"Analysis" or "The analysis"

Question

I've come across many scientific articles which bear titles beginning with: "Analysis of ...".

For example:

Analysis of the accuracy and implications of simple methods for predicting the secondary structure of globular proteins

or,

Analysis of Discrete Ill-Posed Problems by Means of the L-Curve

Is this correct or should they include a definite/indefinite article at the beginning?

There are many related (possibly duplicate) headlinese questions: 1. Definite article “the” introducing the subject of a sentence, 2. Article omission or not?, 3. Why neither “the” or “a” is used to identify a mug (see details below)?, 4. The correct omission of the definite and indefinite articles [closed], and many others. — Em., Dec 03 '18 at 08:28
I wonder whether rules that apply to newspaper headlines are also valid for scientific articles as well. Space limitations of newspapers may not be present for academic journals. — Mehmet Balioglu, Dec 03 '18 at 08:36
Yes, I think you should [edit] your post to include that concern. — Em., Dec 03 '18 at 08:38
It would help to refer to dictionaries: analysis is countable and uncountable, especially in mathematics. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/analysis If the writer had said, an analysis, it would imply that more than one is possible in his context. — Lambie, Feb 26 '19 at 21:12

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 04 '18 at 01:11

1

Rules of grammar hardly apply to headlines and titles, which are telegraphic speech or even more abbreviated.

answered Dec 04 '18 at 01:11

DrMoishe Pippik

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 27 '19 at 09:53

Headlinese or not, the definite article is surely not suitable. It would imply that the study being described is the one and only good study of the subject.

The indefinite article will make the title sound irrelevant, as in "one in many".

A possibility would be to say "Another study..." or "A new study..." but that already sounds like a description or like an advertisement, not like the title of an academic paper.

So in this case, the zero article (no article) is the best solution.

score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 06 '20 at 13:33

-1

Titles of books and articles have slightly modified rules.

In particular, titles starting with an article are (or at least were) so common that there is a convention to move the article to the end for sorting purposes:

The Cat in the Hat

Becomes:

Cat in the Hat, The

For technical reasons, the sorting version has become the dominant version, used pretty much everywhere except the cover of the book or article itself.

So, if almost nobody will ever see the article in its proper place, then authors might as well just leave it off.

answered Aug 06 '20 at 13:33

StephenS

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-1 No onew writes "In Suess's Cat in the Hat, The he cleverly uswes a limited vocabulary, or "In LeGuin's Dispossessed, The alienation is a major theme." The form with the article at the end is used only in footnotes and bibliographies, not in prose. And now that an electronic document can sort on something other than the displayed text, it is becoming more common not to use the modified title in places where it was once standard. – David Siegel May 08 '22 at 18:39
@DavidSiegel “for sorting purposes” – StephenS May 08 '22 at 18:42
"the sorting version has become the dominant version, used pretty much everywhere* except the cover*" This is what I object to. "everywhere" includes in running prose. If you meant "in all footnotes" please edit to say that. – David Siegel May 08 '22 at 19:33

"Analysis" or "The analysis"

3 Answers3