Writing style: What's in a title?

摘要

I sometimes struggle to understand titles of dermatology research papers. Is it possible that some authors are failing to distil the essence of their skin research into terms that are informative and can be easily understood by the generalist? Submitting authors might improve their chances of publication success if they spent a lot more time on their title, thinking how best to communicate what follows in their paper. After all, the title of an academic paper is important, representing an opportunity by the authors to attract readers to their research. With access to most academic content now determined by tables of contents and search engines, titles may be the only chance authors have to announce 'read this, it's important and will improve patient care'. Furthermore, research carried out on the impact of article titles on citation hits reveals that the words chosen for titles influence the citation rate for the article.