In the Name of GodIn the Name of God

Topics• Title

• Abstract

• Keywords

By Afsaneh Shirani

Title• Importance• How to write • Features of ideal title

- content - length - style

- Uniform Requirements - CONSORT - Different Journals’ format

Abstract• Article Abstract vs Seminar Abstract

• Structured vs Non-structured

• Importance

• Ideal abstract

• Uniform Requirements

• Samples

Keywords

• How to choose ?

• Number

Title• Importance• How to write • Features of ideal title

- content - length - style

- Uniform Requirements - CONSORT - Different Journals’ format

Importance of Title

First level regarding : Reviewrs

Readers

“Thousands read titles , few read papers”.

Researcher

Do not neglect the title !

How to write a title ?

• Focus on research question I am studying ….My study looks at ….

• Focus on result My study showed that …..

• Appearance of key features in title

Example I am studying wheather treatment with

mouthwash is effective in reducing the incidence of oral candidiasis

or My study showed that treatment with

mouthwash reduces the incidence of oral candidiasis

Key feature of your study : randomized , blinded

Title : A randomized Blinded Trial of Mouthwash in the Prevention of Oral Candidiasis

Formula for Title of Hypothesis Testing Papers : Effect of X on Y in Z

X = independent variableY = dependent variableZ = animal/population or material ( on

which the work was done )

eg The Effects of Estrogen on Nose-Twitch Courtship Behavior in Mice

Another formula :Effect of Y in Z

Example :

Platelet Activation in Patients with Angina

Ideal title

– Informative vs Indicative– Simple , unambiguous and understandable– Specific– Self explanatory– Catchy– Containing keywords describing the work– Concise , no unnecessary detail– No waste words or redundancy – Avoid abbreviation & chemical formulations– Avoid jargon

Is it always easy to completely identify the main topic of paper in title ?

No , sometimes difficult !

Especially if the paper has multiple dependent variables.

So focus on the main ones or use a category term eg extrapulmonary tuberculsosis

Example

• My study showed that women were more likely than men to discuss diet , sleep , exercise with their doctors

• Effect of Patient Gender on Patient-Physician Communication About Lifestyle

Specificity of Title Example :

• Actions of Antibiotics on Bacteria

• Actions of Streptomycin on Mycobacterium tuberculosis

• Inhibition of Growth in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Streptomycin

Consice

The fewest words to adequately

convey contents

How many words in title ?

• Very few good titles can be expressed in fewer than 5 to 8 words.

• Try to keep the total number < 20 • If possible at most 100 letters ( 8 words )• 7 to 10 words• 8 to 12 words• 10 to 12 words , although shorter or longer titles

are permissible• Not longer that 2 lines

Put an important word first in your title

Exampel 1:

Absence of an effect of liposuction on insulin action and risk factors for coronary heart disease

New England Journal of Medicne

June 2004

Put an important word first in your title

Example 2 :

Regression of carotid atherosclerosis by control of postprandial hyperglycemia in type 2 diabeted mellitus

Circulation July 2004

No waste words !So avoid phrases such as :

– Observations on……– Investigations on…..– Using a……– Aspects of…..– A study of…..– The influence of– The analysis of – The effect of– Action of….– New method ….

The effects of ?

• The Effects of Estrogen on Nose-Twitch Courtship Behavior in Mice

A method for ?

• A method for purifying GPIIb/IIIa from platelet membranes

• Noninvasive method for monitoring blood gasses in the newborn

Using ?

Using child reported respiratory symptoms to diagnose asthma in the community

Archive of Disease in Childhood June 2004

Study population in title ?

Mention if

• A unique population is studied

• It’s a population based studies

• It really matters

• Human subjects assumed unless stated otherwise

Example

Change in suicide rates for patients with schizophrenia in Denmark, 1981-97: nested case-control study

BMJ 2004

Study design in title ?

• A title shoud indicate the study’s design

• Necessary about randomized controlled trials

Example

Does the cannabinoid dronabinol reduce central pain in multiple sclerosis? Randomised double blind placebo controlled crossover trial

BMJ 2004

Examples

Prospective cohort study of retinal vessel diameters and risk of hypertension

BMJ June 2004

Example

Correct use of the Apgar score for resuscitated and intubated newborn babies: questionnaire study

BMJ 2004

Project name in title ?

Example 1 :

Randomized controlled trial of effects of Helicobacter pyroli infection and its eradication on heartburn and gastro-oesophageal reflux : Bristol helicobacter project

BMJ 2004

Project name in title ?

Example 2 :

Intracoronary autologous bone-marrow cell transfer after myocardial infarction: the BOOST randomized controlled clinical trial

Lancet 2004

How about an assertive title ?

• Increases reviewer’s skeptisism

• Decreases objectivity

However it’s a matter of style .

Question as title ?

• Catchy

But

• Better not to use at least for non senior investigators

Examples

Topical capsaicin for chronic pain ?

