Typically, titles of articles are freely accessible online and thus are used when searching for relevant papers. For that reason, it is important that the title be clear and indicate the content of the article. A carefully written title will bring readers to your paper when they are searching for that topic. The title also is important because it is used for indexing articles in databases such as PubMed and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. If your article is a research report, the title should indicate the type of study, for example, "Participation in Online Nursing Courses: A Systematic Review." Titles should be concise, although studies have not indicated the best length. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association recommends that titles be no more than 12 words.1 If you find that your title is too long, look for unnecessary words to omit such as "creative" or "innovative." Some authors like to include subtitles; these are usually placed at the end of the main title after a colon. For example, in this issue, the title of an article is "Nursing Examinations: Promotion of Integrity and Prevention of Cheating." The subtitle should provide more details about the content in the article but should not include the keywords. The keywords should be in the main title. To get readers' attention, Annesley2 recommended that authors place the most important words in the beginning of the title, not toward the end. As 1 last point, avoid acronyms in titles. You may be familiar with them but readers may not.

Submitted by Marilyn H. Oermann, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN, Editor-in-Chief, Nurse Educator

References