TITLE, BYLINE, ABSTRACT, TITLE, BYLINE, ABSTRACT, AND KEYWORDS FOR AND KEYWORDS FOR SCIENTIFIC ARTICLESSCIENTIFIC ARTICLES

Mien A. RifaiIndonesian Academy of Sciences c.o. “Herbarium Bogorience”, Puslit Biologi LIPI, Jalan Juanda 22, Bogor;“Tang Lebun”, RT 03/RW 15, Kotabatu, Ciomas, Bogor 16610

THE GOLDEN RULE being always upheld in preparing scientific articles is briefly acronymized as ABC

A(ccurate) – highly preciseB(rief) – compact and to the pointC(lear) – unambiguous, single interpretation

But please bear in mind the saying that ‘The golden rule is that there is no golden rule’!

Anatomically, modern scientific writings in general always contain the following items: title, byline, abstract, keywords, body of text, acknowledgement, bibliography, appendix.

If the title, byline, abstract and keywords of a scientific article normally cover only its first page and hence represent only a small fraction of the published work, the body of text may by comparison occupy a whole book. Nevertheless this preliminary component represents a very important part of the work, so that they are given a very prominent and most significant position in the publication.

With many variations and modifications as well as nomenclatures, and depending upon established traditions of the respective disciplines, the body of text of current scientific writings normally arranged in the so-called IMRD pattern:

introduction = containing a statement on the problems faced (with a brief review of the salient literature) and reasoning (theoretical background) of the activity being reported – ideally not more than 10% of the length of the article

methodology = approach, site location, materials and methods, frame of thought, and any other information on what had been done – approximately 15% of the length of the article

results = detailing all data and information gathered and unraveled, their analyses and syntheses, as well as the possible findings that can be developed therein – about 35% of the length of the article

discussion – elaboration and argument to explain the meaning and significance of the novelties and findings being discovered, with special reference to their scientific position in relation with current theories or opinions among fellow scholars and scientists, as well as the generalization and conclusion achieved – also about 35% of the length of the article

To this is always added bibliography – references cited which should be less than 5% of the length of the article

*TITLE*TITLE

In scientific articles, titles represent the kernel, essence, interiority, soul, or image of their contents

Therefore a title is more a label rather than a statement, which succinctly encapsulates the whole subject matter being dealt with

A title should be considered as an advertisement useful to capture all potential readers and possible users of the articles

It should also function as a beacon or ‘neon light’ to attract the attention of others to its possible use as a source of inspiration for furthering one’s work

Please remember that:Please remember that:

1. The title represents the part of the article which is most read by people

2. Hence the title determines the fate of a scientific article – be read and cited, or ignored and dismissed

3. If unlucky, it will represents the only part of the whole article ever read by people outside its authors and editors

Therefore the title should be Therefore the title should be prepared very carefully in order to:prepared very carefully in order to:

be immediately comprehended, wholly understood, and grasped by all readers

adequately describe the whole content of the article

draw the notice of casual readers stimulate the interest of information seekers

Select only strong, positive, informative, important words from the familiar vocabulary and appropriate scientific terms in accordance with traditions and jargons of the respective scientific disciplines

Be simple and concise, by employing fewest possible words through omission of unnecessary ones

Good titles Good titles ideallyideally should consist should consist of not more thanof not more than

8 words (German) 10 words (English)12 words (Indonesian)90 strokes (including space) on the keyboardBecause of the development of more detailed

specifications in modern scientific researches, many journals nowadays allow longer titles

Avoid clichés such as Avoid clichés such as

Observation on . . . Investigation of . . .Reinvestigation of . . . Study on . . . Analysis of . . .Opening such as A . . ., An . . ., The . . .,

Another . . .

