Content composition is key for good citations

The researchers publishing their work and thinking ‘How do I get more citations to my article?’ or want to ensure good citations to their work, then they should work on the contents for proper presentation before publication.

Content is the Key

You should work to produce a good quality, content rich article (research or review article). Quality of your work is the main criteria that researchers will like to refer to your article.

Composition

The title, authors, affiliations, abstract, keywords are the front page of your article, that are circulated in all the databases and search engines. The proper composition of these elements can bring more readership and more citations to your article.

You should work on these before final publication of your article.

Title

The title of your article should be comprehensive, clear, and precise that reflect the contents of your article. Try to avoid question marked titles (it is observed that such articles have more readers/download, but cited less).

Authors

Each author of article should ensure that he/she is using a consistent name in their publications. (In Indian context, female scholars should choose a name and surname such a way that they can use that before the marriage and after the marriage as well. Changing the surname particularly after marriage create problem in indexing/identification of that properly). It is good to include a ‘surname’ or family name in their name. This will help to identify the respective researcher correctly and associate their work. Few authors have lengthy names or very short name (either multiple words names or one word names), they should identify clearly their first name and last name (surname) properly. It is good to have clear 2 or 3 words name (first name and last name). Using the same name on all of your papers will make it easier for others to find all of your published work

Affiliation

The name of your institution should be written properly and in uniform format.

Abstract

Your abstract of article should be containing the details of contents of your article, and importantly should have phrases, and keyword that a reader might use to search your article. The keywords and phrases may be repeated in title and abstract. Inclusion of selected search related phrases in abstract increases the chances of listing your article in top result in search engines (google etc.) which increases the likelihood of reading your article and thus citation of your article.

Keywords

You should carefully select the keyword for your article. Choose such keyword that any reader might use for searching the contents of your article in search engines (google etc.). While compiling your article, you might have used few keyword in search engines to search the related works, same/similar keywords may listed in your article so that other researchers can find your article easily. So choose your keyword carefully. The keywords are meant for finding your articles with these general keywords in google search.

Post publication

Once your article is published, then you should work to promote and get cited your article. See the tricks that you can use to get more citations to your work.