Session 3 - Titles

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Session 3 - Titles

• Build your title and abstract around the claim.
• What is a good title?

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Build your title and abstract around the claim

• Try to emphasize your claim in the title and
  abstract.
• Demonstrational Interfaces A Step beyond Direct
  Manipulation
• Abstract With demonstrational interfaces, the
  user applies direct-manipulation techniques to
  abstractions by operating on example values.
  Applications range from text editing to
  visualization.
• The title tells us
• The advantage of demonstrational interfaces
  better than direct manipulation.
• The abstract tells us
• What demonstrational interfaces are.
• What kinds of application they have.

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Poor examples (1)
Development of the Autonomous Vehicle PVS
(Personal Vehicle System) Abstract The PVS
(Personal Vehicle System) travels to a
destination guided by detecting white lines and
any obstacle on the road from image data and by
referring to the map data. Fuzzy inferences are
used for steering control, in order to achieve
human-like maneuvers. The PVS can move at 60 km/h
on a straight road and at 30 km/h on a curved
road.
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Poor examples (1, contd.)

• The title
• Tells us that the PVS was developed, but not why.
• The abstract
• Does not compare the PVS with other PVSs or
  discuss its advantages or applications.
• Does not give the reason for the human-like
  maneuvers.
• Does not state a claim.
• Gives no information on the basic principles,
  except for fuzzy inference.
• A technical paper, unlike a technical report,
  should generally emphasize theoretical rather
  than practical considerations.

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Poor examples (2)

• A Fuzzy-Based Expert System Building
  Tool
• Abstract In this paper, an integrated expert
  system building tool is proposed. The
  characteristics of this tool are
• The incorporation of rule-based and fuzzy-based
  inference
• Support tools for building fuzzy knowledge bases,
  such as a specialized editor and a fuzzy debugger
• A self-tuning algorithm for fuzzy membership
  functions
• A fuzzy-based technical analysis support system
  is described as a typical application of this
  tool.

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Poor examples (2, contd,)

• The title
• Tells us that the tool uses fuzzy logic.
• Doesn't tell us why it uses fuzzy logic
• Doesn't tell us whether any other tools do so.
• The abstract
• Tells us something about the principles used
• Tells us about an application, but again, there
  is no claim that requires any proof.

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Exercise 1 - Emphasizing the Thesis in the
Abstract
Abstract A novel method of visualising data
based upon the schooling behaviour of fish is
described. The technique allows the user to see
complex correlations between data items through
the amount of time each fish spends near others.
It is an example of a biologically inspired
approach to data visualisation in virtual worlds,
as well as being one of the first uses of VRML
2.0 and Java to create Artificial Life. We
describe an initial application of the system,
the visualisation of the interests of a group of
users. We conclude that Information Flocking is a
particularly powerful technique because it
presents data in a colourful, dynamic form that
allows people to easily identify patterns that
would not otherwise be obvious.

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Exercise 1 - Emphasizing the Thesis in the
Abstract
Abstract A novel method of visualising data
based upon the schooling behaviour of fish is
described. The technique allows the user to see
complex correlations between data items through
the amount of time each fish spends near others.
It is an example of a biologically inspired
approach to data visualisation in virtual worlds,
as well as being one of the first uses of VRML
2.0 and Java to create Artificial Life. We
describe an initial application of the system,
the visualisation of the interests of a group of
users. We conclude that Information Flocking is a
particularly powerful technique because it
presents data in a colourful, dynamic form that
allows people to easily identify patterns that
would not otherwise be obvious.

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Title

• The title of a paper should be
• Attractive
• Descriptive
• Focused
• Not too long
• Consistent with the text
• Easy to understand
• Easy to search for online

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Capitalization of titles
Look at these sentences and try to write down the
rules for capitalization. Which words are not
capitalized? CliPSS A Clinical Planning Support
System Discourse as a Knowledge Resource for
Sentence Disambiguation A Survey of
Pre-electronic Calculation Devices What Are
Little Chips Made Of? Collocation Optimizations
in an Aspect-Oriented Middleware
System Analyzing the Impact of Usability on
Software Design Comprehension Strategies and
Difficulties in Maintaining Object-Oriented
Systems
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Attractive

• An attractive title makes people want to read
  your paper.
• Make the title as attractive as you can without
  being sensational or attracting readers
  unnecessarily.
• Attractiveness depends on the subject and the
  readership
• Try to pick out the aspect of your work that will
  most appeal to readers.
• Let readers know in the title that you have an
  interesting thesis.

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Sentence-style titles
In a less formal paper, a sentence-style title
may be attractive. Can Low-Level Programmers Use
Low-Level Languages? Medicine Meets Virtual
Reality Rings Are Round for Good Do
Object-Oriented Languages Need Special Hardware
Support?
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Make the title descriptive

• If possible, refer to
• The aim
• The approach
• Any special features
• X A Novel Handwriting OCR System
• Improving Automatic Handwriting Recognition
  through Stroke Matching.

