Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 488 Online version available in : http://arbitrer.fib.unand.ac.id | 2339-1162 (Print) | 2550-1011 (Online) | JURNAL ARBITRER Submission Track A B S T R A C T Received: August 12, 2024 Final Revision: October 21, 2024 Accepted: November 1, 2024 Available Online: December 25, 2024 The goal of this research is to compare and contrast between article titles in the English education field authored by Indonesian scholars published in local journals and those authored by foreign authors published in high- impact foreign journals. Two hundred and ninety eight article titles from five different Indonesian-accredited local journals and five hundred and twelve article titles from five different high-impact foreign journals form the corpus of this research. These journals were purposively selected based on several criteria, such as publication place, field of discipline, and the article authors. The analyses were manually done on the titles’ length, linguistic and content features following the frameworks suggested by Cheng et al. (2012) and Xiang and Li (2019). The findings show that the article titles in high-impact foreign journals are slightly longer than those in local journals, local writers use nominal construction and verb-ing phrase types more frequently than high-impact foreign writers do; foreign writers use full sentences and prepositional phrases more frequently than the local journal writers do, and high-impact foreign journals use topic- only type of titles more frequently than in local journals do. The similarities are that nominal and compound constructions are the most dominant title types while topic-only and method types are the most dominant content features in both sets of article titles. The conciseness and preciseness of the information contained in the article titles are other important title features, future studies should investigate these aspects in the same or different fields. Keywords linguistic construction, content features, article titles, local journal, foreign authors, English Education Correspondence E-mail: safnil@unib.ac.id Article Linguistic and Content Features of Article Titles Published in Local & High-Impact Foreign Journals in English Education: How Are They Similar and Different? Safnil Arsyad1, Syahrul Ramadhan2, Husnul Hakim3 1Doctoral Program of Applied Linguistics, Bengkulu University, Bengkulu, Indonesia 2Indonesian Department, Universitas Negeri Padang, West Sumatera, Indonesia 3English Education Program, STKIP Al-Azhar Diniyyah, Jambi, Indonesia Under License of Creative Commons Attributioni-Non Commercial 4.0 International.DOI: https://doi.org/10.25077/ar.11.4.488-500.2024 I. INTRODUCTION Readers usually begin reading journal articles by reading their titles; if they find the titles attractive, they will likely continue reading articles, but if they do not, they may stop reading it (Tullu, 2019; Yang, 2019). According to Day (2008), readers are more likely to choose to read articles depending on how well-written their titles are. Therefore, article titles should be written as informatively and attractively as possible so that they can give a positive initial impression to readers. According to Jamali and Nikzad (2011), several variables can influence readers’ willingness to read particular articles, including (1) the journal’s reputation; (2) readers’ access to the articles; (3) the suitability of the issues discussed in the articles to readers’ needs; (4) the fame of the author/s; and (5) the attractiveness of the article titles. Gastel & Day (2016) highlighted that faulty syntax (word order) is the most common error in defective titles and without a doubt the most damaging one concerning the comprehension of the title. Thus, writers must carefully select the appropriate terms for a title and how the words in the title are connected grammatically. Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 489 Every academic genre has crucial components such as titles but research papers require them more than others (Hyland & Zou, 2022). According to Hyland and Zou (2022), an article title is used by readers when searching articles on the internet, such as in Google search, Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), ResearchGate, and Semantic Scholars and therefore, a title must be clearly and concisely written. This is because readers who are searching articles through a database only see the article titles and from these views, they will determine whether or not they need to read the article in more depth (Bavdekar, 2016). Thus, the article title although a very small part of an article functions as an advertisement to promote an article to potential readers and therefore, article titles must be attractive and informative to be successful in catching readers’ attention and willingness to read the whole article. A good title for a research paper can concisely and optimally introduce readers to the research work; however, writing explanatory, attractive, and concise titles is a difficult task (Bavdekar, 2016). Belcher (2009) suggested that one of the problems of an article title is that it is too broad as it is suitable for a book or book chapter title. According to Belcher, readers will not be pleased if the article title does not address the information in the article. Therefore, as Belcher suggests, authors must avoid agitating readers with a too-broad, too-narrow, or mismatched title. Similarly, Hartley (2008) suggests that it is crucial to use some key terms in the title, because many computer-based searches rely on it for success. However, authors who are not familiar with writing manuscripts for a high-impact foreign journal may write a title as they write it for a local journal. This can be problematic since the length, linguistic and content features of journal article titles published in foreign journals might be different from those published in local journals. Studies on article titles often include both the form and content features of the titles. The common questions addressed about the form features are how long are the titles in word count and how the titles are linguistically formed (i.e., using a compound, nominal, complete sentence, Verb-ing phrase, and prepositional phrases), while the common question regarding titles’ content features is what information is found in the titles (i.e., research method or design, research results, geographical location, research treatment, and population and samples). As far as the method is concerned, some studies used a descriptive design in their study, while