Using keywords to write your title and abstract

Writing your title and abstract are often the final things you do before you submit an article. However, it is very important not to rush this process as they are both crucial for making your article easy to discover and telling readers what they can expect to learn.

Follow the advice below to help you choose your keywords, and make sure your title and abstract are as effective as possible.

Choosing keywords for your research paper

Selecting the right keywords is how to start a good title and abstract, as well as helping the right readers find your article online.

When you submit your article you need to include keywords. These will be used to index your article on The Primary Education Journal and on search engines such as Google Scholar.

These keywords will help others find your article quickly and accurately. Think of them as the labels for your article. A strong correlation exists between online hits and subsequent citations for journal articles, therefore it is important to have effective keywords.

But how do you choose your keywords? Put yourself in the mindset of someone searching for articles on your topic, what words or phrases would you enter?

Basic tips for creating your keyword list

  • Read through your paper and highlight any key terms or phrases that are most relevant to the focus of your work.
  • Draw up a shortlist.
  • Try searching with your keywords to make sure the results fit with your article and so you can see how useful they would be to others.
  • Narrow down your keywords to make sure they are as accurate as possible.
  • Review your final list and ask yourself, will these keywords be most effective at indexing my article online?

Sustainable Development Goal keywords

As more research continues to make important contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we want to support authors in drawing attention to the relevance of their work.

We have recently introduced a set of SDG keywords to selected journals and these keywords will be used to tag papers related to each SDG. This tagging will better highlight the research to readers and enable readers to search for all papers on Taylor & Francis Online using that keyword, with the collection growing over time as tagged papers are published.

Use of these keywords is author-led, with authors determining if their submitted manuscript is relevant to one or more of the SDGs and choosing to add the keywords as appropriate. If a journal is offering SDG keyword tagging, you will be made aware of it in the Instructions for Authors.

Include the relevant SDG keywords within your manuscript file using the format of the keywords list shown below – see ‘The SDG keyword list’.

The SDG keyword list

The collection of SDG-relevant research will grow over time as tagged papers are published on The Primary Education Journal below.

  • SDG 1: No poverty
  • SDG 2: Zero hunger
  • SDG 3: Good health and well-being
  • SDG 4: Quality education
  • SDG 5: Gender equality
  • SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
  • SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy
  • SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
  • SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
  • SDG 10: Reduced inequalities
  • SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
  • SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
  • SDG 13: Climate action
  • SDG 14: Life below water
  • SDG 15: Life on land
  • SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
  • SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

How to write an effective title for your paper

Good writing titles should be concise, accurate, and informative, and it should tell the reader exactly what the article is about. This is where the keywords you’ve identified come in. It’s vital to incorporate your most relevant keywords in your title to make your article more discoverable in online searches.

The title should include 1-2 keywords, and these keywords should be within the first 65 characters of the title so that they are visible in the search engine results. This will help you produce an effective title.

Writing an effective title increases the potential audience for your article by making it more accessible to readers.

A good title for research paper should:

  • Incorporate the keywords, so that the article is more likely to be included in the results for relevant online searches.
  • Be understandable to a reader from outside its field.
  • Avoid abbreviations, formulae, and numbers.
  • Keep away from using “Investigation of…”; “Study of…”; “More about…”; “…revisited”.
  • Get straight to the point of what the article adds to the topic.
Editor’s view

“We would typically expect a strong title, a good title that really expressed what the article was about and made it clear to the reader exactly what the topic was.”

Professor Mark Brundrett

What is the abstract in a paper?

An abstract is ‘a few sentences that gives the main idea in an article or a scientific paper’ – definition of abstract from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press.

The abstract section of a research paper is the selling pitch of your article. It is where researchers can get a quick insight and decide whether to continue reading and cite your content, or instead look elsewhere.

It’s worth spending time to write an abstract that will win readers over. Think about article abstracts that you have read in the past.

What qualities would encourage you to read the full article? Is there anything that would put you off delving any deeper into the article? Consider these factors when writing your abstract.

Here are some ideas on what to focus on, to achieve the purpose of an abstract in research paper:

  • What your research is about
  • What methods have been used
  • What you found out

Each journal will have its own word limit for abstracts which you’ll find in the instructions for authors, but approximately 100–200 words are what you have to work with. Check the guidelines for the word count before you start writing.

As you would expect, accuracy is crucial in a good abstract. Whatever you argue or claim in the abstract must reflect what is in the main body of your article. There’s no room for discussion, or introducing any further points.

Tips for writing an abstract

  • Make sure that your abstract is self-contained, without abbreviations, footnotes, or incomplete references.
  • It should be a concise summary that makes sense on its own.
  • Include keywords throughout, but make sure the writing still flows naturally.
  • You should also avoid including any images, background information or technical terms that may not be understood without further explanation.
  • There is a significant difference between original research papers and review papers when it comes to abstracts. 
    • For original papers, you should describe your method and procedures.
    • For reviews, you should first state the primary objective of the review, the reasoning behind your choice, the main outcomes and results of your review, and the conclusions that might be drawn, including their implications for further research, application, or practice.

Abstract checklist

  • Have you clearly summarized the article?
  • Have you included your keywords?
  • Does it encourage researchers to read on?
  • Does it fit within the word count?
  • Is it easy to understand without any prior knowledge of the topic?

Video abstract

A video abstract lets you introduce readers to your article in your own words, telling others why they should read your research.

These short videos (three minutes or less) are published alongside the text abstract on The Primary Education Journal and are an increasingly popular way of getting others to engage with published research, increasing the visibility of your work.

Find out more about creating a video abstract.

Graphical abstract

A graphical abstract is a useful tool that provides a concise, visual summary of the main conclusions of your article. It can be a great additional way to communicate your findings and is shown to potential readers in several places.

On The Primary Education Journal you’ll see graphical abstracts on the journal’s table of contents page, on the article page itself, and in the PDF version of the article. Your graphical abstract can be an existing figure from your article if there’s something suitable, or it can be specifically designed for the purpose.

If you supply a graphical abstract, it will be shown in social media shares of your article. This is a great way to increase engagement with your article.

How should a graphical abstract be formatted?

Please make sure you follow these simple guidelines when formatting your graphical abstract:

  • Your image will often be displayed online at a width 525 pixels, so please make sure that the image is legible at this size.
  • The image should be saved as a .jpg, .png, or .tiff file.
  • Supply your graphical abstract as a separate file, labelled GraphicalAbstract1. Do not embed it in your manuscript file.
  • For optimal online display, your image should be supplied in landscape format with a 2:1 aspect ratio (2 length x 1 height).