Studies With Shorter Titles May Be More Successful
How Not To Write A Good Journal Title Nucleic Acids Research/Modified by Popular Science If you’re looking to cure your insomnia, try reading a scientific journal. If jargon, confusing abbreviations, statistics, and rampant use of the passive tone doesn't put you to sleep, who knows what will. The typical excuse for why scientific studies are so poorly written is that they’re produced for experts—there’s just not enough time or space to provide all the necessary background information for a novice. Well, it turns out that even scientists themselves can't understand a lot of the techno-babble. A new analysis of 140,000 papers suggests that studies with shorter titles are cited more often by other scientists, and according to the authors, it may be because these papers are easier to comprehend. In the world of science,...