Effective titles, keywords, and abstracts can make your publications more discoverable in academic databases and public search engines.
This can boost your visibility to researchers and wider audiences and increase your citation rate - particularly if your research is open access.
Strategic use of keywords can also highlight your research in the areas of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Titles, keywords and abstracts
See how you can use titles, keywords and abstracts effectively.
Titles
- Be descriptive and specific: use clear and concise language to describe the main topic and findings of your research.
- Include key terms: incorporate important keywords that potential readers might use when searching for this topic.
- Avoid jargon and cryptic language: use terms that are widely understood within your field to ensure broader accessibility.
Keywords
- Identify core concepts: choose keywords that represent the main themes and findings of your research.
- Use synonyms and related terms: think about different ways your topic might be described and include those variations.
- Check popular keywords: look at similar articles to see which keywords are frequently used.
- Consider controlled vocabularies: check the thesaurus or subject headings on subject-focused databases.
Abstracts
- Summarise key points: provide a brief overview of your research question, methods, results, and conclusions. Include your keywords.
- Highlight significance: explain why your research is important and what contributions it makes to the field.
- Keep it concise: aim for clarity and brevity, ensuring that the abstract is easy to read and understand.
Additional tips
- Be consistent: make sure that the terms you use in your title, keywords, and abstract are consistent throughout your article.
- Follow journal guidelines: check the requirements of the journal or repository where you are submitting your article.
- Regularly update your profile: Keep your researcher profiles up to date with your latest research and keywords.
SDG keywords
Using Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) keywords in your publications’ titles, abstracts and author keywords highlights your research in these areas.
Mapping to SDGs can increase your visibility and citation rates and contribute to Massey’s SDG impact ranking.
SDG 11 word cloud by SciVal
Where to find SDG keywords
These sources provide ideas for SDG keywords:
- Elsevier 2023 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Mapping. Used for the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings. Tip: download an SDG description then open to see a word cloud, searchable SDG keywords and more.
- SDGs in SciVal. Provides word clouds and further analysis (staff login required).
- The University of Auckland SDG Keywords Mapping. Builds on the UN and THE processes.
- Massey University mapping to SDGs on Scopus. Maps Massey-authored documents to SDGs (staff login required).
- Scopus author profiles. Maps documents to SDGs under the impact tab of author profiles.
Scopus author profiles map documents to SDGs
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