Problems and Solutions Related to the Titles of Ac

Journalism and Mass Communication, ISSN 2160-6579 January 2014, Vol. 4, No. 1, 72-75

Problems and Solutions Related to the Titles of Academic Papers

WANG Feng-nian

Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

There are some problems related to the titles of academic papers, such as, titles incorresponding to the contents, and

titles being too general or colloquial. It is imperative to increase the title quality of an academic paper through

peer-review, or by checking grammar mistakes with computer tools. The editors should also aim to improve their

academic level of knowledge.

Keywords: problems of academic paper titles, principles for academic paper titles, solutions of improving academic

paper titles

The title of an academic paper should express the main topics covered in the paper accurately and

concisely. However, some authors and editors only pay attention to the academic quality of the journal contents

and neglect the title problems.

Problems Related to the Titles of Academic Papers

In the author’s experience as an editor, he preliminarily reviewed 1,500 manuscripts in 2012. Among those,

the author found that 120 manuscripts, 8% of the total, have varying degrees of problems with their titles. The

author has not only found that some title-errors in unpublished papers, but he has also come across titles of

published journals that are problematic.

Confusing Titles

Titles of academic papers should be lucid, avoiding general or indiscriminate words. For example, from

the title “Researches of Tibetan Tea-drinking and Tea Sets” (HUANG, 2008), the readers are confusing

whether the article shows the historical evolution of the Tibetan tea sets or their cultural function.

Irrelevancy

Some titles have little relevance to the content, and some even completely miss the point. As an editor, in

March 2013, the author received an article titled “On the Principles of the Biodiversity Conservation”.

According to the title, this article should discuss the principles of biodiversity conservation, but the body of the

article introduced specific methods to protect rare plants and rare animals, which is irrelevant to the title. In

order to match the title with the content, the author/editor suggested to change the title to “On Methods of

Biodiversity Conservation” or “On Measures for Biodiversity Conservation”.

Lengthy Titles

The purpose of a title is to express the main topic instead of listing all of the ideas contained in the paper;

otherwise, the title becomes too long, even cumbersome. For example, the title “The National Security of

WANG Feng-nian, executive editor, Journal of Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University. DAVID PUBLISHING D

All Rights Reserved.PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS RELATED TO THE TITLES OF ACADEMIC PAPERS

73

China’s Development and Rise in Historical Perspective” (FAN, 2008) could be shortened into “China’s

Security from an Historical Perspective”, without detracting from the title purpose of expressing the main topic

of the paper.

Inane Words Used in Titles

Authors should use appropriate words in such a way as to formulate a title, which makes sense. Take this

title as an example: “Close to Reality Stressing Feature Improving the Efficiency of Ideological and Political

Education to Female University Students” (YI, 2008). If the words “Close to Reality Stressing Feature” were

deleted, the title would be shaped and to the point, as well as making grammatical sense.

Colloquial Titles

Academic register should be used for a title, and colloquial words should be avoided. Take this title as an

example: “Talking About the Functions of the Emotional Education in Language Teaching”. The words

“Talking About” are too colloquial to be used in a title (FENG, 2008).

Excessively Modest Titles

A title should use academic words to express ideas clearly, but the author may at times be too modest in

their title wording, using phrases such as, “try to”, “preliminary research”, ect. Take this title as an example:

“Tries to Analyze the Yan Yu Poetics Category of Ru Shen” (CHENG, 2008), the notion of “Poetics Category”

and “Ru Shen”, is compromised by the modest use of “tries to” to an extent that the academic reliability of the

paper may be called into question.

Hyperbolic Titles

On the other hand, some authors use hyperbole in their titles to attract readers and editors. For example,

“A New Achievement of the Study on Word Meaning and Cultural History” (YAN, 2008), “A New

Achievement” exaggerates the author’s contribution to this academic field because the reader knows for a fact

that there have been no really groundbreaking developments in the area of word meaning and cultural to history