others used a comparative and/ or contrastive design (Arsyad & Wardhana, 2022). As in other discourse studies, the objects of these studies are academic texts written in English or other languages by native or non-native authors. The findings of these studies are very useful as pedagogical input for novice authors in learning how to write a manuscript to be submitted to prestigious foreign journals. Several studies on article titles looked at the length of titles or the the quantity of words that make up the titles. Swales and Feak (1994) suggest that the number of words in titles is different from one field to the others. For example, Anthony (2001) reported that the average number of words in the titles of Computer Science articles ranges from 8.0 to 9.9 words; while Moattarian and Alibabaee (2015) reported that the number of words in article titles within Applied Linguistics is 12.88 words, Civil Engineering 13.54 words, and Dentistry 10.38 words. Moattarian and Alababaee claim that this is because writers in Dentistry and other medicinal disciplines are not required to provide comprehensive data about their research, and this is why dental article titles are shorter than those in social and physical sciences. Soler (2007) discovered that titles in medical sciences journal articles are longer than those in the social sciences and the lengths of titles in Biology, Medicine, and Biochemistry range from 14.15 to 15.48 words, compared to 7.98 words for Language Studies and 12.63 words for Psychology. Additionally, Yang (2019) looked into article titles in language education from 1990 to 2016 in reputable foreign journals and discovered that the titles grew lengthier and contained more keywords to increase the citations of the articles. According to Yang, this is because more terms were used to suit the varied research subjects between 2011 and 2016 as a result of the increased diversity of research interests in Applied Linguistics. The linguistic characteristics of article titles were investigated by Cheng et al. (2012), Doykova (2016), Yang (2019), and Appiah et al. (2019) to name a few. According to Cheng et al. (2012), compound constructions, nominal phrases, complete sentence, Verb-ing phrases, and prepositional phrases are used to create titles Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 490 in Applied Linguistics. According to Cheng et al., compound and nominal titles among the five distinct structural categories make up the majority of titles; this is likely because compound titles give writers the ability to link two or more significant factors in research and give them more freedom to arrange the information in the titles. However, Doykova (2016) reported a different finding after looking into 500 articles in the fields of medicine and dentistry published in English by Bulgarian writers. In contrast to Yang’s findings, Doykova discovered that nominal phrase titles were more prevalent and preferred by Bulgarian authors because they are believed to be capable of attracting readers. Appiah et al. (2019) compared 574 titles in the fields of Gynaecology, Business, and Law. Appiah et al. revealed that article titles in Business contain more words than those in Gynaecology and Law and single-unit titles were more dominant in Gynecology and Law. However, compound titles were more dominant in Business article titles and noun phrase titles were more dominant in all fields (Gynaecology, Law, & Business). According to Appiah et al., prepositional phrases were commonly used in post-modifying nominal construction titles and colon punctuation was commonly used in compound titles in all three disciplines. Appiah et al. suggest that the title features found in their study confirm the results of previous studies on the same topic and writing an effective title requires carefully selected words to create a positive perception and strong interest in the article. Also, belonging to some discipline is the strongest determinant for the length, linguistic and content features of article titles (Milojevic, 2017). Therefore, authors should try to comply with the norms set in their fields for journal article titles; however, these norms are not fixed in time and over the decades, the practices may change. A study on the content/information feature of article titles was conducted by Kerans et al. (2016) on titles taken from eight different high- rank journals in clinical fields. Their study was aimed at investigating whether or not methods, results, clinical location, treatment, and patient are mentioned in the titles. They found that in the majority of the titles, the research method is mentioned in the titles, while the results, clinical context, geography, treatment, and patient population are also mentioned in the titles although not as frequently as the research method. According to Kerans et al., authors tell readers that their research is high quality by mentioning methods in their titles; this is because the research method is an important aspect of clinical research, and therefore it is deliberately mentioned in the article titles. However, Paiva et al. (2012) discovered that articles with results mentioned in their titles were cited more often than those with methods mentioned in the titles. Short-titled articles had higher viewing and citation rates than those with longer titles. According to Paiva, a lower number of citations was linked to titles utilizing a colon or hyphen, a question mark, or those mentioning a particular research location. Compared to articles with methods-describing titles, those with results- describing titles received more citations. Few comparative studies on the length, linguistic and content features of article titles written by local or foreign authors have been conducted, such as by Paiva et al. (2012), Milojevic (2017) and Appiah et al. (2019); however, a similar study comparing and/or contrasting article titles published in local in Indonesia and high-impact foreign journals in the field of English education has never been conducted. This study is important because Indonesian scholars, like other nonnative speakers of English, prefer publishing their articles in high-impact foreign journals in English to local journals because publications in high-impact foreign journals can be read and cited by academics worldwide, serving as a tool to enhance the reputation of individual lecturers and the university where they work. Knowing the differences between the characteristics of article titles published in local and foreign journals will be useful for new authors trying to get their manuscripts published in reputable journals. Indonesian authors can comply with the features of article titles published in high- impact foreign journals when writing an article to be submitted to a high-impact foreign journal. They can prepare their article titles to match the common features acceptable in foreign journals to meet readers’ expectations and to raise the possibility of their drafts being approved by top-ranking foreign journals. As a guideline, the following questions are addressed in this study. 