Abstract

Since appropriate title writing is an important variable in terms of publishing and citing an article, this research examines the titles of internationally indexed articles published in the field of educational sciences in terms of content and format. Document analysis was conducted by reviewing 800 articles and titles in the Web of Science database according to the criteria determined by the researchers based on the literature. Statistical analyses were made using the SPSS 27.0 program on the content and title compatibility data. The finding showed that the sentence structure of the articles differed according to the countries of origin of the journals in which they were published. In addition, it was found that the titles of the journals with high impact factor gave their methodological tendencies more clearly. It was found that the impact factor is linearly and medium related to reaching potential title standards and word count. Analysis by quartile factors of journals showed that potential content standards differed significantly in favor of Q1 journals. According to the results of the difference analysis for the journals, there is a statistically significant difference between the four journals in terms of title potential standards and a ranking as Review of Educational Research (Q1), Education and Science (Q4), Educational Researcher (Q1) and Pedagogy (Q4) has emerged according to the averages. Within the scope of the results obtained, some suggestions were made to guide researchers in creating titles for their scientific studies.

Keywords: Titles, Academic writing, Document analysis, Educational research

References

  1. Aziz, A. (1974). Article Titles as Tools of Communication. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 4(1), 19-21. doi:10.2190/VECE-72HU-V2V9-MTC9
  2. American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the american psychological association (7th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Publishing.
  3. Annesley, T. M. (2010). The title says it all. Clinical Chemistry, 56(3), 357-360. doi:10.1373/clinchem.2009.141523
  4. Anthony, L. (2001). Characteristic features of research article titles in computer science. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 44(3), 187-194. doi:10.1109/47.946464
  5. Ball, R. (2009). Scholarly communication in transition: The use of question marks in the titles of scientific articles in medicine, life sciences and physics 1966-2005. Scientometrics, 79(3), 667-679. doi:10.1007/s11192-007-1984-5
  6. Bavdekar, S. B. (2016). Formulating the right title for a research. Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, 64(2), 53-56.
  7. Bayrak Karsli, M., Karabey, S., Cagiltay, N. E., & Goktas, Y. (2018). Comparison of the discussion sections of PhD dissertations in educational technology: the case of Turkey and the USA. Scientometrics, 117, 1381-1403. doi:10.1007/s11192-018-2955-8
  8. Berkenkotter, C., & Huckin, T. (1995). Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognition/culture/power. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  9. Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (2007). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods (5th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
  10. Bowen, G. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method, Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40. doi:10.3316/QRJ0902027
  11. Buter, R. K., & van Raan, A. F. J. (2011). Non-alphanumeric characters in titles of scientific publications: An analysis of their occurrence and correlation with citation impact. Journal of Informetrics, 5(4), 608-617. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2011.05.008
  12. Buxton, A. B., & Meadows, A. J. (1977). The variation ın the information content of titles of research papers with time and discipline. Journal of Documentation, 33(1), 46-52. doi:10.1108/eb026633
  13. Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç-Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö., Karadeniz, Ş., & Demirel, F. (2017). Bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri. Ankara: Pegem Akademi.
  14. Cheng, S. W., Kuo, C. W., & Kuo, C. H. (2012). Research article titles in applied linguistics. Journal of Academic Language and Learning, 6(1), A1-A14.
  15. Cianflone, E. (2012). Titles in veterinary medicine research articles. Circulo De Linguistica Aplicada A La Comunicacion, 52, 3-20.
  16. Cohen, J. (2013). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Cambridge: Academic Press.
  17. Creswell, J. W. (2017). Karma yöntem araştırmalarına giriş (M. Sözbilir, Ed. & Trans.). Ankara: Pegem Akademi Yayıncılık.
  18. Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. P. (2014). Karma yöntem araştırmaları: Tasarımı ve yürütülmesi (Y. Dede & S. B. Demir, Ed. & Trans.). Ankara: Anı Yayıncılık.
  19. Day, R. A. (1996). Bilimsel bir makale nasıl yazılır ve yayımlanır? (G. Aşkar Altay, Trans.). Ankara: Tübitak Yayınları.
