CMM’s Keep-it-Brief correspondent reports research that finds, “articles with short titles describing the results are cited more often”

Brazilian researcher Carlos Eduardo Paiva and colleagues looked at articles published in PLoS and Biomed Central journals to find short titles “presenting results and conclusions” are associated with higher citation counts.

What does not work as well are headlines with question-marks and which are location-specific.

The authors suggest; “shorter-titled articles are cited more often because they are viewed more often.”

Who would have thought.

An example of what Mr Paiva and colleagues don’t have in mind has landed on the KiB correspondent’s desk, Simon McGrath et al. “New VET theories for new times: the critical capabilities approach to vocational education and training and its potential for theorising a transformed and transformational VET.” (Journal of VET, June 25).