1. What is the average number of words in article titles in English Education in Indonesian local journals and high-impact foreign journals? 2. What linguistic characteristics are found Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 491 Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) Journal, the Taiwan TESOL Journal, the Asian ESP Journal, Regional English Language Center (RELC) Journal, and five local journals: Journal of English as a Foreign Language (JEFL), Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture (Edulite), Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (IJELTAL), Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies (JEELS), and English Review: Journal of English Education (ERJEE). These journals were selected based on several considerations. First, these journals publish articles about English education topics. Second, the foreign journals are reputable journals and indexed by an international indexing organization (Scopus) and the local journals are accredited journals indexed by Science and Technology Index or Sinta (i.e., the Indonesian journal indexing organization). Third, the articles published in the journals are research articles; other types of articles, such as review articles or teaching articles were not included. Finally, the articles were taken from recent publications to represent the recent characteristics of the journal articles. Table 1 presents the characteristics of the journals, the publication type, the Quartile or Sinta value of the journals, and the number of titles included. The quality of the foreign journals is indicated by their Quartile (Q) value ranging from Q1 (the highest) to Q4 (the lowest). The quartile value is based on the journal impact factor or index (Orbay & Miranda, 2020). The Q value of foreign journals is given in the Scimago Journal and Country Rank website (https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank. php). According to Orbay and Miranda, Q1 journals are within the top 25% of the journal impact factor in the article titles in English Education in Indonesian local journals and high-impact foreign journals? 3. What information categories are found in article titles in English Education in Indonesian local journals and high-impact foreign journals? 4. What are the similarities and differences in how local and foreign journal authors in English Education write their article titles? To answer the above questions, the average length, linguistic and content features of the article titles were analyzed following the framework suggested by Cheng et al. (2012) and Xiang and Li (2019) and how the two sets of article titles differ and/or resemble. II. METHOD Following White and Marsh (2006), this study used a content analysis method since this method is very adjustable and frequently used particularly in library and information science studies with different study aims and objectives. White and Marsh claim that, content analysis method has been used to produce findings and contextualize a variety of analytical tools used in conjunction with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods of research frameworks. According to Mohammed and Raewf (2018:910), ‘the content analysis makes replicable and valid inferences from content or texts in context of their use’. The Corpus of the Study A corpus of journal article titles were selected purposively from five foreign journals in English Education: The Journal of Asia TEFL, the Table 1. The Corpus of the Study No. Local Journals Sinta Value # of Article Foreign Journals Quartile Value # of Articles 1. Journal of English as a Foreign Language (JEFL) Sinta 2 43 Journal of Asia TEFL Q1 152 2. Edulite (Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture) Sinta 2 68 Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) Q1 36 3. Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (IJELTAL) Sinta 2 58 Taiwan Journal of TESOL Q3 27 4. Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies (JEELS) Sinta 2 40 Asian ESP Journal Q2 241 5. English Review: Journal of English Education (ERJEE) Sinta 2 89 RELC Journal Q1 56 Total 298 512 Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 492 (JIF), and those in Q4 are within the lowest 25%. For example, the Taiwan Journal of TESOL has a Q2 value in Linguistics and Language with an average of 0.8 citations per published article while Asian ESP Journal has a Q1 value in Language and Linguistics with an average of 1 citation per published article. Although the majority of the foreign journals chosen for this study are published in an Asian country, such as the Journal of Asia TEFL in Korea and Taiwan Journal of TESOL in Taiwan, the authors may come from outside Asia, such as Australia, Europe, or North America. Other journals included in this study (RELC Journal and the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics or ARAL) are published by a foreign publisher, Sage Publishing Company and John Benjamins Publishing Company respectively. The quality of local journals is indicated by their Sinta score ranging from Sinta 6 (the lowest) to Sinta 1 (the highest). The Sinta score of each accredited local journal published in Indonesia is given on the Sinta website (https://sinta.ristekbrin. go.id/ journals). According to Saputra (2020), the Sinta score is used to evaluate the quality and citation frequency of Indonesian journals. For example, the Journal of English as a Foreign Language (JEFL) has a Sinta score of 2 with 678 citations in total, while the Journal of English Education and Linguistic Studies (JEELS) has a Sinta score of 2 with 373 citations in total. Also, almost all articles published in local journals are written by Indonesian authors, while articles published in foreign journals are written by foreign writers. The authors were identified by looking at their names and affiliations. Some articles published in foreign journals may be written by Indonesian scholars but in this study they are considered foreign authors because they write for a foreign journal by complying with the journal article writing