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Cut unnecessary details
X Achievement of a 98.2 Automatic Handwriting
Recognition Rate through Stroke
Matching Improving Automatic Handwriting
Recognition through Stroke Matching.
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Use descriptive words

• Focus the title by using descriptive words, e.g.
• new, novel, unique, fast, accurate, efficient,
  low-power, reliable, simple
• Avoid promotional words
• exciting, high-quality, high-value, superior,
  outstanding
• Phrases beginning
• using, based on, by, for, by means of
• add to the descriptiveness
• Information Flocking Data Visualization in
  Virtual Worlds Using Emergent Behaviours

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Focused

• The title should not be too general. It should
  show clearly the focus of your research, which is
  usually limited to a specific problem or area.
• Applying Artificial Intelligence
• An AI-based approach to transit route system
  planning and design

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Not too long or too short

• Balance descriptiveness with length
• Ideally, the title should fit into one or two
  lines
• Cut unnecessary words
• A Study of . . .
• Some Thoughts on . . .
• Considerations on
• New Findings on

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Don't use a system name as a subtitle

• A Clinical Planning Support System CliPPS
• CLIPPS A Clinical Planning Support System
• Note again the title of the paper you read
• Information Flocking Data Visualization in
  Virtual Worlds Using Emergent Behaviours

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Title and subtitle Common patterns
Here are some common patterns for title and
subtitle Name Description Topic
Approach Problem Solution General Topic
Specific Topic Topic in Brief Topic in Detail
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Title and subtitle Examples
Look at the following titles. What pattern do you
think is used in each? Aglets-Based
e-Marketplace Concept, Architecture and
Applications How to Improve Bayesian Reasoning
without Instruction Frequency Formats Energy-Effi
cient Strategies for Object Tracking in Sensor
Networks A Data-Mining Approach SQUIRT
Sequential Pattern Mining with Quantities Modeling
the Evolution of Operating Systems An Empirical
Study
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Consistent with the text
Make sure that the title matches the contents. If
your title is Potential of Object-Oriented
Programming in Artificial Intelligence the
focus of your paper should be on the potential of
object-oriented programming, not its history or
current state.
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Easy to understand

• A short title is generally easier to understand
• Avoid unfamiliar words (empirical, praxis, etc.)
• Use uncommon words only if they are key terms
  (magnetoresistance, annealing, etc.)
• Avoid using unfamiliar acronyms (e.g. ASA for
  atomic sphere approximation)
• It's OK to use familiar acronyms (CPU, LCD, etc.)

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Easy to search for online

• Try to include one or more key words
• It focuses the title
• It allows others to find your paper online

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Exercise 2 Good and Bad Titles

• Do the following titles meet the criteria for
  good titles?
• Wires A Geometric Deformation Technique
• A Signal Processing Approach to Fair Surface
  Design
• SPICE in Retrospect Developing a Standard for
  Process Assessment
• Requirements Change Fears Dictate the
  Must-Haves Desires the Won't-Haves
• Curve Intersection Using Bezier Clipping
• New Life for EDI? The Internet may help
  electronic data interchange finally meet
  expectations
• An XML Framework for Agent-Based e-Commerce
• Signal and Image Processing Using Wavelets
• A General Framework for Object Detection
• A Load-Balancing Strategy for Local Computer
  Systems with Multiaccess Networks GAMMON

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Exercise 2 Good and Bad Titles

1. No. The main title, "Wires", is confusing. Is
   this the name of the technique, or does it refer
   to physical wires?
2. Yes.
3. Possibly. But will the readers know what SPICE
   is? And is "process assessment" too general?
4. Probably not. Is "change" a verb or a noun? The
   meaning of the subtitle is rather unclear.
5. Yes.
6. No. The subtitle is too long, and "meet
   expectations" is vague.
7. Yes.
8. Possibly, but more detail could help.
9. No. There is not enough detail and no mention of
   approach.
10. No. The subtitle, GAMMON, should be made the
    title, and the remainder should be shortened.

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Exercise 3 Writing a Descriptive Title
An Approach to the Analysis and Representation of
Facial Dynamics for Recognition of Facial
Expressions from Image Sequences An approach to
the analysis and representation of facial
dynamics for recognition of facial expressions
from image sequences is presented. The algorithms
utilize optical flow computation to identify the
direction of rigid and nonrigid motions that are
caused by human expressions. A mid-level symbolic
representation motivated by psychological
considerations is developed. Recognition of six
facial expressions, as well as eye blinking, is
demonstrated on a large set of image
sequences. (IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis
and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 18, No. 6, June
1996)
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Writing a Descriptive Title (contd.)

• Here are some keywords
• Face recognition, image sequences, optical flow
  computation, facial expressions, facial dynamics
• The title of the original paper was
• Recognizing Human Facial Expressions from Long
  Image Sequences Using Optical Flow
• Note that the following inessential parts are not
  included
• An Approach to
• The Analysis and Representation of Facial
  Dynamics
• and that the methodology is mentioned
• Using Optical Flow

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Summary of Session 3

1. Build your title and abstract around the thesis.
2. Choose a descriptive, short, and attractive title.