  20. Deniz, K., & Karagöl, E. (2016). Eğitim bilimleri alanındaki lisansüstü tez başlıklarının kelime sayısı ve söz dizimi bakımından incelenmesi. Ana Dili Eğitimi Dergisi, 4(2), 258-260. doi:10.16916/ aded.00288
  21. Diao, J. (2021). A lexical and syntactic study of research article titles in Library Science and Scientometrics. Scientometrics, 126(7), 6041-6058.
  22. Diers, D., & Downs, F. S. (1994). Colonizing: A measurement of the development of a profession. Nursing Research, 43(5), 316-318.
  23. Dillon, J. T. (1981). Functions of the colon: An empirical test of scholarly character. Educational Research Quarterly, 5, 71-75.
  24. Dillon, J. T. (1982). In pursuit of the colon: A century of scholarly progress: 1880-1980. Journal of Higher Education, 53(1), 93-99.
  25. Dinno, A. (2015). Nonparametric pairwise multiple comparisons in independent groups using Dunn's test. The Stata Journal, 15(1), 292-300.
  26. Ecarnot, F., Seronde, M. F., Chopard, R., Schiele, F., & Meneveau, N. (2015). Writing a scientific article: A step-by-step guide for beginners. European Geriatric Medicine, 6(6), 573-579. doi:10.1016/j.eurger.2015.08.005
  27. Falahati Qadimi Fumani, M. R., Goltaji, M., & Parto, P. (2015). The impact of title length and punctuation marks on article citations. Annals of Library and Information Studies (ALIS), 62(3), 126-132.
  28. Field, A. P. (2024). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  29. Forray, J. M., & Woodilla, J. (2005). Artefacts of management academe: A discourse analysis of temporality in journal titles. Time & Society, 14(2-3), 323-339. doi:10.1177/0961463X05055142
  30. Galanis, P. (2013). Writing the title and the abstract of a research article. Archives of Hellenic Medicine/Arheia Ellenikes Iatrikes, 30(6), 734-741.
  31. Gesuato, S. (2008). Encoding of information in titles: Academic practices across four genres in linguistics. In C. Taylor (Ed.), The role of ecorpora in translation and language learning (pp. 127-157). Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste.
  32. Glaser, B. G, & Straus, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Piscataway, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
  33. Gómez, I. F., García, J. F. C., Silveira, J. C. P., & Gómez S. P. (1997). The writing of titles in academic research articles. In R. Marín Chamorro & Á. Romero Navarrete (Eds.), Lenguas aplicadas a las ciencias y la tecnología (pp. 155-158). Caceres: Caceres Universidada de Extremadura, Servicio de Publicaciones.
  34. Gómez, I. F., Gómez, S. P., García, J., & Silveira, J. C. P. (1998). Linguistic analysis of research article titles: Disciplinary variations. In I. V. Orta & I. G. Galve (Eds.), Perspectivas praguietices en linguistica aplicada (pp. 443-447). Anubar.
  35. Habibzadeh, F., & Yadollahie, M., (2010). Are shorter article titles more attractive for citations? Cross-sectional study of 22 scientific journals. Scientometrics, 51(2), 165-170. doi:10.3325/cmj.2010.51.165
  36. Haggan, M. (2004). Research paper titles in literature, linguistics and science: Dimensions of attraction. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(2), 293-317. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(03)00090-0
  37. Hallock, R. M., & Bennett, T. N. (2021). I’ll read that!: What title elements attract readers to an article?. Teaching of Psychology, 48(1), 26-31.
  38. Hartley, J. (2005). To attract or to inform: What are titles for?. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 35(2), 203-213. doi:10.2190/NV6E-FN3N-7NGN-TWQT
  39. Hartley, J. (2007). There's more to the title than meets the eye: Exploring the possibilities. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication. 37(1), 95-101. doi:10.2190/BJ16-8385-7Q73-1162
  40. Hudson, J. (2016). An analysis of the titles of papers submitted to the UK REF in 2014: authors, disciplines, and stylistic details. Scientometrics, 109(2), 871-889. doi:10.1007/s11192-016-2081-4
  41. Hyland, K., & Zou, H. J. (2022). Titles in research articles. Journal of Englısh For Academıc Purposes, 56, 1-13.
  42. Jacques, T. S., & Sebire, N. J. (2010). The impact of article titles on citation hits: an analysis of general and specialist medical journals. JRSM Short Reports, 1(1), 1-5.
  43. Jamali, H. R., & Nikzad, M. (2011). Article title type and its relation with the number of downloads and citations. Scientometrics, 88(2), 653-661. doi:10.1007/s11192-011-0412-z
  44. Jiang, F. K., & Hyland, K. (2023). Titles in research articles: Changes across time and discipline. Learned Publishing, 36(2), 239-248.
  45. Kan, M. O. (2017). Türkçe eğitimi ve edebiyat alanlarındaki makale başlıklarının sözdizimsel yapısı. Turkish Studies, 12(18), 409-420. doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.12057
  46. Kerans, M. E., Marshall, J., Murray, A., & Sabaté, S. (2020). Research article title content and form in high-ranked international clinical medicine journals. English for Specific Purposes, 60, 127-139. doi:10.1016/j.esp.2020.06.001
  47. Khan, M. A. W. (2023). The art of writing a “Title” for an original research paper. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education, 14(1), 70-77. doi:10.3329/bjme.v14i1.63685
