An APA paper title should be centered, bolded, and written in title case, placed three to four lines down from the top of the title page. Beyond that formatting, the title itself should be focused, include key terms related to your topic, and clearly signal what the paper is about. Here’s how to get both the content and the layout right.
What Makes a Good APA Title
Your title is the first thing a reader (or your professor) sees, so it needs to communicate the paper’s main idea quickly. APA style has no maximum length for titles, but the official guidance is to keep them focused and include key terms. In practice, most effective titles fall between 10 and 16 words.
A strong title identifies the main variables, the relationship being studied, or the central argument. Compare these two examples:
- Vague: “A Study About Social Media and Teenagers”
- Specific: “The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Sleep Quality in Adolescents”
The second version tells the reader exactly what the paper examines. Avoid filler phrases like “A Study of” or “An Investigation Into” when possible, since they take up space without adding meaning. If you need a subtitle to clarify scope or method, place it after a colon on a separate double-spaced line.
Title Case Capitalization Rules
APA requires title case for your paper’s title, which means capitalizing some words and lowercasing others. The rules break down by word type and length.
Words You Capitalize
- Major words: all nouns, verbs (including linking verbs like “is” and “are”), adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns
- Words of four letters or more: regardless of part of speech. This means “With,” “Between,” and “From” are always capitalized
- The first word of the title: even if it’s a minor word like “The” or “A”
- The first word after a colon: if your title has a subtitle, capitalize the first word of that subtitle
- Both parts of hyphenated major words: write “Self-Report,” not “Self-report”
Words You Lowercase
Only minor words of three letters or fewer stay lowercase, and only when they appear in the middle of the title. These include:
- Short conjunctions: “and,” “as,” “but,” “for,” “if,” “nor,” “or,” “so,” “yet”
- Articles: “a,” “an,” “the”
- Short prepositions: “at,” “by,” “in,” “of,” “off,” “on,” “per,” “to,” “up,” “via”
A quick way to remember: if the word is three letters or fewer and isn’t a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or pronoun, lowercase it (unless it starts the title or subtitle).
Title Page Layout
The title doesn’t just float anywhere on the page. APA 7th edition has specific placement rules:
- Place the title three to four lines down from the top of the page.
- Center it horizontally on the page.
- Type it in bold.
- Use the same font and size as the rest of your paper (typically 12-point Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial).
- Double-space the entire title page, including between the title and the author information below it.
If your title is long enough to span two lines, let it wrap naturally with double spacing. If you have a subtitle separated by a colon, you can place the subtitle on its own double-spaced line beneath the main title.
Student vs. Professional Title Pages
APA 7th edition introduced two versions of the title page, and which one you use depends on whether you’re writing for a class or for publication.
A student title page includes the paper title, your name, your department and institution, the course number and name, the instructor’s name, and the assignment due date. All of these elements are centered and stacked below the title in that order. Students typically do not need a running head (the abbreviated title in the page header) unless an instructor specifically requires one.
A professional title page, used for manuscripts submitted to journals, includes the paper title, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, an author note, and a running head. The running head is a shortened version of your title (no more than 50 characters), placed flush left in the page header in all capital letters.
If you’re unsure which version to use for a class assignment, check the syllabus or ask your instructor. Most undergraduate and graduate coursework calls for the student format.
Formatting the Title in the Body of the Paper
The title appears one more time after the title page: at the top of the first page of text. Center it, bold it, and use title case, exactly as you did on the title page. Then begin your introduction on the next double-spaced line. Do not label it “Introduction.” APA style treats the opening section as inherently introductory, so the paper title itself serves as the heading.
Quick Checklist
- Title is focused and includes key terms describing your topic
- Title case capitalization is applied correctly
- Title is centered, bolded, and placed three to four lines from the top of the title page
- Subtitle (if any) appears on a separate line after a colon
- Entire title page is double-spaced
- Correct title page format is used (student or professional)
- Title is repeated, centered, and bolded at the top of the first text page