Successful Scientific Writing and Publishing: A Step-by-Step Approach

Part 1 of the figure shows 3 different versions of a title for a study about race and oral cancer in Georgia. The first version, “Racial Differences in Survival With Oral Cancer in Georgia,” is only 56 characters long but includes only the topic of the study. The second version, “Reduced Survival Among Black Patients With Oral Cancer in Georgia After Controlling for Known Risk Factors: 1978–2001,” is 117 characters long but includes the study’s topic, methods, and results. The third version,” Subgroups of Black Patients With Reduced Survival From Oral Cancer After Controlling for Known Risk Factors: Georgia SEER Registry, 1978–2001,” is 141 characters long and includes the study’s topic, methods, results, and the name of the data set (Georgia SEER Registry). The second part of the figure shows 2 different versions of a title for a study about a mumps outbreak. The first version, “Prevalence of Asymptomatic Mumps Virus Shedding Among Vaccinated College Students During a Mumps Outbreak — Washington, February–June 2017,” includes only the topic, whereas the second version, “Absence of Asymptomatic Mumps Virus Shedding Among Vaccinated College Students During a Mumps Outbreak — Washington, February–June 2017,” includes information about both the topic and the results.

Figure 1.
Two examples of title options for a single study.

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