Dear Colleague: Show Your Article Title Some Love with These Tips

Jenny Chicca, PhD, RN, CNE, CNEcl

Senior Counselor and Associate Editor

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Clear, accurate, and engaging article titles maximize impact.

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Dear colleague, if you are anything like me, you are busy with many competing responsibilities. Personally, I have multiple jobs, two young kids, aging parents, chronic illnesses, and—in case that wasn’t enough—I also love to engage in scholarly pursuits like writing articles. As you can imagine, I need to make the most of my limited time. For my scholarly pursuits, I want to find literature easily, and I want my own work discoverable so that it does not go to waste. You may be in a similar situation.

A great way to make your work discoverable is by having an accurate and captivating title for your article. Titles are forward facing and they can capture a reader’s attention. Think about busy professionals like us. When we search the web or databases, we are scanning titles to see if we want to read an article. Of course, titles can come in various formats like statements, questions, and quotes. But how do you make an accurate and captivating title? Well, one size certainly does not fit all, but allow me to offer you some tips which will help you show your article title some love.

Start with the Title

You may want to show your title so much love that you actually write it first. Starting your writing process with your title may help get your creative juices flowing, as well as it can focus you. Remember you aren’t writing a book—it’s an article. So, starting with the title “constrains your writing in a good way.”¹ Not only does starting with the title focus my work, but it also makes my article feel like a real article and I feel obligated to finish it. That mentality helps keep me motivated throughout writing processes. I will say, once I fully develop an article title, it doesn’t usually change. But colleague, that is just me. Start with the title if that works for you.

Review and Follow Journal Requirements

No matter when you write your title, let’s go over specific tips for showing your article title some love. First, once you sketch out preliminary ideas, you should identify two to three target journals for your article. You’ll want to see if your target journals have length or format requirements before you are wedded (see what I did there?) to your article title. For example, journals may have requirements that certain types of titles are used—or avoided. Types of article titles may include:

• Declarative titles where the main finding is discussed.
• Descriptive titles where the topic is outlined.
• Interrogative titles where a question is posed.

I tend to use descriptive titles based on my usual topics, formats, and target journals. But I have tried all three. Your article titles can be just a few words or phrases, or even entire sentences. Titles can use punctuation marks like colons, periods, and question marks. But they are typically 10-15 words. Again, look at your target journals—they’ll be the final word on requirements. To illustrate this point, let’s look at a few author guidelines related to title requirements:^2-5

Journal	Title Requirements
American Journal of Nursing	No proprietary or trade names. Include the type of review in the title (e.g., “A Scoping Review”) when applicable.
Journal of Professional Nursing; Teaching and Learning in Nursing	Article titles should be concise and informative. Avoid abbreviations.
The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing	Titles should be 10-12 words if possible to increase searchability and visibility.

You may notice similar requirements among publishers. Be sure you show your article titles some love by reviewing—and following—target journal requirements.

Colleague, I also encourage you to think hard before you use an interrogative article title. Interrogative titles may lead your reader to ask things like will this article answer the question? Or, is the point of this article to land on the question? Sometimes, interrogative titles lead to more questions than readers.

Consider Typical Titles

Another way to show your article title some love would be to review typical titles for your discipline, as naming conventions can be discipline-specific.⁶ Once again, look at your target journals for ideas. You can pull up a journal’s table of contents from a few recent issues, or you can go to a journal’s website where they might list their highly cited or featured articles. What do you see there? How long are the article titles? Are they declarative, descriptive, or interrogative? Broad or specific? Or a mix?

Now, why am I suggesting you look at a journal’s table of content or website? If you follow journal requirements, what does it matter? Good question, colleague. It matters because the articles listed by the journal—like in a table of content or on a website—were published by the journal before. The authors, peer reviewers, and editors all felt that article and its title were an appropriate fit for the journal. So, if you use a similar format, hopefully your accurate title will also be captivating and accepted for publication.

