論文標題怎麼下最合適?

我們之前已經有寫過該怎麼寫好圖片註解的文章，這次將會專注在如何寫出引人入勝的論文標題。文章內文包含以下:

1. 你的論文標題適合怎樣的格式?
2. 論文標題中應包含什麼資訊?
3. 論文標題應該要多長?
4. 可以在標題中使用雙關語或押韻嗎?

下方是我們推薦的「如何為你的論文下標題」總結介紹

任何關於投稿論文的資訊，請務必確認目標投稿期刊的「guide for authors」， 並查看該期刊近期刊登的論文來掌握現任期刊編輯的偏好與風格

你的論文標題適合怎樣的格式?

在上方的總結裡，已經簡單介紹了不同標題格式的優缺點，以下則進一步提供特定標題結構的詳細資訊並以實際案例來輔助理解。

在介紹各種不同類別之前，先了解總結是怎麼得來的。我們知道James Hartley將論文標題格式簡單明瞭的分成13類，同時也調查了近年的趨勢與主要國際期刊例如Nature, Elsevier和Springer等刊登的熱門文章，還有分析近年論文標題結構趨勢的論文，最後得出五大種標題格式。

下方是各類標題的關鍵特色(包含文法結構與資訊)，不僅指出哪一些類別會使用哪些格式之外，還從主要的學術期刊中找出相關範例標題做為參考。其中的範例缺漏是因為該格式不常使用在該文章類別。

雖然各個期刊有自己偏好的文章類別，我們大致將已發表的文章分成下列:

• Rapid response and short communication (e.g. letters and corrections): Early communication that highlights significant recent findings, new methods, software, or correspondence aimed at correcting or clarifying original research papers (usually published online only).
• Research paper: An article that discusses details of recent original projects, including their data, results, and findings.
• Review: A paper that summarizes recently published developments on a topic, without adding new data.
• Clinical case: A research paper specifically focusing on clinical research.

一起來看看各詳細的資訊吧!

1. 闡述一般主題的論文標題

主要特色:

• Phrases, mainly composed of nouns, that clearly communicate the overall subject matter.
• These titles use keywords from abstracts to optimize search engine results, without exceeding the average title length.
• Avoid taxonomic terminology as they’ve become less popular in recent years.
• Don’t use obscure words since titles that incorporate such words tend to have less impact.
• This format is common for reviews, research papers (including clinical cases), and rapid responses.

文章類別	標題範例
Research papers	Domestication and Divergence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Beer Yeasts Chelation and stabilization of berkelium in oxidation state +IV
Clinical cases	Evolocumab and Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease Mortality and Cardiovascular Disease in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes
Rapid responses and short communication	A 130,000-year-old archaeological site in southern California, USA Whole-brain serial-section electron microscopy in larval zebrafish
Reviews	The Basis of Oncoimmunology Anxiety disorders

2. 介紹一般主題下特定子議題的論文標題

主要特色:

• Phrases, mainly composed of nouns, that clearly state the overall topic, followed by a colon (or other non-alphanumeric characters) and the subtopic. This structure is highly common for clinical cases, research papers and reviews.
• A recent study by Butar and van Raan notes that this format is widely used in many disciplines. In fact, not using this format could negatively impact your paper’s citation frequency. Conversely, using colons in fields that rarely use this structure won’t impact citation frequency.
• 70% of the most referenced medical papers use colons.
• Fewer Plos articles using this structure were downloaded and cited.
• An alternative title structure consists of a noun phrase or clause, with no colon. These titles can indicate an examination of a general topic through specific variable(s) or test subject(s).

文章類別	標題範例
Research papers	Molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of the slp76 signalosome
Clinical cases	Infections After Renal Transplantation: Diseases Pattern in Hong Kong Genomic and Transcriptomic Features of Response to Anti-PD-1 Therapy in Metastatic Melanoma Staphylokinase and ABO Group Phenotype: New Players in Staphylococcus Aureus Implant-associated Infections Development
Rapid responses and short communication	The concurrent emergence and causes of double volcanic hotspot tracks on the Pacific plate
Reviews	Biology and Applications of CRISPR Systems: Harnessing Nature’s Toolbox for Genome Engineering Polymer nanotechnology: Nanocomposites The Rohingya people of Myanmar: health, human rights, and identity