rules and guidelines while almost all authors published in local journals are Indonesian authors. Very few foreign scholars publish their articles in Indonesian journals, since these journals are not yet indexed by a foreign indexing organization, such as Scopus or Web of Science. Therefore, the articles are less visible and rarely cited by foreign authors. Data Investigation The linguistic categories used in this research, following Cheng et al. (2012), are noun phrase construction, compound construction, complete sentence, verb-ing phrases, and prepositional phrases. Table 2 gives the five distinct linguistic features taken from Cheng et al. (2012) including their categories, descriptions, and instances. All article titles in the data of this research were analyzed and categorized into the five linguistic feature categories as in the above examples. However, if a title is categorized as having a compound construction type, there was no further analysis was done on the type of each part of the compound construction. In the second analysis, the content features of the article titles were identified following Xiang and Li (2019). According to Xiang and Li, there are five possible forms of information in constructing article titles in the fields of Linguistics and Literature journals; these are topic-only, method, data, finding, and closure. The forms, descriptions, and examples of the article titles were identified based on information features of the titles are presented in Table 3. Table 2. Linguistic Feature Categories of the Journal Article Titles Linguistic Construction Categories Description Examples Noun phrase comprises of at least one noun that can be preceded by pre-modifiers or followed by post-modifiers The Linguistic and Content Features of Article Titles Published in Local & High-Impact Foreign Journals in English Education Compound construction comprises of two constructions connected by a colon, dash, question mark, or period Pointing Out Frequent Phrasal Verbs: A Corpus- Based Analysis complete sentence comprises a complete sentence or clause, including both declarative constructions Is It Beneficial to Use AI Chatbots to Improve Learners’ Speaking Performance? Verb-ing phrase the Verb-ing form of one or more verbs, followed by objects or modifiers. Exploring the Effects of Pair-Interaction Model on Improving Indonesian Adult Learners’ English Proficiency Prepositional phrase phrases begin with a preposition and followed by a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause Towards Transformative Global Citizenship through Interdisciplinary Arts Education Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 493 Using these guidelines, the selected article titles were analyzed to see how local journals and foreign journals in English Education are similar or different. In identifying the title categories based on their content or information, the key or substantive words in the article titles were used as clues. However, it is important to note that an article title may contain more than one information category. Xiang and Li give an example of a title containing two information categories (methods and results) in ‘Evaluating S(c)illy Voices: The Effects of Salience, Stereotypes and Co-present Language Variables on Real-time Reactions to Regional Speech’ (p.853). According to Xiang and Li, this title can be categorized into the method category (Evaluating S(c)illy Voices) because the information comes first in the title. In this study, following Xiang and Li, if there are two possible classifications of a title, it is categorized based on the first key or important key words contained in the title. Inter-coder Reliability Analysis To ensure the inter-coder accuracy of the linguistic construction and information features of the article titles, Cohen’s Kappa statistical measure was implemented in this research. An English education lecturer with a master’s degree who also completed an academic discourse analysis thesis was chosen as an independent coder. The independent coder was given 10% of the total article titles in the data of this research (i.e., 30 titles from the local journals and 50 titles from the foreign journals). The analysis results from Table 3. Content Forms in the Journal Article Titles Content Features Description Example Topic-only specifies a topic but either omits information on the categories below or is unclear Storytelling and Legal Legitimacy; Lexical and Linguistic Causatives in Oromo Method provides a general description of a method, such as assessment, evaluation, or comparison, or refers to the statistical tests used in a study and also specifies the topic and an approach to studying design, data management, or analysis Genocide: Examining the Dimensions of Violence in Heroes and Toads of War Data identifies the subject, title, or abbreviation of a particular research, which might identify the source of the data used or the population sample examined. The Walls that Emancipate: Disambiguation of the “Room” in A Room of One’s Own Finding covers the topic, as well as quantitative, semi-quantitative, or ordinal data, or any other statement of a relationship concerning the results. The Role of Diffusion in the Genesis of Hawaiian Creole Closure incorporates the subject and a clear conclusion drawn from an examination of the presented information, such as the implications of a study or the overall finding. The time course of individuals’ perception of co-articulatory information is linked to their production: Implications for sound change Table 4. Inter-coder accuracy of the linguistic construction and information feature of the article titles Linguistic construction Cohen’s Kappa Nominal construction .95 Compound construction .92 complete sentence .95 Verb-ing phrase .93 Prepositional phrase .92 Information feature Topic-only .70 Method .72 Data .70 Finding .73 Closure .71 Average .82 Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 494 the researcher and independent coder were then compared and the Cohen Kappa coefficient score was calculated. If Cohen’s Kappa score is 0.40 or below it is considered ‘poor’, from 0.40 to 0.59 ‘fair’, from 0.60 to 0.74 ‘good’, and 0.75 or higher ‘excellent’ (Kanoksilapathan, 2005). Lastly, the Kappa coefficient calculation score was resolved and the result is given in Table 4. Table 4 indicates that Cohen’s Kappa score was 0.82, an excellent inter-coder accuracy showing that the processes of identifying and classifying the linguistic and content features of the article titles were already believed accurate. However, several discussions