Start Long, Go Shorter

Another tip I have for you is to start long and go shorter. Now that you’ve done your homework—knowing target journal requirements and typical titles published in the discipline—you can write your title with love. You’ll want to list your topic, methods or concepts, results, and keywords. Squeeze that all into one title (remember we are starting long then going shorter). If you are unsure what keywords to use, open up a database such as the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) or PubMed (which uses Medical Subject Headings or MeSH terms). Type words or phrases you think others might use to find your article. The databases will let you know the “official” keywords. For example, say you are writing an article on generational studies in nursing education. Using the CINAHL database, your keywords might be (depending on your specific focus):

• Baby Boomer generation
• Generation X
• Generation Y or Millennial
• Generation Z
• Generational differences
• Nursing education
• Nursing students

Next, you’ll need to decide which words or phrases will stay as keywords, and which related words or phrases will be in your title. Since titles and keywords are used to index your article, you don’t want to repeat them in both places. Once you have the long version of your title, it’s time to take out unnecessary words or phrases. You may be thinking, what can I remove? Another great question, colleague. Examples of unnecessary words or phrases include:

• A
• An
• The
• A study of
• A review of
• The effect of
• Aspects of
• Revisiting

But let’s say it is important that the reader knows that you performed a qualitative study. In that case, instead of writing, “A qualitative study of …” you could remove this information from the title and use terms like “qualitative research” or “qualitative investigation” as keywords. However, you may not need to announce that your article reported a research study at all. For example, let’s consider an article that I wrote with Dr. Teresa Shellenbarger, another counselor here at Writer’s Camp. In our article, “Nursing faculty roles in prelicensure baccalaureate clinical preceptorships,”⁷ we shared the results of a study about—you guessed it—the faculty role in clinical preceptorships. Perhaps you can see how adding “A study of …” would’ve been unnecessary.

Also, a quick note about research article titles and participant quotes. Though it may be tempting and may grab attention, consider if a single quote is truly representative of all participants’ experiences and if it really conveys the substance of the article.⁸ Consider this (fictitious) title: ‘No one ever told me it would be this hard.’ Is this title really meaningful for the reader, or is using a single quote more click bait than it is accurate? Would a person using Google Scholar have any idea what your article is about?

Another tip is to avoid adding a geographic location to your title. Not only does this make your article title longer, but it can discourage audiences from reading your article as they may think the content is not applicable to them.⁸ Instead, highlight the location in a more general way if it is important to the content: urban or rural; regional, national, or international; or social determinants of health. For example, consider: “Maternal health outcomes in an urban, low socioeconomic status community” versus “Maternal health outcomes in underserved neighborhoods of South Chicago.”

Remember to use active voice while avoiding jargon, abbreviations, numerals, and acronyms. You don’t want to make your title difficult to read, nor do you want to confuse your reader. Starting long and going shorter shows your article some love, making it accurate and captivating.

Think About Your Words

Before you finalize your title, take a moment to look at the words themselves. Small choices can make a noticeable difference in how your work is received.

One useful strategy is to incorporate a power word—a word that signals clarity, value, or contribution without adding unnecessary length.⁹ Examples include: simple, improved, focused, fundamental, successful, quality, promising, innovative, emerging, opportunities, expert, pioneering, and timely. These words help position your work and give readers a sense of why it matters.

For example, Dr. Shellenbarger and I titled one of our articles Recommendations for quality data collection to drive the evidence for nursing education.¹⁰ Can you see how the word quality strengthens the contribution? And how drive adds a sense of purpose and action?

That said, power words should be used sparingly and intentionally. A title overloaded with adjectives can feel promotional rather than scholarly. In most cases, one well-chosen word is enough.

It is also worth paying attention to the tone created by your word choices. Titles that emphasize deficits or problems—using words such as failure, lack, barriers, or challenges—can sometimes frame the work more negatively than intended. While such terms may be appropriate in certain contexts, consider whether a more neutral or constructive framing would better reflect your contribution. For example, barriers to implementation might be reframed as factors influencing implementation, depending on the focus of the study.

Finally, be cautious with vague or overused terms such as impact, implications, or insights unless they are clearly supported by the content of the paper. Precision is always more persuasive than generality.