Is lactulose effective for hepatic encephalopathy ?

How promising is hematopoetic stem cell transplantation in multiple sclerosis ?

Question as title ?

Does article type play a role ?

Abbreviations in title ?

• Sometimes seen !

examples : vs. , versus

CD4 OTC HIV TB DOTS

Do not use words arousing emotion !

eg : x disaster / tragedy vs x war

Uniform Requirements and Title

Concise titles are easier to read than long , convoluted ones . Titles that are too short may , however , lack important information, such as study design ( which is particularly important in identifying randomized controlled trials ).

Uniform Requirements and Title

Authors should include all information in the title that will make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific.

Avoid abbreviations in the title.

Title and CONSORT Statement

How participants were allocated to interventions

eg “ random allocation” ,

“randomized” ,

or “randomly assigned”

Instruction for AuthorsNature

Titles do not exceed 90 characters (including spaces), and do not normally include numbers, acronyms, abbreviations or punctuation. They should include sufficient detail for indexing purposes but be general enough for readers outside the field to appreciate what the paper is about.

Recommendations from a Technical Writers’ Handbook

• Do not overuse prepositional phrases

• Consider using modifiers

Example

• Analysis of Hydroelastic Vibrations of Shells Partially Filled with a Liquid ….

• Hydroelastic Vibration Analysis of Partially Liquid-Filled Shells ….

Recommendations from a Technical Writers’ Handbook

A string of unit modifiers can be

as awkward as

a series of prepositional phrases

Recommendations from a Technical Writers’ Handbook

Changing verb-derived nouns to verbals- Livening up the title

- Removing prepositions

eg Alleviation of x vs Alleviating x

Title for descriptive papers• For a descriptive paper that describes a new

structure or function, the title names the structure and describes its function.

• The structure is the first word of the title, followed by a comma, a colon or the rest of a sentence.

• Example : CDC20 and CDH1: a family of Activators of

Anaphase-Promoting-Complex-Dependent Proteolysis

Other examples for use of colon • Sex matters: secular and geographical trends in

sex differences in coronary heart disease mortality

• Depression as a risk factor for ischaemic heart disease in men: population based case-control study

• Doctors' perceptions of palliative care for heart failure: focus group study

•Informative–subject matter–study design–study population

•Information clearly presented

•NO unnecessary detail

The ideal Title - a personal view

So ,

Craft an informative ( but non-cute! ) title that uses keywords that tell the reader what the paper is about .

Finally ,

• Read through your title and think about how it might be interpreted

• Ask

Colleagues

Coauthors

Coinvestigators

Persons not familiar with your study

And remember that

Revision does not always make your title shorter!

Sometimes adding two words can make your title more consice , because it may say so much more with only two more words !

“The messanger can hide

the message !”

!

Before taking a break , lets do an exercise !

• Let’s write a title for the following research topic :

بررسي صحت عاليم باليني در تشخيص ضايعات كنتراانديكه پونكسيون لومبر در

بيماران مشكوك بهمننژيت حاد

NowLet’s have a break !

Abstract• Article Abstract vs Seminar Abstract

• Structured vs Non-structured

• Importance

• Ideal abstract

• Uniform Requirements

• Samples

Abstracts

Article Abstract

vs

Seminar Abstract (more important)

Article Abstract

• Precedes the original paper

or

• Stand alone in a publication designed specifically for abstracts eg chemical abstarcts

Importance of Abstracts

Second in importance to the paper title

For many published papers, this may be all anyone ever reads as it’s the preview of what’s to come

Importance of Abstracts

They allow other scientists to quickly scan the large scientific literature, and decide which articles they want to read in depth.

An interesting exemplification !

• You read down the titles. Like a fish at bait, you 'nibble' at an interesting one by flipping to the article itself. Then, you read the abstract. Here is where the author 'sets the hook'. If it's interesting, you read the article. If it is not, the author has lost you and you start to nibble on other titles again.

A hint !

• The abstract should be a little less technical than the article itself

Article abstractsStructured

vs

Non-structured( usually in 1 paragraph )

In any case , brevity is essential.

So be selective.

The craft of writing an abstract

as an article’s miniature

Abstract is very difficult to write;

it will take more time to write than any other paragraph in the

whole paper.

Structured Abstracts

• Introduction

• Methods

• Result

• Conclusion

NEJM Abstracts

• Backbround

• Methods

• Results

• Conclusions

BMJ Abstracts• Objectives• Design• Setting• Outcome measures• Results• Conclusion

J Neurol Neurosurg PsychiatryAbstracts

• Objective• Design• Methods• Results• Conclusions

Introduction

• Answer why was it important to do this study ?

• Do not assume that the answer is obvious.• Sometimes stating limitations of previous

studies helps .• No jargon , no run-on sentences • Preferably no abbreviations or acronym• Write in plain English

Methods• Describe

Study design

Who was studied

What you measured

How you analysed the data

• Specify number of subjects , by group if appropriate

Results (meat of experiment)

• Emphasize the main finding of the study.

