Conversely, good highlights also keep a potential reader from wasting their time. If your paper doesn’t cover information that they need to know or are interested in, highlights let them know immediately so they don’t have to read through half your paper before they find that out.
For example, you would write “UV rays affect skin’s overall health” rather than “skin’s overall health is affected by sun exposure. " Research papers often use passive voice, which is more wordy and difficult to understand. Because highlights have a strict length requirement, using active voice allows you to stay within the character limits while including the most important information from your article. For example, you might write: “Prolonged exposure to light damages skin cells. "
Use the simplest words possible, even if they aren’t technically accurate. For example, instead of referring to “squamous cells,” you could say “skin cells” or simply “skin. " Your paper will get into the specific cells studied.
One method of proofreading is to read your highlights backward, moving word by word. This encourages you to focus on each individual word rather than the phrase as a whole. It’s also a good idea to let someone else give your highlights a read-through. Someone completely unfamiliar with your highlights or your paper might notice errors you’ve repeatedly overlooked because you know what you meant to say.
For example, the National Science Foundation wants each highlight on an individual Microsoft PowerPoint slide. Highlights were introduced by the publisher Elsevier and many journals and publishers use similar procedures. If the journal or publisher tells you to use Elsevier’s requirements, you can get those at https://www. elsevier. com/authors/journal-authors/highlights.
If you’re providing your highlights in bullet points, the bullet point itself typically isn’t considered a character. However, all other spaces and punctuation are. Some journals or publishers may also have a minimum length. Even if a specific minimum length isn’t given, having a highlight that’s only 2 or 3 words typically doesn’t provide enough information to a potential reader to be helpful.
Double-check to make sure you’ve met all the publisher’s requirements before you submit your highlights. Violations of the publisher’s protocol could delay the publication of your paper.