When preparing a title, do not use: When preparing a title, do not use:

Abbreviation and acronym Complete sentences using verbs Trade marks

It has been said that Bombastic title . . .NO Artistic title . . . YES Provocative title . . . OK

Beware that short title often becomes too general and conveys an impression that the subject presented will be a review article rather than an original researchPseudoaneurismAntibiotic and typhoid fever Study of bacteria using electron microscope

Samples of artistic titles which have appeared in scientific literature:Does Hirneola auricula-judae occur in Indonesia?That was a Dayak day that wasAs the bountiful leafage marches on

Artistic titles are more commonly encountered in review articles, in articles containing the exposition of opinions, and in articles dealing with social sciences and humanities

Too long title is often difficult to understand immediately, and liable to be skipped out in quick searching of articles using search engine.

Although permissible, avoid subtitle (except Although permissible, avoid subtitle (except in serial articles) as it will unnecessarily in serial articles) as it will unnecessarily lengthen the title.lengthen the title.

Observation on the etiologic relationship of achylia gastrica to pernicious anemia: The effect of the administration to patients with pernicious anemia of beef muscle after the incubation with normal human gastric juice

Control study of comparative efficacy of isoniazid, streptomycin-isoniazid, and streptomycin-para-amninosalycilic acid in pulmonary tuberculosis therapy. III. Report on twenty-eight-week observations on 649 patients with streptomycin-susceptible infection

To obtain a wholly appropriate title that meet all the requirement stipulated above, it is highly recommended that the title of an article be prepared after the whole article has been completely written up. Based on personal experience, it is useful to write an article in the following order: 1) material and methods, 2) conclusion, 3) result, 4) discussion, 5) introduction, 6) abstract, and the last but not the least 7) title.

*RUNNING TITLE AND *RUNNING TITLE AND INFORMATION DATESINFORMATION DATES

Besides the title of the article, some journals ask their contributors to submit a ‘running title’ to appear on top of the right hand pages of the printed article in the journal. The running title is an abbreviated title consisting of 3–5 words or not more 50 strokes on the keyboard, often presented together with the abbreviated name of the author of the respective article.

Example of title of a serial article with its subtitle, and its running title:M.A. RIFAI. 1965. Discomycetes flora of Asia, Precursor III: Observations on Javanese species of Trichoglossum. Lloydia 28:113–119.

Running title: RIFAI: Discomycetes Flora III [prepared by the editors, whereas the author originally supplied ‘RIFAI: Javanese Trichoglossum’]

*INFORMATION DATES sometimes appear in the *INFORMATION DATES sometimes appear in the opening part of published articles. They are provided by opening part of published articles. They are provided by the editors of the journal to show the genesis of the the editors of the journal to show the genesis of the manuscriptmanuscript

1. Many journals report the date the manuscript received in the editorial office, sometimes followed by the date(s) of its revisions, and especially the date of its acceptance for publication

2. In case of later disputes, these dates can help in establishing exactly who was the first to reveal something new

3. These dates give also a kind of indication when the research was done, which may be important if there has been a long delay in getting it published

*BYLINE*BYLINE

Byline is part of an articles which indicates its authorship (rests with the author), and its ownership (belongs to the institution where the work reported was undertaken). [Remember that the copyright holder of an articles is the journal where it is published]

Dictionary definition of author is ‘the writer of a literary work’.

But what is an author in scientific world? Who is this elusive person? What criteria to be met with, in order to make one qualifies as an author?

Nowadays, an “author” is generally considered to be someone who has made substantive intellectual contributions to a published study.

Since scientific authorship has had important academic, social, as well as financial implications, convention and ethical considerations have been developed to be used as guideline in clarifying this difficult topic.

The Vancouver Convention on Co-Authorship stipulated The Vancouver Convention on Co-Authorship stipulated that authorship credit should be based on that authorship credit should be based on

1. substantial input to the conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data

2. drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content

3. final approval of the version to be published

Authors should meet all conditions 1, 2, and 3.