were held to resolve the differences between the coders until a full agreement was reached. III. RESULTS The Length of the Article Titles The first analysis concerns the length of article titles and the data are shown in Table 5. Table 5 indicates that the title length in the two groups of articles in terms of word count is slightly different (11.7 in local journals and 13.3 in high-impact foreign journals). Below are examples of titles in local and high-impact foreign journals. Example 1. An article title in a local journal Profiling Vocational School Students’ Word Knowledge Level: A Study in Jakarta Timur (JEELS-5) Example 2. An article title in a high-impact foreign journal Inter-cultural and Intra-cultural Contact and the L2 Motivational Self System: An EFL Classroom Intervention Study (RELC-13) As can be seen in example 1, the article title consists of 12 words while in example 2 it consists of 14 words. The Linguistic Construction of the Article Titles The findings of the second analysis, which looked at the article titles’ linguistic features, are displayed in Table 6. Table 6 shows that nominal construction had the highest frequency found in both groups of article titles (339 or 41.85%), compound construction (244 or 27.65%) and Verb-ing phrase (182 or 22.47%). Below are examples from the data of this research. Example 3. Nominal construction The social construction of knowledge in synchronous text-based discussion during English language learning (JEFL-6) Example 4. Compound construction Digital learning of English beyond Classroom: EFL learners’ perception and teaching activities (JEELS-2) Example 5. Verb-ing Phrase Applying semantic gravity wave profiles to develop undergraduate students’ academic literacy (ARAL-1). The title of Example 3 is categorized as having a nominal construction form since the word Table 5. The Average Number of Words of Article Titles No Local Journals Sinta score/ Quartile value # of article titles The title length 1 JEELS (Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies) S2 40 12.7 2 Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (IJELTAL) S2 58 12.7 3 EduLite: Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture S2 68 11.3 4 ERJEE (English Review: Journal of English Education) S2 89 11.1 5 JEFL (Journal on English as a Foreign Language) S2 43 10.9 Total/Average 298 11.7 No Foreign Journals 6 The Taiwan Journal of TESOL (TJTESOL) Q3 27 14.6 7 Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (ARAL) Q3 36 13.9 8 The Journal of Asia TEFL Q1 152 13.1 9 The Asian ESP Journal Q2 241 13.1 10 Regional Language Centre (RELC) Q1 56 12.0 Total/Average 512 13.3 Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 495 “Social construction” acts as the head noun for a noun phrase. In Example 4, the colon following the word “Classroom” indicates that this title has a compound structure even if the title’s first word is the noun phrase “Digital learning.” In addition, the phrase “Applying” form in Example 5 indicates that this title is categorized as a Verb-ing form. Table 5 also shows that prepositional phrase and full sentence forms are infrequently used by the authors in both groups of the journals (33 or 4.7% for full sentence form and 12 or 1.48% for prepositional phrase form). Below are examples of the complete sentence and prepositional phrase forms of titles. Example 6. Full sentence Is It Beneficial to Use AI Chatbots to Improve Learners’ Speaking Performance? (The Journal of Asia TEFL- 89). Example 7. Prepositional phrase Toward an Inclusive Description of the Segmental Phonology of Philippine English (Asian ESP- 44) The main clause of ‘Is It Beneficial to Use AI Chatbots to Improve Learners’ Speaking Performance?’ in Example 6 indicates the use of complete sentence in an interrogative or question form and therefore it is categorized as having a complete sentence form of title. Example 7 is categorized as having a preposition phrase form because it begins with a preposition of ‘towards’ and is pursued by a noun phrase of ‘an Inclusive Description of the Segmental Phonology of Philippine English’. The percentages of linguistic construction type of titles in the two groups of articles, as identified in Table 6, were quite different. The percentage of local authors using Nominal Construction and Verb-ing Phrases is higher than that of foreign authors while the percentage of foreign authors using Full Sentences and Prepositional Phrases is higher than the local journal authors. However, the frequency appearance of Compound Construction title types in the two sets of articles are similar and full sentence and prepositional phrase types of titles are equally rare in both groups of articles. Information Category of the Article Titles The final analysis was about the content feature contained in the article titles and the data is displayed in Table 7. Table 7 shows that from the view of content feature form, the titles are dominated by method form in both sets of articles and then the topic- only form of titles (363 or 44.81% and 241 or 29.75% consecutively). However, compared to local journals, high-impact foreign journals used topic-only type of titles more frequently (25.5% in local journals and 32.23% in high-impact foreign journals). The other two title types (i.e., data and findings) are infrequently used in both groups of articles (91 or 11.23% and 111 or 13.70% consecutively) while the closure type of title is never used in local journal articles and only 4 (0.49%) in high-impact foreign journals. An example of each information type of title is presented below. Example 8. Topic-only Developing students reading skills through making multimodal inferences (ERJEE-2). Example 9. Method Practicing Genre-Based Language Teaching Model to Improve Students’ Achievement of Writing Skills (IJELTAL-16). Example 10. Data The protagonist’s shadow and persona as the reflection of an anti-hero in The Phantom of the Opera novel retold by Diane Namm (EduLite-50). Example 11. Finding The Impact of L1 on L2 in Academic English Writing: A Multilingual Dilemma of Pakistani Students (The Asian ESP Journal-4). Table 6. The Linguistic Construction of the Article Titles Linguistic Construction Forms Local Journal (n=298) Foreign Journal (n=512) Total (N=810) % Nominal construction 143 (47.99%) 196 (38.28%) 339 41.85 Compound construction 88 (29.53%) 156 (30.47%) 244 27.65 Verb-ing phrase 61 (20.47%) 121 (14.94%) 182 22.47 complete sentence 5 (1.68%) 28 (5.47%) 33 4.07 Prepositional phrase 1 (0.34%) 11 (2.15%) 12 1.48 Total 298 (100%) 512 (100%) 810 Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 