By Dr. Miles Shepherd
PMWJ Executive Editor
Salisbury, England, UK
It will not have escaped notice that the Journal has expanded in recent years. The expansion is mainly in the number of papers we now include. In 2025 we published 90 featured papers and 6 peer reviewed papers; to date this year the tally is 84 featured papers and 16 peer reviewed papers. The count for 2025 is incomplete as we had technical difficulties that took out two editions and we have only published 7 editions but even so, the numbers for this year are significantly higher.
With all these papers, how do you make yours stand out? In mainstream journalism, it is the headline that attracts readers and it is the same in the Journal. Our headlines are the titles of your paper, and they play an important role in how readers decide what to read.
In general terms, less is more! Long titles tend to put readers off, especially it they are highly specific geographically. This can be a problem for authors of peer reviewed papers especially if the paper is an adaptation of a dissertation or thesis but to attract readers (and possible citations) very detailed location information is almost certain to mean readers will assume that the paper has nothing relevant to where they live.
How do experienced authors handle issues around titles, you might wonder? Well, most academics will have a short, easily assimilated title that indicates the topic and the overall methodology. An example might be something like” Project Risk Anomalies: A case study” rather than “An investigation of factors affecting risk perception in Ross Island, Antarctica”.
The geographical aspects can be explained in the main body of the paper, and the wider relevance should form part of the concluding remarks. Similarly, for peer reviewed papers, care is needed when selecting key words. If you are unsure what works best for your paper, please don’t hesitate to seek advice from PMWJ’s Executive Editorial Team.
How to cite this work: Shepherd, M. (2026). From the Executive Editor’s Desk; PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue VIII, August. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pmwj167-Aug2026-Shepherd-From-the-Exec-Editors-Desk.pdf
About the Author
Dr. Miles Shepherd
Executive Editor, PMWJ
Salisbury, UK
Dr. Miles Shepherd is Executive Editor, Advisor and International Correspondent for the PM World Journal in the United Kingdom. He retired from a 30 year career in the British Army in 1994. He is also managing director for MS Projects Ltd, a consulting company supporting various UK and overseas Government agencies, nuclear industry organisations and other businesses. Miles has over 35 years’ experience on a variety of projects in UK, Eastern Europe and Russia. His PM experience includes defence, major IT projects, decommissioning of nuclear reactors, nuclear security, rail and business projects for the UK Government and EU. His consulting work has taken him to Japan, Taiwan, USA and Russia. Past Chair and Fellow of the Association for Project Management (APM), Miles is also past president and chair and a Fellow of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). He was, for seven years, a Director for PMI’s Global Accreditation Centre and is past Chair of the ISO committee developing new international standards for Project Management and for Program/Portfolio Management. He served on British Standards Institute project management committee (2002 – 2026) including 5 years as Chair. He was involved in setting up APM’s team developing guidelines for project management oversight and governance. Miles is based in Salisbury, England and can be contacted at miles.shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk.
To see other works by Miles Shepherd, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/miles-shepherd/