Therefore acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, alone, does not justify authorship. Similarly persons who provided purely technical help (such as caring for experimental organisms throughout the study, preparing illustrations), writing assistance, or a departmental chair who provided only general support, are not qualify for authorship, as are participating investigators who may have contributed materially but only performing the task of serving as scientific advisors or providing critical review of the research proposal.

In an article jointly written by many authors, whatever else they may have contributed each one of them should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. In other words, all individuals listed as co-authors in a work conducted by large multi-centre group should fully meet the criteria for authorship. All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and similarly all those who qualify should be listed.

Authorship of a multi-centre trials can be attributed to a group. All members of the group who are named as authors should fully meet the above criteria for authorship. In conjunction with this new development, the term ‘guarantors’ has been introduced to indicate one or more authors who take the responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article. When submitting a group author manuscript, the corresponding author should clearly indicate the preferred citation and should also clearly identify all individual authors as well as the group name.

The order of authorship in the byline should be a joint decision of the co-authors, best decided before the study begins. For the sake of their own scientific integrity, authors should be prepared to explain the order in which authors are listed.

Most scientific journals nowadays omit the title, academic degree, and official position from the author’s name

To conform with archival requirement, To conform with archival requirement, author’s name as appear in the byline author’s name as appear in the byline should be consistently spelt, bearing in mind should be consistently spelt, bearing in mind the existence of different customs in many the existence of different customs in many countries.countries.

M. A. Rifai (the accepted form in Europe)Mien A. Rifai (acceptable in Indonesia and the

USA)Mien Ahmad Rifai (used by Indonesian book

publishers)

Indonesians often face difficulty Indonesians often face difficulty because in international scientific because in international scientific journals the last name or surname of journals the last name or surname of an author is not to be abbreviated, so an author is not to be abbreviated, so that the following form is not permittedthat the following form is not permitted

Mien A. R.M. Ahmad R.Mien Ahmad R.

All contributors (especially agencies which provide funding) who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the acknowledgment section

Can the question of the quantity and quality of contribution that qualify for authorship be resolved? Attempts to produce some sort of scoring system for determining the authorship and co-authorship of a scientific article have been made, one of them published in Nature 352: 187. 18 July 1991 is modified here.

In line with the criteria to qualify for authorship specified above, intellectual contributions to a published study can be broken down into several kinds of inputs (namely intellectual, physical, data processing, expertise, scientific, and literary inputs), each of which can be scored according to the relative amounts provided by individuals.

1. Intellectual input1. Intellectual input(problem identification, approach adopted, (problem identification, approach adopted, planning, designing)planning, designing)

No significant contribution 0Twice or three times discussions 5Several times discussions 10Lengthy and prolong discussions 15Indepth and continuous discussions 20

2. Physical input2. Physical input(organizing and setting up apparatusses, (organizing and setting up apparatusses, observations, data collecting, recordings, observations, data collecting, recordings,

and extractingand extracting))

No significant involvement 0Twice or three times involvement 5Several times involvement 10Lengthy and prolong involvement 15Continuous involvement 20

3. Data processing input3. Data processing input(organizing, processing, analysing, (organizing, processing, analysing, synthesizing)synthesizing)

No significant involvement 0Short involvement, twice or three times 5Several times involvement 10Lengthy and prolong involvement 15Continuous involvement, from the

beginning to the end 20

4. Expertise input4. Expertise input(consultation, advise, opinion, view – from (consultation, advise, opinion, view – from

other field or discipline)other field or discipline)

No significant contribution 0Routine short advise 5Significant opinions 10Contributed views especially prepared 15Opinions which become the bases of

approach and conclusion 20

5. Scientific input5. Scientific input(concluding, summarizing, generalizing, (concluding, summarizing, generalizing,

formulating the theory)formulating the theory)

No significant contribution 0Concluding certain parts of results 5Summarizing major parts of results 10Generalizing the whole part of the article 15Formulating the general theory 20

