What's in a Title?
W
hat does the title of a research report reveal? Authors often choose a title to convey a statement of accomplishment; just as often the title comes out flatly descriptive of the methodology or chemistry investigated. Because fast visual scanning of a journal's table of contents and the use of electronic keyword searches have become a regular part of our reading of the literature, it is important that authors think carefully about their choice of a title. Identifying the substance of the work in the title is just a part of ensuring that other scholars become immediately aware of the paper's contribution. I attempt here a brief analysis of different styles of titles used for chemistry research papers and offer some opinions of their merits. Although there are differences in practice and style among chemical subdisciplines, analytical chemistry is not atypical of the whole. Snappy titles. These attempt to invent a phrase or label descriptive of the subject. These can be successful when the subject is genuinely new; "self-assembled monolayers" and "electrospray ionization" are good examples. However, snappy phrases and new labels should be deployed infrequently and with discretion. They generate confusion in the literature, especially when they attempt to define a new but narrow segment of an older subject or redefine a known but dully named subject. They always require a careful definition in the text or abstract. Titles that announce the method or the chemistry. Sometimes, when there is singular newness, the title announces only one thing, such as "Fourier Transform Raman Spectroscopy" or "Catalytic Antibodies," More often, particularly in analytical chemistry, we learn that a certain kind of method is applied to a particular chemical problem (such as "Laser-Induced Fluorescence of Native Proteins" or "Ion Chromatography of Complex Surfactants"). This kind of title generally provides a good topical description; its shortcoming is silence about results or conclusions.
The assertion title. This title states a central conclusion of the paper and is one of the more aggressive, and newer, styles of titling. Consider, for example, the title "Chemically Modified Tips Enable Selective Atomic Force Nanoanalysis," These can have a healthy impact on the reader; at least for me it's interesting to learn before reading the article that a definite conclusion is made. Assertion titles also dangle a little challenge-to see if the author makes the case well enough for such a bold announcement. The acronym title. These titles typically abbreviate hyphenated methods, such as "EC-LC" or "CZE-ES MSMS'or "FIA-AAS." They seem to be the analytical chemist's answer to the biochemist's use of acronyms for complex chemicals but, in both cases, they are not very useful to readers who are not members of that particular acronym club. The buzzword title. These titles often exploit high levels of current interest in a topic or theme. Years ago, the prefix "micro" in the title of a paper in analytical chemistry announced a presence on the "microfrontier" (microcolumn, microelectrodes, etc.); now the "nanofrontier" is being delineated. The series title. This title says the author has been in business for a while and this is Paper XX.W on the topic XYZ. Series titles seem to be going out of style. Of course, many titles combine elements of several of these styles, and the style can be chosen to fit the particular research. No title will alone convey the full substance of the article, and I don't mean to imply that it ever can. But the title is the first (and sometimes the only) part of an article that is read. Careful thought should always go into its construction.
Analytical Chemistry, October 1, 1995 583 A
