Can you shorten article titles when writing about them?
The title of an article can be an important part of the content of the article, as it serves as a signpost for readers browsing a journal or reading articles on their computer. In addition, many journals require a running head or short title that is included in submitted manuscripts. These short titles are usually cited at the top of each published page in an article and help readers navigate a print journal or toggling between multiple papers in PDF format.
In general, a good title should communicate the content of an article without providing too much or too little information. This is called an efficient title. To paraphrase the statistician Edward Tufte, a title that is efficient maximizes the ratio of information communicated to its length.
If an author has provided a long title for an article, it may be possible to shorten the title within in-text citations, such as a quotation or statistic that is given in a work that does not have a complete title, or within the Works Cited list. Ideally, the shortened phrase should be similar to the first two or three words of the title and should not interfere with the reader’s ability to locate the source on the Works Cited list.
A recent analysis of 4,000 titles from the Web of Science database, published by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters), found that the average or mean title length was 12.3 words. This estimate, however, is subject to error and depends on the subject area, publication year, and the definition of a journal article. Nevertheless, the research suggests that short titles can be as effective in communicating information to readers as longer titles.
