Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Extensions to Standard Ranking Tech-
niques for Large Text Collections
Extensions to Ranking Techniques for Large Text Collections
Don't make the title so short that it is contentless. “Limited-Memory Huffman Cod-
ing for Databases of Textual and Numeric Data” is awkward, but it is superior to
“Huffman Coding for Databases”, which is far too general.
Accuracy is more important than catchiness—“Strong Modes Can Change the
World!” is excessive, not to mention uninformative. The more interesting the title,
however, the more likely that the text underneath it will be read. The title is the
only part of your paper that most people see; if the title does not reflect the paper's
contents, the paper will not be read by the intended readership.
The title is meant to capture something of the flavour of the contribution, and
should not be misleading as to the scope or outcome of the work. For example, titles
that begin “Towards …” can be disconcerting. If the title of the paper is “Towards
Effective Blog Search”, it suggests that effective blog search is not actually achieved
in the paper, or that only one specific part of the broader problem has been tackled.
It would make more sense to capture just that specific part of the problem in the title,
and consider the broader context only when discussing the motivation for the work.
Titles and section headings do not have to be complete sentences; indeed, such
titles can look rather odd.
Duplication of Data Leads to Reduction in Network Traffic
Duplication of Data to Reduce Network Traffic
Section headings should reflect the paper's structure. If a section is headed “Lists and
Trees” and the first subsection is “Lists”, another should be “Trees”; don't use, say,
“Other Data Structures”. If a section is headed “Index Organizations” the subsection
heading should probably be “B-trees” rather than “B-tree indexes”.
Headings may or may not be numbered. In a paper, my preference is to use
only two levels of headings, major and minor, and to only number major headings.
In a thesis, numbered chapters, sections, and possibly subsections, are appropriate.
Deeper numbering allows more precise referencing, but often seems fussy. If all
headings are unnumbered—as is required in some journals—make sure that major
and minor headings are clearly distinguished by font, size, or placement.
Also, headings may or may not be displayed, that is, on a line by themselves.
Typically, major headings—of say chapters, sections, or subsections—are displayed,
while in-line headingsmay be used for briefer segments of text where some naming of
the content is needed. For example, in-line headings are used in the section “Misused
words” of this chapter.
A paper (or thesis chapter) consists of sections and possibly subsections. There
is rarely any need to break subsections into sub-subsections. Avoid breaking text
into small blocks; three displayed headings on a page is too many. Headings below
the level of subsections should be in-line, not lines by themselves (but note that