496 Example 12. Closure Local Thoughts on Global Ideas: Pre- and In-service TESOL Practitioners’ Attitudes to the Pedagogical Implications of the Globalization of English (RELC- 37). Example 8 is classified as a topic-only form because it only mentions the subject of the title in general, without having specific information, while Example 9 is classified as a Method because the ‘Genre-Based Language Teaching Model’ is a method experimented with in the research. Example 10 is categorized as data form because it shows detailed information that includes: name, sample, and particular character that corresponds to the study while Example 11 is identified as finding form since the word ‘impact’ shows the research results. Finally, Example 12 is classified as having a closure because the word ‘implications’ shows that the result of the study has been concluded. Table 7 also shows that the frequency of information form in the two groups of articles is quite different, especially in the use of the Topic- only category in which the foreign authors use it more frequently than local authors do (32.23% and 25.5% consecutively) while in the use of Method and Data categories, local authors use them more frequently than foreign authors do (47.32% and 43.36% consecutively for Method category and 13.42% and 9.96% consecutively for Data category). IV. DISCUSSION The first research question in this study is on the length of article titles in the two sets of journals. The data reveal that there is no significant difference between the two sets of journal article titles; the average number of words in high-impact foreign journals is slightly higher than those in local journals (13.3 for foreign journals and 11.7 for local journals). One possible rationale for writing a longer title is to address more focuses of the research in the title to attract readers’ attention. However, Appiah et al. (2019) affirm that it is not clear whether or not the citation rate of longer titles is higher than that of shorter ones; shorter titles can be more easily found in the internet search than longer ones (Grant, 2013; Habibzadeh & Yadollahie, 2010). Yang (2019) suggests that longer titles can address more important terms in the study, and these typically spark the interest of journal editors and readers, increase the exposure of the papers, and raise the number of citations. This result is comparable to that of Soler (2007) and Moatarian and Alibabaee (2015), who discovered that article titles in Applied Linguistics and Linguistics journals published in high-impact journals were similarly long. Thus, the average length of article titles in this study was typical and do not substantially vary from the results of earlier studies. In other words, in terms the length of journal article titles, local journal authors do not need to adjust their writing style and keep their present convention when writing an article title in the field of English education to be submitted to a foreign journal. In terms of linguistic constructions, the results show that nominal construction is the most frequent in titles used by both local and foreign authors. This is probably because a noun phrase as a title allows writers to state more crucial knowledge about the research to attract readers’ attention (Moattarian & Alibabaee, 2015). Cheng et al. (2012) suggest that the headwords in nominal titles commonly function to tell readers the main focus of the research. These often require more detailed information, and nominal construction makes a tied construction, allowing writers to give as much focused information as possible using pre- and post-modifiers using head nouns as the object of research. For example, in the article titled Table 7. The Average Number of Information Feature Categories Information Feature Forms Local Journal (n=298) Foreign Journal (n=512) Total (N=810) % Method 141 (47.32%) 222 (43.36%) 363 44.81 Topic-only 76 (25.5%) 165 (32.23%) 241 29.75 Finding 41 (13.76%) 70 (13.67%0 111 13.70 Data 40 (13.42%) 51 (9.96%) 91 11.23 Closure 0 (0%) 4 (0.78%) 4 0.49 Total 298 512 810 100 Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 497 ‘Effects of Digital Writing Software as a Tool for Process Approach to Writing on Teacher Trainees’ Academic Writing Performance’ (taken from The Journal of Asia TEFL, Volume 17, Issue 4) in 2020, the noun-phrase head is ‘The Effects’ showing the research focus in the article while the three post- modifiers of ‘Digital Writing Software’, ‘Tool for Process Approach’ and ‘Writing on Teacher Trainees’ Academic Writing Performance’ reveal specific information about the head of the noun- phrase. Cheng et al. suggest that an effective nominal title should use modifiers that not only contain optimum messages about the research but also assist authors in arranging the information to show a clear connection between the head noun and the modifiers. The data of this study also shows that compound construction is frequently used by both groups of authors. This is probably because with a compound construction title, the authors can present two research focuses in their titles: the research topic and another important aspect of the research. This finding is in line with that of Cheng et al. (2012) who also found that compound and nominal constructions were the most dominantly used title constructions in their Applied Linguistics article data. According to Cheng et al., authors prefer using compound construction titles since they permit the connection of two major elements of research in a title while nominal constructions let authors incorporate as much detail as they can in their article titles. Xiang and Li (2019) also found that nominal and compound constructions are frequently used in article titles in the Linguistics and Literature fields but the use of nominal construction has experienced a continuous decline while compound construction has enjoyed steady growth recently. The difference between the two groups of article titles in terms of linguistic construction is that local authors use Nominal Construction and Verb- ing Phrases more frequently than foreign authors do, while foreign authors use Complete Sentences and Prepositional Phrases more frequently than local journal authors do. These differences may be caused by different writing conventions or practices between Indonesian and foreign authors or because of the different guidelines of the journals in which the articles are published (Xie, 2020). According to Xie, for Chinese authors, a title is viewed as a name and, therefore, it must be written in a noun