 3. 闡述研究新發現的論文標題

主要特色:

• A full sentence that highlights key findings or the study’s significance.
• Some journals may discourage or prohibit declarative titles (some medical publications, for example).
• Be careful to avoid misleading declarative statements. Instead, carefully think about which action verbs you can include without distorting the logical conclusions that can be drawn from your data. For example, if our article’s title is “How to Guarantee Your Paper’s Publication,” we’d certainly be misleading you, since the data and research we’ve reviewed only imply, rather than prove, certain correlations between these formatting tactics and publication success.
• In a related subset of title types, authors do not directly state the findings. Instead, they suggest the solution to their study’s main question. This type usually states the overarching idea, followed by a colon and a general description of the finding and its topic. Alternatively, though rare, authors can use a question to foreshadow answers in the text.

文章類別	標題範例
Research papers	Incipient class II mixed valency in a plutonium solid-state compound Visible-light excitation of iminium ions enables the enantioselective catalytic β-alkylation of enals The Danish tax on saturated fat – Short run effects on consumption, substitution patterns and consumer prices of fats
Clinical cases	Habitual sleep durations and subjective sleep quality predict white matter differences in the human brain Improved Survival with Ipilimumab in Patients with Metastatic Melanoma Temsirolimus, Interferon Alfa, or Both for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma
Rapid responses and short communication	Burgess Shale fossils illustrate the origin of the mandibulate body plan Continental crust formation on early Earth controlled by intrusive magmatism

4. 介紹研究使用的方法論的論文標題

主要特色:

• A typical title states the general topic, followed by a colon and a summary of the methodology used in the research; however, the reverse order can also be found.
• These titles can also utilize a noun phrase, without a colon.
• Passive verbs may be included with prepositions such as “by”, “via”, “through”, and “with” to indicate the applied method.

文章類別	Examples
Research papers	Precision Radiology: Predicting longevity using feature engineering and deep learning methods in a radiomics framework Correlation functions of the integrable higher-spin XXX and XXZ spin chains through the fusion method Charting organellar importomes by quantitative mass spectrometry
Clinical cases	Vancomycin Study: Treatment of Catheter Related Bloodstream Infection Caused by Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus Branched-chain and aromatic amino acids in relation to behavioral problems among young Inuit from Nunavik, Canada: a cohort study Chemokine profiles of interstitial pneumonia in patients with dermatomyositis: a case control study
Rapid responses and short communication	Remote carboxylation of halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons with carbon dioxide Tunnelling spectroscopy of Andreev states in graphene
Reviews	Methods for in vitro evaluating antimicrobial activity: A review Imaging modes of atomic force microscopy for application in molecular and cell biology Binary stars as the key to understanding planetary nebulae

5. 使用情緒性字眼或雙關語的論文標題

主要特色:

• These titles should generally be avoided because wordplay usually involves cultural references that non-native speakers may not understand. Nonetheless, this type of title is often found in review articles in the social sciences.
• Though not featured in this post, editorials and other journal-solicited content often use question titles or feature wordplay.
• As you may notice, few clinical studies or research papers use this format. However, you may occasionally find wordplay titles in reviews and short correspondence.

文章類別	標題範例
Reviews	The Sleeping Cerebellum
Rapid response and short correspondence	Pancreatic Cystic Neoplasms: To Needle or Not To Needle, This Is the Question Braiding a molecular knot with eight crossings

論文標題中應包含什麼資訊?

考量到學術圈資訊獨立特點，論文的標題與摘要應該要做優化。是的，科學研究者的論文標題應該也要搭配一些搜索引擎優化技巧來下，注意標題內容不要包含過多或過少的資訊。

如果標題太過一般，可能會誤導讀者或與目標讀者的需求失去關聯性;然而標題太過狹隘的話，期刊編輯則可能認為該標題無法引起太多讀者的注意。編輯的考量出發角度是利用鎖定廣大讀者將期刊的影響力最大化 ，因此，建議在這兩者之間取平衡。

另一個下標題的考量點是進入同儕審稿階段時。審稿者在審稿的時候，其實對於該論文了解的不多。在這情況下，論文標題又顯得過於狹隘，審稿者可能會傾向於不審核該篇論文，因為他可能認為這研究不在其專業領域內，導致期刊編輯必須多次邀請不同的審稿者來符合審稿標準，那編輯可能會認為你的論文不太適合該期刊或者覺得不停邀請好累累就直接拒絕你了。

論文標題應該要多長?

