Are the titles of doctoral dissertations and research articles different? Observations from four STEM disciplines

Abstract

Titles play a key role in doctoral dissertations and research articles. However, the generic and disciplinary features of doctoral dissertation titles have received limited attention. In this study, we analyzed four attributes, i.e., length, content type, syntactic structure, and questions/rhetorical devices, in the titles of 1200 dissertations across four STEM disciplines from prestigious American universities and compared them to an equal number of titles from renowned academic journals. The results demonstrate that within the four examined disciplines, namely, biology, computer science, engineering, and mathematics, dissertation titles tend to be more concise, providing less detailed information regarding the research approach or findings. It was also determined that nominal construction titles are preferred, whereas questions/rhetorical devices are not common in dissertation titles. The article titles demonstrate both commonalities and variations, which can be attributed to varied power asymmetries between disciplinary gatekeepers and dissertation/article writers, as well as various generic characteristics. Our findings enhance the understanding of title variations across genres and disciplines, thereby providing implications for second language PhD students, novice academic writers, and EAP instructors.