phrase. The different quality of local journals published in Indonesia and those in high-impact foreign journals are not on the linguistic feature of the article titles but probably on the attractiveness, preciseness, and conciseness of the titles. Another possible reason is the choice of research method used in the article. Jasrial et al. (2024) suggest that nominal type of titles are commonly used in experimental and descriptive studies using a quantitative approach, while compound titles are often used in studies using case study methodology. About the content characteristic of the article titles, the finding shows that topic-only and method types are the most frequent forms used by both local and foreign journal authors. One possible reason is that in an experimental type of research, authors tend to show a new method they have implemented to solve a particular problem or issue addressed in the article introduction. Another possible reason is that by stating the research method in the title of the article, authors show that their research is different from the previous one on the same or similar topics which will give better results or findings. Similar result was found by Moattarian and Alibabaee (2015) in which topic-only title is the most dominant title type in their Applied Linguistics articles. According to Moattarian and Alibabaee, this is probably because ‘... the fact that Applied Linguistics links the study of language (Linguistics) with the teaching and learning of languages; therefore, researching the construction of language involves several areas’ (p. 39). Moattarian and Alibabaee claim that studies in Applied Linguistics are often multi-disciplines attempting to solve language and language education problems; they show both practical and theoretical bases for empirical research to deal with problems related to language and language education. Similarly, Kerans et al. (2016) found that the research method is frequently stated by authors in clinical research field to convince readers that their research has been done correctly and therefore, the results are valid and reliable. Thus, the frequent use of the method form of article titles in this study may show that authors in English Education are willing to address the practical contributions of their research findings to be implemented in language education teaching practices. The difference between the two sets of journal article titles in terms of the content feature is that compared to local journals, foreign journals used Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 498 topic-only type of titles more frequently (32.23% versus 25.5%). One possible reason is that foreign authors tend to foreground the important aspects of their articles such as general subjects, findings, and methods to gain attention from readers (Jiang & Hyland, 2022). According to Shah (2014), today readers search references mostly from the internet and this search technique identifies journal article titles from the words or phrases included in the titles and therefore, titles with clear and easy to find titles are more visible than those with vague and hard to read titles. In other words, titles that contain clear descriptions of the study, design, and results are more likely to be identified by search engines and used or cited readers. V. CONCLUSION The similarities between the two groups of articles are (1) nominal and compound constructions of titles are the most dominant categories of content features and (2) topic-only and method categories are the most frequent types used by both local and foreign journal authors. The differences are that (1) the article titles in high-impact foreign journals are slightly longer than those in local journals, (2) local authors use nominal construction and verb- ing phrase types of titles more frequently than high-impact foreign authors, (3) foreign authors use full sentences and prepositional phrases more frequently than local journal authors do, and (4) high-impact foreign journals use topic-only type of titles more frequently than local journals. Thus, compared to similarities, there are more differences between the two sets of journal article titles. This study is not without limitation; it only looked at the length, linguistic and content features of article titles in English Education in local and foreign journals. Probably, more important aspects of article titles are their attractiveness, preciseness, and conciseness because the more attractive and informative an article title the higher the chance of the article being read by readers and therefore, it has a higher chance to be accepted by high-impact foreign journals and read by readers. Therefore, future studies should investigate these aspects of article titles published in high and low-rank local and/or foreign journals. Another important and interesting analysis about journal article titles is the possible correlation between the article title types and the methods used in the research reported in the article. One pedagogical implication from the findings of this study is that Indonesian authors in English Education, especially young writers, have to be familiar with and acquire the accepted linguistic construction and content features of article titles when writing an article in English to be submitted to high-impact foreign journals. They, for example, should write a slightly longer title, use full sentences or prepositional phrases and topic- only type of titles for their journal article drafts. This is because titles are the first part of articles to be read by readers, including journal editors and reviewers; if the title is attractive and informative, the manuscript will have a better opportunity to be approved by a targeted foreign journal. ETHICS STATEMENT The authors have read and followed the ethical requirements for publication in Jurnal Arbitrer, and the current work does not involve human subjects, animal experiments, or any data collected from social media platforms. CREDIT AUTHOR STATEMENT Safnil Arsyad: preparing the initial outline of the article, drafting the initial article draft, editing the manuscript and polishing the final draft version. Syahrul Ramadhan: preparing the research instrument, conducting data collection processes, and analysing the raw data Husnul Hakim: analyzing the research data, transforming the manuscript into an article draft following the suggested template, and checking the lay out of the article. