IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v129y2024i4d10.1007_s11192-024-04941-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Titles in research articles and doctoral dissertations: cross-disciplinary and cross-generic perspectives

Author

Listed:
  • Jialiang Hao

    (Xi’an International Studies University
    Weinan Normal University)

Abstract

Although titles are often regarded as a minimal aspect of academic discourse, they play a crucial role in knowledge construction across various disciplines and genres. This study examined four features of titles, namely, title length, punctuation usage, structure, and content information, with a corpus comprising 1600 titles of research articles (RAs) from top journals and doctoral dissertations (DDs) from prestigious universities across four soft and hard science disciplines. The results confirm disciplinary and generic variations within the titles of these two critical academic genres. Titles in linguistics and medicine are generally longer than those in economics and computer science (CS). Slightly more titles in hard disciplines contain punctuation than do those in soft disciplines. The average title length of RAs is longer than that of DDs, and more RA titles than DD titles have punctuation in all four disciplines, with no apparent difference in the punctuation variety across the two genres, except for CS titles. Nominal group titles and compound titles are the two most common types, and prepositional phrase titles are the least common in all four disciplines and genres. The content information in titles is different in each discipline and genre. These findings are partially congruent with those of previous studies, indicating the significance of further investigating titles across disciplines and genres.

Suggested Citation

  • Jialiang Hao, 2024. "Titles in research articles and doctoral dissertations: cross-disciplinary and cross-generic perspectives," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(4), pages 2285-2307, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:129:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-024-04941-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-024-04941-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-024-04941-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-024-04941-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lakshmi Balachandran Nair & Michael Gibbert, 2016. "What makes a ‘good’ title and (how) does it matter for citations? A review and general model of article title attributes in management science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1331-1359, June.
    2. Matthias Gnewuch & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2017. "Title characteristics and citations in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1573-1578, March.
    3. David I. Méndez & M. Ángeles Alcaraz & Françoise Salager-Meyer, 2014. "Titles in English-medium Astrophysics research articles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 2331-2351, March.
    4. William S. Pearson, 2021. "Quoted speech in linguistics research article titles: patterns of use and effects on citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3421-3442, April.
    5. Zhijun LI & Jinfen XU, 2019. "The evolution of research article titles: the case of Journal of Pragmatics 1978–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1619-1634, December.
    6. Shesen Guo & Ganzhou Zhang & Qiuhong Ju & Yu Chen & Qianfeng Chen & Lulu Li, 2015. "The evolution of conceptual diversity in economics titles from 1890 to 2012," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 2073-2088, March.
    7. William S. Pearson, 2020. "Research article titles in written feedback on English as a second language writing," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 997-1019, May.
    8. Shaoliang Xie, 2020. "English Research Article Titles: Cultural and Disciplinary Perspectives," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, June.
    9. Hamid R. Jamali & Mahsa Nikzad, 2011. "Article title type and its relation with the number of downloads and citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(2), pages 653-661, August.
    10. Mary Ellen Kerans & Anne Murray & Sergi Sabatè, 2016. "Content and Phrasing in Titles of Original Research and Review Articles in 2015: Range of Practice in Four Clinical Journals," Publications, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-22, April.
    11. Gianna Kexin Jiang & Yajun Jiang, 2023. "More diversity, more complexity, but more flexibility: research article titles in TESOL Quarterly, 1967–2022," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 3959-3980, July.
    12. Junli Diao, 2021. "A lexical and syntactic study of research article titles in Library Science and Scientometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 6041-6058, July.
    13. Moshe Yitzhaki, 2002. "Relation of the title length of a journal article to the length of the article," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 54(3), pages 435-447, July.
    14. Rahman Sahragard & Hussein Meihami, 2016. "A diachronic study on the information provided by the research titles of applied linguistics journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1315-1331, September.
    15. Rafael Ball, 2009. "Scholarly communication in transition: The use of question marks in the titles of scientific articles in medicine, life sciences and physics 1966–2005," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 79(3), pages 667-679, June.
    16. Xuechun Xiang & Jing Li, 2020. "A diachronic comparative study of research article titles in linguistics and literature journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 847-866, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gianna Kexin Jiang & Yajun Jiang, 2023. "More diversity, more complexity, but more flexibility: research article titles in TESOL Quarterly, 1967–2022," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 3959-3980, July.
    2. Serhii Nazarovets & Jaime A. Teixeira da Silva, 2024. "The incidence of 11 movie titles in the titles of Scopus-indexed papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(5), pages 2911-2922, May.
    3. William S. Pearson, 2021. "Quoted speech in linguistics research article titles: patterns of use and effects on citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3421-3442, April.
    4. Zhijun LI & Jinfen XU, 2019. "The evolution of research article titles: the case of Journal of Pragmatics 1978–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(3), pages 1619-1634, December.
    5. Jiawei Wang, 2024. "Quantifying cohesion in high citation research article titles: a cross-disciplinary and diachronic investigation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(9), pages 5075-5102, September.
    6. Xuechun Xiang & Jing Li, 2020. "A diachronic comparative study of research article titles in linguistics and literature journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(2), pages 847-866, February.
    7. William S. Pearson, 2020. "Research article titles in written feedback on English as a second language writing," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(2), pages 997-1019, May.
    8. Julián D. Cortés, 2023. "Top, mid-tier, and predatory alike? The lexical structure of titles and abstracts of six business and management journals," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 297-316, February.
    9. Mike Thelwall, 2017. "Avoiding obscure topics and generalising findings produces higher impact research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(1), pages 307-320, January.
    10. Huu Dat Tran & Pham Phuong Uyen Diep & Nabila Mushtarin, 2024. "“Insert witty catchphrase here!”: do title elements influence engagement and citation?— examining highly-cited research articles in media, communication, and related disciplines," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(11), pages 6675-6691, November.
    11. Sergio Jimenez & Youlin Avila & George Dueñas & Alexander Gelbukh, 2020. "Automatic prediction of citability of scientific articles by stylometry of their titles and abstracts," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 3187-3232, December.
    12. C. Sean Burns & Md. Anwarul Islam, 2024. "A citation analysis examining geographical specificity in article titles," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(7), pages 4317-4328, July.
    13. Feng Guo & Chao Ma & Qingling Shi & Qingqing Zong, 2018. "Succinct effect or informative effect: the relationship between title length and the number of citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 1531-1539, September.
    14. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    15. Yezhu Wang & Yundong Xie & Dong Wang & Lu Guo & Rongting Zhou, 2022. "Do cover papers get better citations and usage counts? An analysis of 42 journals in cell biology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(7), pages 3793-3813, July.
    16. Shaoliang Xie, 2020. "English Research Article Titles: Cultural and Disciplinary Perspectives," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, June.
    17. Nicole Heßler & Andreas Ziegler, 2023. "Content and form of original research articles in general major medical journals," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(6), pages 1-12, June.
    18. Matthias Gnewuch & Klaus Wohlrabe, 2017. "Title characteristics and citations in economics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1573-1578, March.
    19. Don Watson & Manfred Krug & Claus-Christian Carbon, 2022. "The relationship between citations and the linguistic traits of specific academic discourse communities identified by using social network analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1755-1781, April.
    20. Martorell Cunil, Onofre & Otero González, Luis & Durán Santomil, Pablo & Mulet Forteza, Carlos, 2023. "How to accomplish a highly cited paper in the tourism, leisure and hospitality field," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:129:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11192-024-04941-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.