Subject: [dtn] "Delay-Tolerant Networking" vs "Delay Tolerant Networking"

From: Lloyd Wood <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2019 08:10:31 +0000 (UTC)

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-hyphens-paper-titles-citation-journal.amp

Hyphens in paper titles harm citation counts and journal impact factors

"Metamorphic Robustness Testing: Exposing Hidden Defects in Citation Statistics and Journal Impact Factors,"
by Zhi Quan Zhou, T.H. Tse, and Matt Witheridge, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, early access
May 2019.

https://doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2019.2915065

Going by this, "Delay Tolerant" should do better than "Delay-Tolerant"
as adjectives in titles of cited papers.

Now, I've always thought that related adjectives should be hyphenated
for ease of parsing ("bright-red person" is clearer), but that does
not appear to Be The American Way, Typified By Ponderous New York Times
Headlines Where Clarity of Reader Thought Priorities Are Not Top of Mind
Sub Editor Concerns, But Capital Letter Use Is Embraced.

And now research has indicated that hyphenating for clarity
is actually a bad thing for citations, though they oddly don't talk
about the effects of colons, given that their title has a colon.
And whether it's due to how search engines handle hyphens is unclear
to me.

Without the hyphen, perhaps Fall's 2003 SIGCOMM paper would have
been more successful? But even Kevin has cited it without the hyphen
(on his own home page, yet). And would "IETF" benefit from a couple
of hyphens?

Scott, you're the one with the degree in English; this is within
your bailiwick.

L.

Is it April 1st? already?

 Lloyd Wood http://lloydwood.users.sourceforge.net/Personal/L.Wood/dtn/