The goal is not to make your title sound impressive—it is to make it clear, accurate, and inviting. A thoughtfully chosen word or two can help your title do exactly that.

Get Help

There is also nothing wrong with getting help to show your article title some love. You could draft three to five titles (in doing my scholarly due diligence, one website I reviewed suggested having five to ten titles drafted, but that would be overload for me) and share them with:

• Discipline-specific colleagues that you trust. Normally I advocate for people outside your discipline to review your work, but here it might be helpful to get the insider scoop—especially someone who is familiar with the publishing world. But make sure you trust this individual to offer honest criticism and to keep your work confidential (somewhere, my engineering husband is celebrating that he doesn’t have to review my title options). Discipline-specific colleagues can ascertain your title’s accuracy, as well as if it would captivate them into reading.
• Individuals outside your discipline too. Would they want to read your article? This is a great metric for captivating a general audience. Oops, sending my apologies to my husband David: you’re still going to have to look at a title from time to time.
• Artificial intelligence or AI—or as we say at Writer’s Camp, Counselor Byte. This is—in fact—a big way I use Counselor Byte’s skills when I write for publication (I also like help with examples). When I have a topic and a few title ideas, I bounce ideas back and forth. AI can critique your ideas, help you come up with or revise titles, or it can even help you shift the tone by making titles more catchy or professional.

Let’s revisit the last bullet point for just a moment and look at a prompt I used with Counselor Byte for this article. My prompt was: I am writing an article for The Writer’s Camp Journal about how to write an effective article title. Can you make some suggestions? I had ideas, but Counselor Byte gave me more. You can use presented titles as is or ask AI to revise them based on tone—like professional, friendly, practical—and journal requirements. Believe me, the possibilities are endless.

Conclusion

It is important to show your article title some love. You may or may not start by writing your title, but you should review and follow journal requirements, consider typical titles, start long then go shorter, think about your words, and get help. Accurate and captivating titles help others find and use your presented work.

References

1. Isusr. Start with a title. LessWrong [Blog]. Published October 30, 2021. Accessed January 24, 2026. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cGcpf8jFWTtGroeJJ/start-with-a-title
2. American Journal of Nursing. Information for authors. Published January 2025. Accessed January 24, 2026. https://edmgr.ovid.com/ajn/accounts/ifauth.pdf
3. Teaching and Learning in Nursing. Guide for authors. Published 2026. Accessed January 24, 2026. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/teaching-and-learning-in-nursing/publish/guide-for-authors
4. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Author submission guidelines. Published 2025. Accessed January 24, 2026. https://ojin.nursingworld.org/about-ojin/author-guidelines/
5. Journal of Professional Nursing. Guide for authors. Published 2026. Accessed January 24, 2026. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-professional-nursing/publish/guide-for-authors
6. Hyland K, Zou H. Titles in research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes. 2022; 56(March 2022):101094. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2022.101094
7. Chicca J, Shellenbarger T. Nursing faculty roles in prelicensure baccalaureate clinical preceptorships. Nursing Education Perspectives. 2021; 42(2):98-100.doi:10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000614
8. Cleland J. ‘What’s in a name?’ Writing an effective and engaging article title. Medical Teacher. 2025; 47(6):909-910. doi:10.1080/0142159X.2025.2488697
9. Muldoon P. How to craft article titles that catch your audience’s attention. Published July 18, 2024. Updated November 7, 2024. Accessed January 24, 2026. https://coschedule.com/headlines/article-titles
10. Shellenbarger T, Chicca J. Recommendations for quality data collection to drive the evidence for nursing education. Nursing Education Perspectives. 2024;45(1):3-4. doi:10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001223

AI Disclosure: Artificial intelligence (ChatGPT-5) was used to help develop the article’s title and its examples.

Author: Jenny Chicca

Reviewed and Edited by: Anjie Raber and Leslie Nicoll

Copyright © 2026 Writer’s Camp and Jenny Chicca. CC-BY-ND 4.0

Citation: Chicca J. Dear Colleague: Show your article title some love with these tips. The Writer’s Camp Journal. 2026; 2(2): 4. doi:10.5281/zenodo.19696693