How to Compose a Title for Your Research Paper

Titling: A neglected, but important task for

technical writers.

As you craft a name for your paper, you should

consider these potential objectives for the title
you choose.

A title should:
1.Describe the content of the paper;
2.Distinguish the paper from others on a similar
topic;
3.Catch the reader’s attention and interest;
4.Match search queries so people will find your
paper (and cite it).

#4 sticks out doesn’t it? It seems obvious that

#1 would be the most important objective for a
title. But as search and electronic publishing
becomes more and more important in research
I’ve come to believe that the last point (search)
may indeed be the most important. Think of it as
SEO (search engine optimization) for your
research vision.
The importance of research vision SEO
I’m sorry to say that I’ve attended more than one
talk at an important international conference
where someone else presented a
paper exactly describing an idea I had published
earlier. Whose fault is that

Well it was my fault. When I dug up my old paper

I realized that the particular idea wasn’t
reflected in the paper title at all. It was “buried”
in the content.
Most people begin a research project with a
comprehensive review of the literature. It is
crucially important that they find your paper
when they’re at the beginning of their
research/writing cycle.

Assuming your work is good, if they find your

paper early on, you’ll help them avoid
reproducing your work, and perhaps encourage
them to make use of your ideas as they go
forward. And of course you’d like them to cite
your paper as well.

A well crafted title is the best way to accomplish

this goal.

How does one accomplish this with a title? The

most important thing to realize is that long titles
are OK. Don’t prioritize a short, snappy title at
the expense of a full description. Make sure that
your important claims are reflected in the title.
Also, be sure to include the keywords that define
the niche your paper occupies. Otherwise folks
won’t find it.

Example:

Suppose you’re a robotics researcher, and you’ve

discovered that probabilistic pathfinding is far
superior to earlier methods that depended
on deterministic methods. You might choose a
title like
Probabilistic Pathfinding: Beyond Deterministic
Methods for Navigation in Rough Terrain
Note that we include both the old method ‘s
name and the new idea in the title. So folks
searching for work using the old approach
(deterministic) will also discover your new idea
(probabilistic) when they might not have
otherwise.

Making it catchy
It’s also useful to create a title that sticks with
people. You might consider a few devices to help
you there. How about a snappy name or acronym
for your approach?
GRAMMPS: A generalized mission planner for
multiple mobile robots in unstructured
environments
Did you know that people actually prefer titles
that contain a colon? Don’t force it, but if a two-
part description of your paper fits well into an
“idea:description” template, go for it:

Household robotics: autonomous devices for

vacuuming and lawn mowing
What not to do

It’s probably a bad idea to choose a provocative

title alone. For instance
What are the ants doing?
would be bad, but
What are the ants doing? vision-based tracking
and reconstruction of control programs
is great because it is both catchy/provocative
and also explanatory.