文章的标题是“钓饵”，应该用来吸引读者 --- “推销”你的文章，给读者浏览目录或研究结果的机会。标题写得差可能使原本感兴趣的读者忽略了你的工作，也可能引起文不对题的情况。相比之下，好的标题可吸引相关的研究人员，提高文章的引用率，这也是期刊编辑所青睐的，因为引用率与期刊影响因子直接挂钩。因此，写好正确的标题是很重要的。

好的标题应尽量简短，同时又能传递文章的主要发现。避免叙述过于繁琐并使用不必要的专业行话和缩略语。标题必须能被科学界的广大读者读懂，因为他们中的一些人可能并不具备你研究的专业领域的具体知识。标题宽泛到什么程度取决于目标期刊 --- 考虑目标期刊的读者情况，这通常会在期刊的网站上有所介绍；撰写的标题应便于被所有读者看懂，而不仅仅局限于你的研究领域。另外，应该查阅目标杂志的《稿约》，确保遵守字数限制的要求以及是否需要提供短标题。

实例：较差的标题

“Degeneration of neurons in the CA3 and DG following OA administration: involvement of a MAPK-dependent pathway in regional-specific neuronal degeneration”

这个标题太长，含有非标准的缩略语，内容重复，部分内容太具体。修改如下：“Region-specific neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration”。此外，也可使用“MAP kinase-dependent neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration”，但要考虑目标杂志的要求，因为缩略语MAP使用广泛，读者可懂。

练习：
丁香园网友应邀对以下标题进行修改：
“Carvedilol produces dose-related improvements in LV function and dose-related reductions in mortality and hospitalization rate in subjects with chronic heart failure from systolic dysfunction”

以下是网友“Qikaka”的修改建议：
“Dose-related effect of carvedilol in improvements in left ventricular function and survival in subjects with chronic heart failure”

改后的标题大大缩短：少了6个单词，合计61个字符。“survival”一词的使用涵盖了改善效果的两个方面(死亡率和住院率)，重复的“dose-related”也被删除了。最后，在新的标题中对缩略语LV做了精确的解释。

一些网友也贴出了自己文章的标题和摘要，询问是否合适。其中有不少标题写得十分不错，也有一些与其他相比需要更多修改。网友“Yelry”的这个标题就很好，清晰地体现了研究领域：“Ascending venography in the diagnosis and management of nonthrombotic iliac vein compression”

尽管表述清楚，但“Yelry”并未传达出重要的一点---文章的主要发现：该方法应该对于诊断十分重要，而且很有可能会区分开两组病例。因为这一重要性并未在标题中体现，作者“Yelry”可能会失去一些感兴趣的读者。虽然标题可以涵盖的信息量取决于字数的限制，然而只需在“ascending venography”后面添加“is valuable”，就可以比原标题传达更多的文章内容。

First impressions: the importance of writing a good title

The title of your paper is a “hook” that should be used to attract readers—it is your opportunity to “sell” your paper to readers browsing a table of contents or search results. A poor title will cause potentially interested researchers to overlook your work and may attract the wrong audience. By contrast, a good title will attract the relevant researchers and increase the number of citations you receive. Journal editors like this because number of citations relates to the impact factor a journal gets. Therefore, it is important to get it right.

A good title should be as brief as possible while still communicating the main finding(s) of the paper. Avoid excessive detail and unnecessary use of field-specific jargon and abbreviations. Your title must be understandable by a broad scientific audience, some of whom may not have a detailed knowledge of your particular field. How broad depends on the particular target journal—consider the readership of your target journal, which is usually explained on the journal’s website, and write a title that can be easily understood by all, not only those in your immediate field. The target journal’s instructions for authors should also be consulted to ensure that character limits are complied with and to identify whether a running (short) title is also required.

Example of a poor title:
“Degeneration of neurons in the CA3 and DG following OA administration: involvement of a MAPK-dependent pathway in regional-specific neuronal degeneration”

This title is too long, contains non-standard abbreviations and a redundancy, and is too specific in parts. A better alternative would be: “Region-specific neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration”. “MAP kinase-dependent neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration” would probably also be acceptable, depending on the target journal, because the abbreviation MAP is widely used and understood.

Exercise:
Scientists visiting an online life sciences network were asked to suggest a good alternative title for the following:
“Carvedilol produces dose-related improvements in LV function and dose-related reductions in mortality and hospitalization rate in subjects with chronic heart failure from systolic dysfunction”

Among the responses was the following suggestion:
“Dose-related effect of carvedilol in improvements in left ventricular function and survival in subjects with chronic heart failure”

This title is six words and 61 characters shorter, which represents a significant reduction. The word “survival” is used to combine the two aspects of the improvement (mortality and hospitalization) and the repetition of “dose-related” has been removed. Finally, the abbreviation LV has been defined in the new title.

Other researchers posted the titles and abstracts for their own papers, asking whether the titles were suitable. There were many excellent titles, some of which needed more changes than others. The following title, from Yelry, is well written and clearly defines the area of research:
“Ascending venography in the diagnosis and management of nonthrombotic iliac vein compression”

Although this is very clear, the author Yelry doesn’t convey the main findings of the paper, which were actually quite significant: the method was shown to be valuable for diagnosis and possibly able to separate two groups of patients. Because this significance is not conveyed in the title, Yelry could potentially lose some of the target audience. Character limits for titles dictate how much information can be included; however, the simple addition of “is valuable” after “ascending venography” says much more about the paper than the original title does. In this way, the key finding can be communicated.


Dr Daniel McGowan
分子神经学博士