WHY ANNOTATIONS NEED TO BE OF SUCH VOLUME

Our journal undertakes permanent actions to be included into international information and scientometric databases. These bases include metadata of the article and the list of used references in English. Texts of the articles are not included.

All search systems operate using metadata – title of the article, annotation and key words. That is why they together should reflect content of the article to the biggest extent possible.

We would like to emphasise again that the title of the article, annotations and key words are the only source of information about the content of the article and results of research described in it. Thus, the annotation has to be written in such a way so that after reading it the reader would wish to read the whole article. It means to order (not free of charge!) its translation from Ukrainian (Russian) into English. It could be cited after reading, so, the author would get the citation index other than zero and impact factor of the journal will grow. Thus, the author is the most interested person in having clear and meaningful annotations. And the journal is interested in it too.

In practice it’s different. A typical example of metadata that are submitted to the journal (not a real one): title of the article – «Efficiency of investments into agriculture», annotation – «The article considers topical issues of efficiency of investments into agriculture», key words – «efficiency, investments, agriculture». As they say – no comments.

Or the annotation consists of one complex and incomprehensible sentence, the parts of which not connected logically between themselves and separated with comma or semicolon: «The article considers …, analyses …, studies …, proves …, offers …» and so on. Such an annotation would hardly provoke the reader’s wish to read the whole article.

One of the proved variants of writing an annotation is a brief reiteration of the article’s structure, which includes introduction, aim and task, methods, results and conclusion. Namely this approach is widely used in foreign journals.

From now on metadata are not included into payment for publication. Hence the requirement (rather opportunity for you) of annotation volume in 0.5 – 1 page. This should be sufficient for proper presentation of your article. Don’t save on annotations!

Conclusion: the journal and its authors need to establish mutually profitable relations, even symbiosis. The authors are interested in being cited, the journal is interested in it too. The journal is interested in being included into international scientometric databases, the authors are interested in it too. Authors provide good quality annotations – the journal translates them into good quality English and places in international scientometric databases.

And the whole process starts with an annotation – a «business card» of your article in the world scientific information environment.