論文標題長度沒有一個統一的標準，更因為領域的不同而有極大的差異。一般推薦10-20 英文字，最長應該不超過30-35字，因為過長的標題可能隱射出你沒有能力簡潔的表達訊息。

就實際上來看，數學相關的學術論文標題最短 (~8 字)，而醫學論文相對來說比較長。 雖然論文標題的長短可能會在編輯審核階段影響接收率，但最近的一個研究顯示論文一旦發表後，標題長度並不真的降低你的論文影響力，這項研究分析了其他已發表的論文，結果顯示標題長度在生物學、心理學和社會科學的論文影響力之間出現負相關。但是一般來說，越長的標題不容易被讀者理解，如果讀者無法理解論文標題，他們有可能就不讀你的文章!

另外，我們也不鼓勵使用一堆名詞當標題，雖然最近 Nature刊登了一篇標題是”A chromosome conformation capture ordered sequence of the barley genome,” 的文章，但我們還是不推薦。

最後，期刊可能根據他們近期引用的文獻數據來推薦特定的長度或文法結構，所以請務必確認期刊的作者須知。

可以在標題中使用雙關語或押韻嗎?

學術論文不像我們常看到的新聞或雜誌一樣，它們比較不會作文章修飾。這是因為學術文章的讀者透過訂閱此類文章來汲取與他們研究相關的資訊，如果該文章沒有詳細介紹該研究，那麼論文可能就不太會被閱讀。

有幾位研究員搜索了最近已刊登的論文標題並發現雖然不符合傳統潮流但最近有整合雙關語和提問的趨勢。 這一個趨勢很可能是來自於學術數位化催生下的個人化影響。當然這樣的標題幫助作者取得更多的目光，看看最近國際知名期刊，例如Cell刊登的文章就有雙關語。可能只要你的研究夠傑出，就沒有人會在意你的論文標題吧!

然而，因為對於使用這些吸引目光戰術的論文價值多寡存有偏見，這些論文可能”影響力較低且較少被引用，即使下載數量多。” 雙關語通常涉及到特定文化背景裡的成語或慣用語組合，所以對於其他文化背景的讀者來說是相當難理解與產生共鳴。

總結:研究論文標題的Dos and Don’ts

• 可以用完整句子嗎?
  • 大致上看，避免使用整個句子當作標題，讀起來太過冗長。如果你還是想使用句子，建議精簡到只有最必要的名詞與最適切的動詞，如果你的數據不明確，舉例來說可以增加像是”could” 或”may”。
  • 社會科學論文鮮少使用完整句子當標題
  • 生命科學論文時常使用名詞化與句子標題
  • 文獻回顧報告也鮮少使用全句型標題; 大多使用名詞組合或複合標題
• 可以用提問嗎?
  • 雖然有增多的趨勢，但整體分析已發表的文章來看，這一類的標題還是低於10%，在社會科學比生命科學領域中常見。
• 可以用副標題?
  • 最常見的標題結構不是 “general + subtopic” 就是 “topic + method”。
  • 社會科學論文偏好複合標題。

額外閱讀

1. Hartley, James. Academic writing and publishing: a practical guide. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
2. Fox, Charles W., and C. Sean Burns. “The relationship between manuscript title structure and success: editorial decisions and citation performance for an ecological journal.” Ecology and Evolution10 (2015): 1970-980. Web.
3. Milojević, Staša. “The Length and Semantic Structure of Article Titles—Evolving Disciplinary Practices and Correlations with Impact.” Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics2 (2017): n. pag. Web.
4. Hartley, J. “New ways of making academic articles easier to read.” International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology1 (2012): 143-160.
5. Hays, Judith C. “Eight Recommendations for Writing Titles of Scientific Manuscripts.” Public Health Nursing2 (2010): 101-03. Web.
6. Jamali, Hamid R., and Mahsa Nikzad. “Article title type and its relation with the number of downloads and citations.” Scientometrics2 (2011): 653-61. Web.
7. Nature Blog
8. Journal of European Psychology Student blog

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