Guidelines for effective titles The success of an

Guidelines for effective titles The success of an article is greatly influenced by its title. A good title helps to make sure the article gets read by the appropriate audience. Please use the below guidelines for titles before accepting a manuscript and, when necessary, get in touch with the authors to get an effective title. § The recommended length of a title is no more than 12 words. Longer titles can be more difficult to remember and articles with longer titles are downloaded less than those with shorter titles (Jamali and Nikzad 2011). § Simplicity and the use of concise statements works best for titles. Words that carry little or no meaning should be avoided as they increase the overall length and may mislead indexing services. § Titles without colons are preferred as they are usually shorter and clearer. § Do not use acronyms in the title without spelling them out (Hartley, 2012). Readers who are not familiar with their meaning may simply skip your article even though it’s relevant to their search. § Be careful with irony, puns, and humor in the title , because they may not be understood by readers who are not native speakers and they also tend to be culture-specific. Moreover, your article will probably appear less often in the search results if you decide to the replace the words carrying the main meaning with a humorous phrase. (Hartley, 2008). Sources: • http: //blog. efpsa. org/2012/09/01/how-to-write-a-good-title-for-journal-articles/ • What makes a good title? Maria Grant, DOI: 10. 1111/hir. 12049 Slide 1