Title does matter: a cross-sectional study of 30 journals in the Medical Laboratory Technology category

Introduction: First impression on potential readers is created by the title; therefore, authors should give importance to the title structure. The aim of this study was to establish whether articles created by a smaller number of authors and with shorter, descriptive or declarative titles gain more citations and whether article title length and number of authors correlate to the number of citations. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study on article citation data for 30 scientific journals published in 2016 in Medical Laboratory Technology field according to Web of Science database was conducted. The type of article, type of title, as well as number of words in the title and number of authors was recorded. Results: In the group of original articles (N = 2623), articles with declarative titles (N = 336, 13%) showed statistically higher number of citations in multiple comparison analysis when compared to descriptive titles (P < 0.001). No correlation was found between number of citations and title word count (r = 0.07, P < 0.001) nor between number of citations and number of authors in group of original articles (r = 0.09, P < 0.001). Original articles with descriptive titles longer than 15 words or with more than six authors are cited more (P = 0.005 and P < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: Based on results of our study, titles do matter. Therefore, authors of original articles might want to consider including their findings in the title and having longer titles

Does recreational scuba diving have clinically significant effect on routine haematological parameters?

IntroductionScuba diving represents a combination of exercise and changes in environmental conditions. This study aimed to evaluate changes in haematological parameters after recreational scuba diving in order to identify clinically significant changes. Materials and methodsThe study included males, 17 recreational divers, median age (range) 41 (30-52) years. Blood samples were taken before diving, immediately after diving to 30 meters for 30 minutes, 3 hours and 6 hours after diving. Complete blood counts were analyzed on the Cell Dyn Ruby haematology analyzer. Statistical significance between successive measurements was tested using Friedman test. The difference between the two measurements was judged against desirable bias (DSB) derived from biological variation and calculated reference change values (RCV). The difference higher than RCV was considered clinically significant. ResultsA statistically significant increase and difference judging against DSB was observed: for neutrophils immediately, 3 and 6 hours after diving (18%, 34% and 36%, respectively), for white blood cells (WBCs) 3 and 6 hours after diving (20% and 25%, respectively), for lymphocytes (20%) and monocytes (23%) 6 hours after diving. A statistically significant decrease and difference judging against DSB was found: immediately after diving for monocytes (- 15%), 3 and 6 hours after diving for red blood cells (RBCs) (- 2.6% and -2.9%, respectively), haemoglobin (- 2.1% and - 2.8%, respectively) and haematocrit (- 2.4% and - 3.2%, respectively). A clinically significant change was not found for any of the test parameters when compared to RCV. ConclusionsObserved statistically significant changes after recreational scuba diving; WBCs, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes increase and RBCs, haemoglobin, haematocrit decrease, probably will not affect clinical decision