6. Literary input6. Literary input

(contribution to the first completed draft)(contribution to the first completed draft)

No significant contribution 0Read and improve other’s contribution 5Assist in writing two or three parts of the draft 10Writing up several parts of the draft 15Writing up almost the whole draft 20

The highest score that can be achieved by a person is 100 (because point 4 is performed by an outsider). Theoretically, the number of person that can become the coauthor of an article is unlimited, but anyone may only claim the authorship of an article if he/she manages to accumulate a score of at least 30. The ordering of the authorship is based on the amount of score achieved, and when two persons have similar score alphabetical sequence should be used, with a note that the one who launch the idea should be given preference.

Almost all scientific periodicals nowadays incorporate in the byline the name of the institute as the owner of each article they publish

In writing down the byline, In writing down the byline, therefore therefore 1. Name and postal address of the institution where

the research reported had been performed should be attached to the principal author.

2. Name(s) and address(es) of all cooperating institutions should be given attached to the appropriate authors.

3. Some journals like to include a full postal address and e-mail address, at least the corresponding author, so that readers can write (ask) for more information

4. If the author moved to another institution, the main entry should give the name of the institution where the work was done, followed by the author’s current address (between brackets or in footnote).

*ABSTRACT*ABSTRACT

Abstract is a concise presentation of the whole article, so that it gives the research problem or main objective of the research, indicated the methodology used, presents the main findings and discussion together with its conclusion (IMRD). Non research articles abstract should contain brief and comprehensive resume of complete articles

UNESCO recommends that an abstract should consist of not more that 200 words. Sometimes some journals use the term ‘summary’ for it, but it is generally understood that a summary represents an extended abstract consisting of about 400 words and rendered in many paragraphs, whereas abstract should be presented in one paragraph.

In recent years, more and more medical journals prefer to use a structured abstract divided into several subheadings/paragraphs.

In order to conform with that recommendation, In order to conform with that recommendation,

prepare abstracts which are not:prepare abstracts which are not: too long (because one forgot to count the

words used) too short (often due to insufficient

treatment of the new finding) too exhaustive (resulting from detailed

explanation of methodology) too scanty (unbalanced, important

information inadequately presented)

Informative abstract presented quantitatively (‘It was shown that the fertilization of peanut took place at 04:30 . . .’) is preferable to indicative abstract presented qualitatively (‘The fertilization processes in peanut were observed continuously throughout the night . . .’).

Abstracts should not contain: Abstracts should not contain:

1. Sentences that can be gleaned from the title of the article, or sound like an introduction to the whole article (‘The aim of this research is to find out the role of human resource strategy on the market performance . . .’)

2. Lengthy background information 3. References to other literature 4. Abbreviations or terms that may be confusing to

readers 5. Any sort of illustration, figure, or table, or references

to them.

Some journals––especially those with tear-out abstract service––instruct their contributing authors to include the title of the article in the respective abstract. This is highly commendable for abstract rendered in language different from that used in the article itself.

Example of one paragraphed abstract, Example of one paragraphed abstract, with the title of the article includedwith the title of the article included

RIFAI, M.A. 2008. Another note on Podoconis megasperma Boedijn (Hyphomycetes). Reinwardtia 12 (4): 277–279. –– Exosporium megaspermum (Boedijn) Rifai and Exosporium ampullaceum (Petch) M.B.Ellis are transferred to Neopodoconis Rifai, a newly created genus extracted from Exosporium Link based on the nature of the true septation of their rostrate conidia. Two new combinations, Neopodoconis ampullacea (Petch) Rifai and Neopodoconis megasperma (Boedijn) Rifai, accordingly are proposed.

