial No 3

  5. Note-Taking for a Research Essay

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COMMENTS

  1. Research Paper Title

    Research Paper Title. Research Paper Title is the name or heading that summarizes the main theme or topic of a research paper.It serves as the first point of contact between the reader and the paper, providing an initial impression of the content, purpose, and scope of the research.A well-crafted research paper title should be concise, informative, and engaging, accurately reflecting the key ...

  2. How to Make a Research Paper Title with Examples

    Step 4: Create a working research paper title. To create a working title, remove elements that make it a complete "sentence" but keep everything that is important to what the study is about. Delete all unnecessary and redundant words that are not central to the study or that researchers would most likely not use in a database search.

  3. How to Write a Research Paper Title with Examples

    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: Meditation makes nurses perform better: a qualitative study of mindfulness meditation among German nursing students. Avoid ...

  4. How to Write a Good Research Paper Title: Tips and Examples

    Key qualities of a good research paper title. A good research title should have the elements below to make it stand out. a) A good research title should be concise and to the point. b) Accurately reflects or the research title describes the content of the research paper. c) Easy to understand and remember. d) Unique and not easily confused with ...

  5. How to write a good research paper title

    Shorten the text to make it more concise, while still remaining descriptive. Repeat this process until you have a title of fewer than 15 words. 2. A good title is easily searchable. Most readers ...

  6. How To Write A Good Research Paper Title: Examples & Tips

    Here are some important factors that create an engaging and interesting research paper title: Clarity and Precision: Clearly conveys the main idea. Relevance to Content: Reflects core focus and findings. Conciseness: Keeps title brief and to the point. Keywords and Phrases: Includes important search keywords.

  7. How to Write a Great Title

    Good titles help readers find your research, and decide whether to keep reading. Search engines use titles to retrieve relevant articles based on users' keyword searches. Once readers find your article, they'll use the title as the first filter to decide whether your research is what they're looking for.

  8. Forging good titles in academic writing

    Forging good titles in academic writing. Published on March 20, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023. The title is the first thing your reader will see, and most readers will make their first judgements of your work based on it. For this reason, it's important to think about your titles carefully.

  9. Choosing a Title

    A good title contains the fewest possible words needed to adequately describe the content and/or purpose of your research paper. ... Subtitles are frequently used in social sciences research papers because it helps the reader understand the scope of the study in relation to how it was designed to address the research problem.

  10. Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise

    Checklist for a good title. Table 1 gives a checklist/useful tips for drafting a good title for a research paper.[1,2,3,4,5,6,12] 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 ...

  11. How to Write a Good Research Paper Title

    1 Characteristics of a Good Title. 2 Tips for Crafting the Perfect Title. 2.1 Start with a Working Title. 2.2 Prioritize Important Terms. 2.3 Use Active Verbs. 2.4 Avoid Clickbait Techniques. 2.5 Keep It Short But Informative. 2.6 Limit Vague Statements. 2.7 Mention the Study Design.

  12. 6 tips for writing a great title for your research article

    A good title helps the reader quickly recognize whether this paper is relevant for them. The title should give the reader an accurate picture of the article — and motivate the *right* reader to go on and read the article. Additionally, an ideal title is memorable: researchers are reading many papers, some will be inevitably forgotten. A good ...

  13. How to Write a Research Paper Title

    Additionally, most editors agree that papers with declarative titles are more likely to be shared online, allowing researchers to reach a far wider audience. 2; A good research title must pique reader interest: Researchers browsing through online platforms during their literature search often spend only a few seconds to read the title and ...

  14. How to write an effective title and abstract and choose ...

    How to choose appropriate keywords in a research paper. Journals, search engines, and indexing and abstracting services classify papers using keywords.2,4,5,7 Thus, an accurate list of keywords will ensure correct indexing and help showcase your research to interested groups.2 This in turn will increase the chances of your paper being cited.3.

  15. 1000+ Research Topics & Research Title Examples For Students

    A strong research topic comprises three important qualities: originality, value and feasibility.. Originality - a good topic explores an original area or takes a novel angle on an existing area of study.; Value - a strong research topic provides value and makes a contribution, either academically or practically.; Feasibility - a good research topic needs to be practical and manageable ...

  16. 3 Basic tips on writing a good research paper title

    A good research paper title: So here are three basic tips to keep in mind while writing a title: 1] Keep it simple, brief and attractive: The primary function of a title is to provide a precise summary of the paper's content. So keep the title brief and clear. Use active verbs instead of complex noun-based phrases, and avoid unnecessary details.

  17. Organizing Academic Research Papers: Choosing a Title

    All nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that appear between the first and last words of the title are also capitalized. In academic papers, rarely is a title followed by an exclamation mark. However, a title or subtitle can be in the form of a question. The Subtitle. Subtitles are quite common in social science research papers.

  18. PDF WRITING AN EFFECTIVE TITLE

    Look for an image that is a bit unusual or surprising. Write a title beginning with an -ing verb (like "Creating a Good Title"). Write a title beginning with On (like "On the Titles of Essays"). Write a title that is a lie about the essay. (You probably won't use this one, but it might stimulate your thinking.)

  19. How to Title an Essay: Tips and Examples

    Here are other rules for how to create a good title: Title every section of writing: In the process of writing, create interesting subheadings to give your paragraphs an identity. Also, they make your text look ordered and clear. The title must bear the theme of the text: choose a title that summarizes the essay. Capitalize all words with certain exceptions: Capitalize the first letter of ...

  20. How to Find a Catchy Title for Your Paper/Essay: 10 Steps

    Understanding the Structure of a Title. Download Article. 1. Craft a hook. Most titles have the same basic structure, especially if the title is for an academic essay. The hook is the creative element that draws the reader in. It's a catchy phrase that lets the reader know what the essay is going to focus on. [1]

  21. How to Create an Essay Title: 7 Best Practices

    Keep it simple. Don't use fancy or complicated words that might confuse your readers, instead go for straight-to-the-point words and avoid adding any unnecessary details in the title of your essay. Pick out important and useful keywords from your essay to frame a great title. 6. Look for creative quotes.

  22. How to Write a Title for a Compare and Contrast Essay

    2. List what you want to compare. An informative title should tell your reader exactly what you are comparing in your essay. List the subjects you want to compare so that you can make sure they are included in your title. You only need to include the broad topics or themes you want to compare, such as dogs and cats.

  23. How to Write a Strong Title for an Argumentative Essay: 14 Steps

    Try to create a title that is both short and sweet. 5. Make a pun or use a famous saying. One way you can lead into your essay is to play with your words. For instance, make a pun. Another way is to use a famous quote, poem, or song to lead into your title.

  24. College Essay Format: Top Writing and Editing Tips for 2024

    Consider the following college essay format to organize your writing and craft the most compelling story possible. 1. Think about using a title. A title for your college essay isn't necessary. But, including one could make your essay intriguing to readers. That said, if you're low on word count, skip a title altogether and just jump into your ...

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