Research Highlights Checker
Check your research highlights before you upload them. Paste one highlight per line and see each one's length including spaces, how many characters are left under the 85-character limit, and warnings for citations, unexplained abbreviations and repeats — against Elsevier's or Cell Press's rules, or your own.
Bullets, dashes and numbers at the start of a line are removed before counting.
Check
Paste or type your highlights, one per line.
How to Use the Research Highlights Checker
- 1. Paste your highlights. One per line. Bullets, dashes and numbering at the start of a line are stripped before counting, so you can paste straight from your draft.
- 2. Choose the rules. Elsevier allows 3–5 highlights and Cell Press 3–4, both with at most 85 characters each, spaces included. Choose Custom if your journal's Guide for Authors says something else.
- 3. Fix what is flagged. The table shows each highlight's length and the characters left — negative when it is too long — with notes on citations, abbreviations and repeated lines.
- 4. Copy the final set. The copy button gives you a bulleted list to paste into the separate highlights file.
The Rules: Elsevier and Cell Press
| Publisher | Number of highlights | Length of each | Where the rule comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elsevier | 3–5 | Up to 85 characters, including spaces | Elsevier's guidance on highlights for authors |
| Cell Press | 3–4 | Up to 85 characters, including spaces | Cell's final file requirements |
Individual journals set their own policy — some require highlights, some make them optional. The journal's Guide for Authors wins.
Highlights are the short list of key findings that appears with an article, and Elsevier presents them as a way to make the article easier to find through search engines. Its guidance is to capture the novel results and any new methods, to leave out jargon, acronyms and abbreviations so a general reader can follow, and to use the terms your readers will search for. Cell describes them as summarizing the core results so readers quickly grasp the main take-home messages. Both ask for them as a separate file at submission — Elsevier as an editable Word document uploaded under the "Highlights" file type.
How to Write Good Highlights
- One finding per bullet. A highlight that needs "and" twice is two highlights, or one too many.
- Lead with the result. "Walkers fell asleep 15 minutes sooner" says more than "We investigated sleep latency".
- Use the words people search for. Name the condition, organism, method or place in full rather than abbreviating it.
- Make each bullet stand alone. Highlights are read on their own, away from the reference list, so a citation or a figure number means nothing there.
- Count spaces. The 85-character limit includes them. Cutting "in order to" to "to" or "a number of" to "several" usually finds the characters you need.
Example
Try an example loads four illustrative highlights for a study of walking and sleep. Against the Elsevier rules, the checker reports four highlights — within 3–5 — and two problems:
Flagged
- "No walking-related injuries occurred during the 12-week RCT" — 59 characters, 26 left. Spell out or remove: RCT.
- "Brisk walking may offer older adults a safer alternative to sleeping pills (Lee, 2021)" — 86 characters, 1 over the limit. Remove the citation: (Lee, 2021).
Fixed
- "No walking-related injuries occurred during the 12-week trial" — 61 characters, 24 left.
- "Brisk walking may offer older adults a safer alternative to sleeping pills" — 74 characters, 11 left.
Removing the citation fixes both problems with the last highlight at once — the reference was also what pushed it past 85 characters.
Common Mistakes
- Background instead of findings. "Poor sleep is common in older adults" is context, not a result. Every highlight should say something your study found or did.
- Abstract sentences cut to length. Trimming the abstract's sentences until they fit produces fragments. Rewrite each point from scratch.
- Vague claims. "These findings have important implications" uses a whole highlight to say nothing. Name the implication.
- The wrong count. Five highlights where Cell Press allows four, or two where Elsevier asks for at least three — the checker tells you which side you are on.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are research highlights?
- Three to five short bullet points that state an article's key findings and methods. Elsevier journals publish them with the article and use them to help readers find it; Cell Press journals ask for three or four.
- How long can each highlight be?
- At Elsevier and Cell Press, no more than 85 characters including spaces. The checker counts characters the way a reader sees them, so an accented letter or a symbol counts once.
- Do spaces count toward the 85 characters?
- Yes. Both Elsevier and Cell state the limit as 85 characters including spaces, which is why a highlight that looks short can still run over.
- Can highlights include abbreviations or references?
- Avoid both. Elsevier's guidance is to leave out jargon, acronyms and abbreviations so a general reader can follow, and a citation means nothing to someone reading the highlights on their own. The checker flags each abbreviation it finds, noting whether you spelled it out.
- How are highlights different from the abstract?
- The abstract summarizes the whole paper in a paragraph. Highlights pick out only the new results and methods as separate, scannable bullets — they should not repeat the abstract's sentences.
- How do I submit highlights?
- As a separate file. Elsevier asks for an editable Word document, chosen as the "Highlights" file type when you upload; Cell asks for a single Word document containing the highlights. Copy the checked list from this tool into that file.