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. DECLARATION OF COMPETING INTERESTS We declare that we have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 499 REFERENCES Appiah, K. R., Ankomah, C., Osei, H. Y., & Hattoh-Ahiaduvor, T. (2019). Structural organisation of research article titles: A comparative study of titles of business, gynaecology and law. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 10(3), 145-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.10n.3p.145 Arsyad, S. & Wadhana, D. E. C. (2022). Promotion in academic discourse: Authors’ centrality claims in their research article introductions. Studies about Languages, 41, 47-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/ j01.sal.1.41.30693 Anthony, L. (2001). Characteristic Features of Research Article Titles in Computer Science. IEEEIEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 44(3), 187-194. http://doi.org/10.1109/47.946464 Belcher, W. L. (2009). Writing your journal article in twelve weeks: A guide to academic publishing success. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. Bavdekar, S. B. (2016). Formulating the Right Title for a Research Article. Journal of The Association of Physicians of India, 64, 53-56. Retrieved in October 2024 from : https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/292976399 Cheng, S. W., Kuo, C., & Kuo, C. (2012). Research article titles in applied linguistics. Journal of Academic Language & Learning, 6(1), 1-14. Retrieved in October 2024 from : https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/277104233 Day, A. (2008). How to get research published in journals (2nd.ed.). Gower Publishing Company. Doykova, I. T. (2016). Title structure in research articles (EMP). Conference: 10th Jubilee International Scientific Conference ‘’The Power of Knowledge. Agia Triada. Jamali, H. R. & Nikzad, M. (2011) Article title type and its relation with the number of downloads and citations. Scientometrics, 88(2), 653-661. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0412-z Gastel, B., & Day, R. A. (2016). How to write and publish a scientific paper (8th ed). Greenwood. Grant, J. M. (2013). What makes a good title? Health Information and Libraries Journal, 30(4), 259-260. http://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12049 Habibzadeh, F. & Yadollahie, M. (2010). Are shorter articles more attractive for citation?: Cross-sectional study of 22 scientific journals. Scientometrics, 51, 165-170. http://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2010.51.165 Hartley, J. (2008). Academic writing and publishing: A practical handbook. Routledge. Hyland, K., & Zou, H. (2022). Titles in research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 56, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2022.101094 Jiang, F. & Hyland, K. (2022). Titles in research articles: Changes across time and discipline. Learned Publishing, 1-9. http://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1498 Jasrial, D., Ramadhan, S., Mukhaiyar, Afful, J.B.A. (2024). Linguistic Characteristics of Research Article Titles in National and International Journals. JOLLT Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 12(1), 88-103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v%vi%i.9608 Kanoksilapatham, B. (2005). Rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 24, 269-292. http://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.5108.9365 Kerans, M. E., Murray, A., & Sabate, S. (2016). Content and Phrasing in titles of original research and review articles in 2015: Range of practice in four clinical journals. Publications, 4(11), 2-22. http:// doi.org/10.3390/publications4020011 Milojevic, Stasa (2017). The length and semantic structure of article titles-evolving disciplinary practices and correlations with impact. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 2(2), 1-10. http://doi. org/10.3389/frma.2017.00002 Moattarian, A. & Alibabaee, A. (2015). Syntactic structures in research article titles from three different disciplines: Applied linguistics, civil engineering, and dentistry. The Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 7(1), 27-50. http://doi.org/10.22099/jtls.2015.3530 Safnil Arsyad / Jurnal Arbitrer - Vol. 11 No. 4 (2024) 500 Mohammad, P.T., & Raewf, M.B. (2018). The Content Analysis of the Research Papers on Language Learning Strategies, QALAAI ZANIST SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL, 3(4), 9014-911. Retrieved in October 20024 from : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349945855 Orbay, K. & Miranda, R. (2020). Building journal impact factor quartile into the assessment of academic performance: A case study. Participatory Educational Research (PER), 7(2), i-xiii. http://dx.doi. org/10.17275/per.20.26.7.2 Paiva, C. E., Lima, J. P. S. N., & Paiva, B.S.R. (2012). Articles with short titles describing the results are cited more often. CLINICS, 67(5), 509-513. http://doi.org/10.6061/clinics/2012(05)17 Saputra, A. (2020). Pemanfaatan Science and Technology Index (SINTA) untuk Publikasi Karya Ilmiah dan Pencarian Jurnal Nasional Terakreditasi [The Use of Science and Technology Index (SINTA) for Indonesian accredited journals search]. Media Pustakawan, 27(1), 56-68. https://doi. org/10.37014/medpus.v27i1.674 Shah, J.N. (2014). Writing good effective title for journal article. Journal of Patan Academy of Health Sciences, 1(2):1-3. Retrieved in October 2024 from : https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/315014638 Soler, V. (2007). Writing titles in science: An exploratory study. English for Specific Purposes, 26, 90– 102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.08.001 Swales, J. M., & Feak, C. B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Michigan University Press. Tullu, M. S. (2019). Writing the title and abstract for a research paper: Being concise, precise, and meticulous is the key. Saudi Journal of Anesthesia, 13(1), 12-17. DOI: 10.4103/sja.SJA_685_18 White, M.D. & Marsh, E. (2006). Content Analysis: A Flexible Methodology. LIBRARY TRENDS, 55(1) in Research Methods,” edited by Lynda M.Baker), pp. 22–45. Xiang, X. & Li, J. (2019). A diachronic comparative study of research article titles in linguistics and literature journals. Scientometrics, 122, 847–866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03329-z Xie, S. (2020). English research article titles: Cultural and disciplinary perspectives. Sage Open, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440209336 Yang, W. (2019). A Diachronic Keywords analysis in research title and cited article title in Applied Linguistics from 1990-2016. English Text Construction, 12(1), 84-102. DOI: 10.1075/etc.00019. yan