Tuesday, 11 October 2016

publications - On the possible obsolescence of research paper titles starting with "On the ..."


I have observed that most papers with titles starting with "On the ..." are theoretical ones, like pure mathematics, physics, computer science, etc. Most of these papers are relatively old, though I can find a few recent examples as well.



  1. Are such titles becoming obsolete?

  2. If not, when is it appropriate to use it?



Answer



Obsolete, no. Unfashionable, perhaps. One can usually drop the "on the" and still have an acceptable title in current usage, and I expect that is just what many do.



On the other hand, I, like Massimo Ortolano, have also recently published an "On the" paper, so apparently I don't really care about the fashionableness of my titles. I would suggest that you not worry about it either.


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