  48. Kuch, T. D. C. (1978). Relation of title length to number of authors in journal articles. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 29(4), 200-202. doi:10.1002/asi.4630290408
  49. Lewinson, G., & Hartley, J. (2005). What’s in a title? Number of words and the presence of colons. Scientometrics, 63(2), 341-356. doi:10.1007/s11192-005-0216-0
  50. Li, Z., & Xu, J. (2019). The evolution of research article titles: the case of Journal of Pragmatics 1978-2018. Scientometrics, 121(3), 1619-1634.
  51. Manten, A. A., & Greenhalgh, J. F. D. (1977). Titles of scientific papers. Animal Feed Science and Technology, 2(1), 1 -6. doi:10.1016/0377-8401(77)90035-9
  52. Méndez, D. I., Ángeles Alcaraz, M., & Salager-Meyer, F. (2014). Erratum to: Titles in English-medium astrophysics research articles. Scientometrics, 98(3), 2331-2351.
  53. Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (3th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass Wiley Imprint.
  54. Michelson, G. (1994). Use of colons in titles and journal status in industrial relations journals. Psychological Reports, 74, 657-658.
  55. Mohebbi, A., & Douzandegan, Y. (2017). Linear regression analysis of title word count and article time cited using R. Journal of Scientometric Research, 6(1), 15-22.
  56. Nair, L. B., & Gibbert, M. (2016). What makes a ‘good’title and (how) does it matter for citations? A review and general model of article title attributes in management science. Scientometrics, 107(3), 1331-1359.
  57. Nord, C. (1995). Text-functions in translation: Titles and headings as a case in point. Target, 7(2), 261-284.
  58. Ortinau, D. J. (2011). Writing and publishing important scientific articles: A reviewer's perspective. Journal of Business Research, 64(2), 150-156. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2010.02.002
  59. Paiva, C. E., Lima, J. P. D. S. N., & Paiva, B. S. R. (2012). Articles with short titles describing the results are cited more often. Clinics, 67, 509-513.
  60. Pallant, J. (2020). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS (7th ed.). Oxfordshire: Routledge.
  61. Patton, M. Q. (2014). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  62. Rostami, F., Mohammadpoorasl, A., & Hajizadeh, M. (2014). The effect of characteristics of title on citation rates of articles. Scientometrics, 98(3), 2007-2010.
  63. Sagi, I., & Yechiam, E. (2008). Amusing titles in scientific journals and article citation. Journal of Information Science, 34(5), 680-687. doi:10.1177/0165551507086261
  64. Silverman, D. (2015). Interpreting qualitative data. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
  65. Silvia, P. J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing. NE, Washington, DC: APA Publishing.
  66. Suri, H. (2011). Purposeful sampling in qualitative research synthesis. Qualitative Research Journal, 11(2), 63-75. doi:10.3316/qrj1102063
  67. Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills (2nd ed). Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.
  68. Şimşek, E. S., Atila, G., Aydın, A., Reisoğlu, İ., & Göktaş, Y. (2022). Comparison of theoretical frameworks of doctoral theses on the field of instructional technology: The Turkey-US case. Library & Information Science Research, 44(1), 101138. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2022.101138
  69. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2015). Çok değişkenli istatistiklerin kullanımı (M. Baloğlu, Ed. & Trans.). Ankara: Nobel Yayın Dağıtım.
  70. Thelwall, M. (2017). Avoiding obscure topics and generalising findings produces higher impact research. Scientometrics, 110(1), 307-320.
  71. Van Wesel, M., Wyatt, S., & ten Haaf, J. (2014). What a difference a colon makes: How superficial factors influence subsequent citation. Scientometrics, 98(3), 1601-1615.
  72. Ufuk, Ş. P. (2017). Başlık ve noktalama: Akademik makale başlıkları üzerine art zamanlı bir dil bilim incelemesi. Akademik İncelemeler Dergisi, 12(1), 255-279. doi:10.17550/akademikincelemeler.286737
  73. Wang, Y., & Bai, Y. (2007). A corpus-based syntactic study of medical research article titles. System, 35(3), 388-399. doi:10.1016/j.system.2007.01.005
  74. Xiang, X., & Li, J. (2020). A diachronic comparative study of research article titles in linguistics and literature journals. Scientometrics, 122(2), 847-866.
  75. Yang, W. (2019). A diachronic keyword analysis in research article titles and cited article titles in applied linguistics from 1990 to 2016. English Text Construction, 12(1), 84-102.
  76. Yitzhaki, M. (1994). Relation of title length of journal articles to number of authors. Scientometrics, 30(1), 321-332. doi:10.1007/bf02017231

Copyright and license

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite

İskender Topaloğlu, M., Gürbüz, N., Çağıltay, N., & Göktaş, Y. (2025). Contextual, Formal and Correlational Examination of Article Titles Published in International Indexed Journals in the Field of Educational Sciences. Education and Science, 50(222), 205-224. https://doi.org/10.15390/EB.2025.13121