• Make sure your effect size is clear.

• State your key results in words followed by the numbers.

• It is better to be thorough than broad-based.

Example

Suppose you find that hypertensive patients who take calcium channel blocker are more likely to have strokes. It is more important to present your results by type of calcium channel blocker ( long-acting vs. short-acting ) and by type of stroke ( ischemic vs. hemorrahgic ) , and to show that patients taking other antihypertensive medications did not have an increased risk , than to present extraneous data with small P values such as finding that “ patients who took diuretic medications had more gallstones ( p<.01).”

Conclusion

• What do you think your results mean ? • Make a reasonable statement about the

implications of your results.• If another study is needed , then state what

sort of study it should be. • One quick test : If you could have written

your conclusion before you knew your results , then you have not concluded anything. Start over.

When to write ?

Last !

Because it will summarize the paper

A suggested order :

1) Methods

2 ) Results

3 ) Introduction

4 ) Discussion

5 ) Abstract

Preferred Style

• Past tense

• Passive voice

• However , present tense and active voice may be used.

How lenghty ?

200 – 300 words

( a typical standard lengh for journals )

Roughly 3% of length of paper

A suggested propotion for sections of abstracts

1 . 2 . 2 . 1

eg 40 , 80 , 80 , 40

One abstract or two ?!

• There are no established guideline . Common sence and talking with mentors

can provide some guidance.

• One abstract per research question , and one research question per abstract

• If two abstracts have similar background and methods section , they probably should be combined.

Example 1

Change 1. Diabetes increases morbidity following

carotid endarterectomy 2 . Mortality after carotid artery surgery is

related to preoperative cholesterol levelTo: Effects of diabetes and

hypercholesterolemia on outome after carotid surgery

Example 2Change

Psychological and hematological predictorsof survival with leukemia

To :

1. Psychological factors associated with poor prognosis in leukemia

2. Survival with leukemia : hematological markers

Abstract is only text

• No reference• No table• No figure

• It should stand alone without any footnotes

Be careful about these Do Nots!

• No number , all talk

• All number , no words

• Too many abbreviations , too much data

• Overuse of respectively

Example

Do not write :• “The risk of glaucoma in white men , black

men , Asian men , white women , black women , Asian women were 8% , 12% , 6% , 4% , 6% and 3%, respectively. “

• This phrasing slows down and confuses the reader.

Example

• Instead you can write :

“ Glaucoma was more common in men than women, and in blacks than in other racial groups . The risks in men were 8% in whites , 12% in blacks , and 6% in Asians ; in women , they were 4% in whites , 6% in blacks , and 3% in Asians.”

Uniform Requirements and Abstract• An abstract (requirements for length and

structured format vary by journal) should follow the title page. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and should state the study's purposes, basic procedures (selection of study subjects or laboratory animals, observational and analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. It should emphasize new and important aspects of the study or observations.

Uniform Requirements and Abstract• Because abstracts are the only substantive

portion of the article indexed in many electronic databases, and the only portion many readers read, authors need to be careful that abstracts reflect the content of the article accurately. Unfortunately, many abstracts disagree with the text of the article (6). The format required for structured abstracts differs from journal to journal, and some journals use more than one structure; authors should make it a point prepare their abstracts in the format specified by the journal they have chosen

What to do if your abstract is too long ?

1 . Does it requires a major surgery ?

2 . Is it possibe to eliminate some words , combine two sentences or make some words hyphenated ?

ExampleChange We enrolled 124 subjects with rheumatoid

arthritis from the rheumatology clinic. They were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=63) or a control group (n=61).

To Rheumatoid arthritis patients followed in the

rheumatology clinic were randomly assigned to an intervention (n=63) to control group

( n=61).

ExampleChange

In order to accurately measure vitamin C levels in subject’s serum , we used a modification of the Bryant Technique.

To

We measured serum vitamin C level by modifying the Bryant Technique.

ExampleChange “Some previous studies have found that

exposure to sunlight in infancy is associated with the subsequent development of melanoma. Other studies have not confirmed this effect. We prospectively studied ….”

To “To determine whether exposure to sunlight in infancy is associated with the development of melanoma , we prospectively studied….”

Does your abstract offer enough information ?

Imagine you are another researcher doing a similar study .

Would you be happy with the information presented there ?

Keywords

• Number :

3 to 10 words or short phrases

3 to 5 words

Uniform Requirements & Keywords

• Some journals request that, following the abstract, authors provide, and identify as such, 3 to 10 key words or short phrases that capture the main topics of the article. These will assist indexers in cross-indexing the article and may be published with the abstract.

Uniform Requirements & Keywords

• Terms from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus should be used; if suitable MeSH terms are not yet available for recently introduced terms, present terms may be used.