No search engines or database searches allow the number of words in the title to be specified. However, I scan titles visually and expect those with short titles to be more general than those with long titles.
E.g. "alzheimer's treatment"
versus
" A controlled trial of selegiline, alpha-tocopherol, or both as treatment for Alzheimer's disease"
Hi Gennadiy,
Your University website is a little dense so I couldn't find the Library, but I am guessing that it's a good one. My first thought would be to go and ask your Librarian about searching they will have all the answers. Anyway I agree with Ian's answer but I may be able to add a little more detail.
First off, the title is problematic in some discipline areas such as the humanities and social sciences. They may be ironic, or humorous or chosen so that only those who know the subject can decode the meaning. A quote for example. I know you are in pharmacology so this will not apply. In the sciences the publishing convention is that the title exactly describes the topic, which if you read on is very helpful for searching.
All good databases will allow you to search in the title filed only. There are various ways but its usually tagged .ti. This is really helpful if you have a technical phrase or proper name of a chemical as if this is the topic of the article it will appear in the title. So searching only in the title is a good idea. Again, I am generalizing a little. Your Librarian will be able to troubleshoot search problems for you.
The length of the title shouldn't matter but the way you search does. There are three ways you might effect your search.
1) A Ian says, search for a phrase using parenthesis "information retrieval" finds the words you have typed in exactly as they are given. So search for "information retrieval" in the title field will find all titles with those word in in the order you asked for them.
2) Proximity searching - databases allow two other ways of searching. Search for the word in the order that I specify with some words in between. So information W5 retrieval finds information retrieval within 5 words of each other. In other words roughly in the same sentence.
3) You can also search in a way that finds them in any order so information N5 Retrieval finds the words in any order e.g. "retrieval of relevant information" or "information relevant to the topic of retrieval"
Proximity Indicators - WITH and NEAR can be used differently in different database so you need to check with your database help how to use the correct syntax. Again, Librarians are great at this stuff.
All these will work in the title field, long or short. If you are writing an article then it pays to understand this so that you include important search words in the title and abstract of you paper.
Best Wishes
Matt
Dear Matt, Thank you for your very clear answer. I must apologize for not clarifying my question enough at gthe first place. I intended to ask what is the general opinion of researchers on paper title length.Do they prefer long of short ones? For example, when looking for references, I might simple go through a paper with very long title only because it wasn't my pupose at the time to get deep into things and details.
Hope I managed to clarify myself
In my E-textbook I recommend 12+/- 2 words for the title.
https://www.amazon.com/how-research-todays-tips-tools-ebook/dp/b01i5jjdxc
I have quickly checked the first 10 references in my library. The average is 8 words. I also checked the first 10 for 2017. The average was 10 words. The modern trend is to have more words so that it is more likely that search phrases will find one's paper.
Hi Gennadiy,
Ha yes I should have read the question more carefully! Ian has answered your question, but I would add that the title is never the first thing a reader will see. They are more likely to discover your work though a database or possibly a hyperlink in electronic text. I would say that the length of the title is less important than the clarity of the text and that is should contain all the relevant keywords, even if it makes the title a bit longer. There is a sub-genre of the web called Academic Search Engine Organisation which basically looks at how to make your work easy to find. I found this, which is quite an interesting read [ http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/the_orb/?p=1243 ].
Best Wishes
Matt
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Statistics
- Survey