Example of one paragraph abstract, title of the article Example of one paragraph abstract, title of the article omittedomitted

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease caused by the lack of insulin in the human body. This disease caused many various kind of complication, including in the oral cavity known as toothache like pulpits. This study aimed to know the influence of blood glucose level toward diabetes mellitus’s dental pulp nerve sensitivity. In this study was used the electric pulp tester (EPT) equipment to measure the dental pulp nerve sensitivity on both groups of sample. The statistical analysis shows that blood glucose level is effecting the diabetes mellitus’s dental pulp nerve sensitivity (R2 = 0.327). The result of the study shows increasing of the dental pulp nerve sensitivity on Blood Glucose Level 2 hour PP (2hPP) 150 mg/dl and reaches the peak level on BGL 2hPP between 250 – 300 mg/dl, but on BGL 2hPP 350 mg/dl decreasing of dental pulp nerve sensitivity is happened. From this study can be concluded that diabetes mellitus’s dental pulp nerve sensitivity can be influence by the level of blood glucose in diabetes mellitus patient.

Example of structured abstract, title of the article omittedExample of structured abstract, title of the article omitted BACKGROUND – Extrapulmonary tuberculosis prevalence in New York

City is still high in the last decade (45-60%).OBJECTIVE - To analyze the factors associated with survival in patients

with pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis in New York City.DESIGN - Observational study of a citywide cohort of tuberculosis cases.

Setting- New York City, April 1991, before the strengthening of its control program.

SUBJECTS - All 229 newly diagnosed cases of tuberculosis documented by culture in April 1991. Most patients (74%) were male, and the median age was 37 years (range, 1-89 years). In all, 89% belonged to minority groups. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was present in 50% and multidrug resistance in 7% of the cases. Twenty-one patients (9%) were not treated.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE - Follow up information was collected through the city tuberculosis registry; death from any cause was verified through the National Death Index.

CONCLUSION – HIV and poverty are the main cause of extrapulmonary tuberculosis in New York.

Example of structured abstract, with the title of the article Example of structured abstract, with the title of the article includedincluded YULIDAR HAFIDH, DWI HIDAYAH, SUNYATANINGKAMTO. Factors

affecting mortality of neonatal sepsis in Moewardi Hospital, Surakarta. Paediatrica Indonesiana 47(2): 74–77. 2007.

BACKGROUND Mortality of neonatal sepsis is still a significant problem. It may be affected by many factors.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine factors which affect mortality of neonatal sepsis at neonatal ward of Moewardi Hospital, Surakarta.

METHODS Data of neonatal sepsis was obtained from medical record at neonatal ward of Moewardi Hospital from December 2004 to November 2005. We recorded data from 97 neonatal sepsis consisted of 46 males and 52 female babies. Statistical analysis had been performed using univariate Chi-square and multivariate multiple logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS Overall neonatal sepsis mortality was about 40%. There were no significant difference in factors associated with mortality of neonatal sepsis such as gender, referral patients, and bacterial growth culture, except for birth weight which affected mortality (OR=6.29; 95% CI 2.57; 15.42)

CONCLUSION Birth weight affects mortality of neonatal sepsis in Moewardi Hospital. Patients with positive bacterial growth culture has two times higher risk of death, however it is not statistically significant.

*KEYWORDS*KEYWORDSDictionary explanation of keywords are ‘a selection of

significant words from a document that can be used as indices to its content’.

Beside useful for preparing index, keywords can also be employed in scanning the content of scientific articles through computer, so that they are useful for readers in hunting for articles related to problems they are facing by inputting them to a search machine. Therefore in recent years keywords are becoming familiar feature in published scientific articles.

In published articles, keywords are mostly In published articles, keywords are mostly presented under the abstractpresented under the abstract

1. Normally consist of 3-8 words (may be organized in short in phrases)

2. Prepare by not repeating words used in the title 3. May even use words not appearing in the

whole article4. Some journals prepare list of keywords to be

selected by their contributors5. In medical journals MeSH (Medical Subject

Heading) Terms are used.

TERIMA KASIHTERIMA KASIHTERIMA KASIHTERIMA KASIH