Twelve tips on writing abstracts and titles: How to get people to use and cite your work

The authors share 12 practical tips on creating effective titles and abstracts for a journal publication or conference presentation. When crafting a title authors should: (1) start thinking of the title from the start; (2) brainstorm many key words, create permutations, and ask others for input; (3) strive for an informative and indicative title; (4) start the title with the most important words; and (5) wait to finalize the title until the very end. When writing the abstract, authors should: (6) wait until the end to write the abstract; (7) copy and paste from main text as the starting point; (8) start with a detailed structured format; (9) describe what they did; (10) describe what they found; (11) highlight what readers can do with this information; and (12) ensure that the abstract aligns with the full text and conforms to submission guidelines.