Titles of Articles in Human Movement Science Journals

Medved Krajnović, Marta and Omrčen, Darija. (2012). Titles of Articles in Human Movement Science Journals. Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia, 57. pp. 123-139. ISSN 0039-3339

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Abstract

The role of academic journals is well recognized by the members of scientific community. Consequently, the titles of articles published in them are also of importance since, by reflecting the contents of articles, they consequently mirror the scientific inquiry done in a particular scientific discipline. The aim of our study was to identify possible differences in terms of structure and type of information conveyed in the 654 titles of articles published in two diff erent human movement science journals – Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and Kinesiology. The titles were analysed as regards their structural construction and the type of information that they present to prospective readers. The structural construction categories addressed the total of six groups: nominal group titles, compound titles (subsuming the nominal group/ nominal group combinations), full-sentence titles, question titles, compound titles consisting of a nominal group and a question, and compound titles consisting of a nominal group and a full sentence. Additional six groups were formed in terms of information that a title presents to a reader – the actual subject matter of research without any additional information; both the subject matter of research and the information regarding a sample; the subject matter of research complemented by an information on a relation (effect, comparison, infl uence, difference, etc.) between the phenomena observed; the subject of research supplemented by information both on a relation between the phenomena and on the sample; the subject matter extended by information on statistical method(s) used; and the subject matter accompanied by information both on the statistical method used and on the sample. Pearson chi-square test was used to identify any possible differences between the two journals as regards the structural (grammatical) construction and the type-of-information-conveyed categories of titles. The analysis showed that the titles in the two journals differed both in terms of their grammatical construction as well as in terms of the type of information conveyed. A tentative conclusion is therefore drawn that editorial policy is a decisive factor, although not the only one, both for the structural construction of the titles and for the types of information included in the titles.

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