Authors writing in Tamil sometimes ask why KALANJIYAM – International Journal of Tamil Studies requires the title, abstract and keywords in English as well. The short answer: it is how research written in Tamil gets found.
How databases read your article
Search services such as Google Scholar and Crossref read an article’s metadata – title, authors, abstract, keywords, DOI – more than its full text. Many international readers search only in English. A Tamil paper with no English metadata is effectively invisible to them, however good it is.
What the journal publishes in both languages
- The title, in Tamil and English.
- An abstract of 150–250 words in each language.
- 3–5 keywords in each language.
The body of the article stays in the language you wrote it in – Tamil or English.
Writing a good English title
Translate the meaning, not word for word, and keep the name of the work you study. For example, a Tamil title on women’s games in Sangam literature might become “Women’s games in Sangam poetry: evidence from Kuṟuntokai and Kalittokai”. Give names of Tamil works and authors in one consistent transliteration such as ISO 15919, or in a common English spelling, and use the same form throughout.
Writing the English abstract
Cover the same four points as the Tamil abstract – aim, sources or method, findings and conclusion – in plain English. If you use machine translation, read the result carefully: wrong technical terms make an abstract hard to find and hard to trust. Our Tamil guide ஆய்வுச் சுருக்கம் எழுதுவது எப்படி? gives a worked example.
Choosing keywords
Choose words a reader would search for – the name of the text, the concept, the period – rather than repeating the title. For example: Puṟanāṉūṟu; patronage; gift-giving; Sangam poetics.
Names and ORCID
Give your name in English in the same form you use on other publications, and include your ORCID iD if you have one, so that citation services can link all your work together.
See also the Author Guidelines and the manuscript template.