The vast majority of academic paper abstracts in social science journals are atrocious -- and you can quote me on that. To me, this also applies to those journals that have divided their abstracts into sections, such as the research problem, the methodology and the findings, as well as those that list paper "highlights". I personally find these as superficial and unengaging afterthoughts. Not that the abstracts in Tourism Geographies are perfect, especially going back in time, but we have been trying to make them more robust in recent year.

It is safe to say that the goal of both authors and journal editors is to publish papers that our peers will read and cite in their work. The abstract is the second most important part of the paper in achieving that, with the title being the most important (see my Tips on Titling Your Paper).

Paper reviewer will not look at your abstract. Many editors will not look at your abstract. So, if you want to get your published paper cited, you will need to do the work.
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Here are our guidelines on how to write an acceptable abstract for Tourism Geographies, much of which I think would apply to any academic paper that you write that requires an abstract.

1. The abstract as a mini-version of the entire paper. Think of it as an "Executive Summary" or your paper. Tourism Geographies gives you 300 words to do this (twice what many journals allow). Use those words to clearly cover:
- the objectives or purpose of the research;
- the theoretical context that the research is set within;
- the methodology (This the least important part of the abstract -- people can read this in the paper); and
- the findings and global significance (these are the most important part of the abstract!).

You need to provide sufficient information in the abstract so that people who read it can determine whether if your paper warrants being fully read and cite it as a reference. Even if they do not read the entire paper, perhaps due to download issues, they can still cite it if the abstract is complete enough. This is your goal.

2. Again the abstract is a mini-version or executive summary of the paper. It is not a description of the paper (which is the approach that most authors use). Therefore, use declarative (not descriptive) sentences. Avoid using the words: "This paper..." or "The paper..." or "The research..."

3. The abstract should be written in the present tense, not future tense -- so do not say "We will..." or "The policy implications will be discussed...".  You need to say what you did and what the results were, not what you will do in the paper. (In other words, avoid using the world "will" in your paper.)

4. Limit the use of first-person ("I" and "We") in your abstract. You can use it once (or twice?) in an abstract if it makes a lot of sense to do so. You should not be focusing on yourself, but rather on the research. This is true for scholarly papers in general. In Tourism Geographies, we allow first-person usage to a degree in qualitative papers. However, it can be overdone, which can potentially make the author(s) sound either egotistical or amateurish.

5. The abstract should be able to stand alone, separate from the full paper. As such, do not cite references in the abstract and do not use acronyms or other abbreviations without fully defining them. 

6. For place-based articles, the places referred to in the article should be mentioned in the abstract (some people do not do this).  They should also be listed among the keywords to make your paper more visible in online search results.

7. For Tourism Geographies, the abstract should be in the same format (font type and size, line spacing and indentations) as the rest of the paper, and it should be in the form of a single paragraph.

Here are some examples of abstracts that follow the guidelines above:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616688.2015.1053971
- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2016.1144642
- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616688.2015.1053971

If you have any questions about this, contact the Co-Editors-in-Chief who will be happy to help any author who submits their paper to Tourism Geographies to improve their title, abstract and keywords.

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Optional: You might also want to see my blog on "How to Title Your Journal Article".

Related information on Abstracts is provided in the Taylor & Francis Author Guide to Discoverability. (Please note that the abstract word limit in this document is less than what is allowed for Tourism Geographies).
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Previously, I wrote about the difference between case study papers and theory-based papers and how that influences your title. This blog entry is a more comprehensive complication of tips for you to follow when coming up with a title for an article.

The goal of the title is to capture the interests of potential readers so they will then read your abstract, and then read and cite your paper. As such, the title is possibly the most crucial part of your paper from a “visibility” and “citation” perspective. You really should choose your title with care.

Here are some tips based on what I have learned from various sources on this topic over my years as the TG journal editor-in-chief.

Creating Curiosity

You want to create a Curiosity Gap. This is done through a careful balance of having too much information and too little in the title. If your title is too informative, then more people are likely to decide that they do not need to read it for their purposes. If you title is too vague, however, then potential readers are more likely to decide that it is not worth reading.

There are two types of curiosity that you can try to generate: (a) novelty or newness; and (b) epistemic knowledge building. While somewhat overlapping, we can think of novelty as tapping into the human curiosity to explore unknown places, ideas and concepts. It proposes new ways of seeing or uncovers hidden realities. Epistemic curiosity taps into human interest in how our known thoughts and concepts might evolve with new knowledge. It builds and connects concepts that we are already familiar with.  

Being Clear

You know your research inside and out. However, most of the rest of the world has no clue as to what you are doing. A clear title is essential to capture the widest possible relevant audience for your paper. Here are some rules:

1. USE COMMON WORDS – the more uncommon words that are in a titles, the less the paper is downloaded
   
   
2. USE SHORT TITLES – it is generally believed that you should have no more than 12 words in your title (including the subtitle) because long titles are difficult to remember and downloaded less are less likely to be downloaded (see the Curiosity Gap comment above). Also, if you have a subtitle keep it short. Tourism Geographies does not allow more than 12 words in a title.
   
   
3. AVOID WORDS WITH LITTLE OR NO MEANING – these make title unnecessarily long (again see the Curiosity Gap comment above).
   
   In particular, do not use the words “A Study of…” or “Exploring…”  or “Understanding…” or anything like that. All journals articles are a study of something, or are exploring something. You do not need to tell your reader that you are doing that.
   
   
4. DO NOT USE ACRONYMS OR ABBREVIATIONS in your title without spelling them out. While you and your friends may understand the acronym, many potential readers will not.
   
   
5. DO NOT USE THE WORD “CASE” in your title because case study papers are downloaded and cited much less than other papers. (See: Please Avoid Using Case Study in Your Paper Title)
   
   
6. AVOID HUMOR – humor, puns and innuendos are often are culturally specific and not understood by other cultures. In addition, papers with such titles may not show up as often in search results.
   
   
7. USE DECLARATIVE TITLES – because these types of titles were found to be downloaded somewhat more than other types, which increases their alt-metric scores. However, I have not heard that they are cited more than other types. Here are the three most common types of titles:
   
   
   • Descriptive (most common) – describes the subject of the article but does not reveal the main conclusions. Example: 'Internet Mediated Representations of Ecotourism'
     
     
   • Declarative – states the main findings or conclusions in the title. Example: 'Internet Representations of Ecotourism Fail to Effectively Integrate Tourism and Ecology’
     
     
   • Interrogative – introduce the subject in the form of a question. Example: 'How Does the Internet Mediate Representations of Ecotourism?'
     
     

Who would have thought that the Title to a paper would be so important and so complicated?

That is what I have so far. I will add to this blog as I come across additional ideas.

UPDATE: 4 September 2019 - Related information on Book Titles is provided in the Taylor & Francis Author Guide to Discoverability.