Embedding in research article titles

The case of science and history

Authors

• Ping Alvin Leong Nanyang Technological University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61197/fjl.157572

Keywords:

titles, research articles, science, history, embedding, grammatical complexity

Abstract

Titles of research articles are the first few words to greet the reader, and therefore play a crucial role in influencing reader decisions on whether to access the articles or bypass them. Over the years, various aspects and features of titles have been investigated, but the extent of their grammatical complexity has not received adequate research attention. This diachronic study addressed this gap by focusing on grammatical embedding in research article titles. One thousand titles dating from 1886 to 2024 from Science and English Historical Review, two journals representing the disciplines of science and history, were compared. The analysis revealed that the majority of titles took the form of noun phrases (NPs), and that prepositional phrases (PPs) were the most common postmodifiers. In science titles, the use of embedded NPs in postmodifiers decreased steadily after peaking in 1950, indicating a possible move toward using fewer embedded NPs in the future. The use of embedded NPs in history titles lagged behind ranking NPs, with the gap widening after 1950; by 2024, the gap between ranking and embedded NPs was at its widest. Collectively, both science and history titles displayed a tendency to use less grammatical embedding, particularly after 1950. The recent preference for sentence titles in science also minimized embedding. This study highlights the changing titling preferences in science and history, and provides some guidance to help writers make their titles less complex. Several areas for further study are also recommended.

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