APA Title Page (7th edition) | Template for Students & Professionals
APA provides different guidelines for student and professional papers. The student version of the APA title page should include the following information (double spaced and centered):
- Paper title
- Author name
- Department and university name
- Course number and name
- Instructor name
- Due date of the assignment
The professional title page also includes an author note (flushed left), but not a course name, instructor name, or due date.
Title page example (student and professional version)
Paper title
Write an informative, striking title that summarizes the topic of your paper. Try to keep the title focused and use relevant keywords.
Place the title three or four lines down from the top of the paper. Center align and bold it. Don’t forget to use title case capitalization (capitalize the first letter of each word, except small words such as articles and short prepositions).
Author
Write the author’s name under the paper title (leave a blank line in between). Give their full names (first name, middle initial(s) and last name), but don’t include titles (Dr., Prof.) or degrees (Ph.D., MSc).
Multiple authors on the title page
List the authors in order of their contribution. If there are two authors, separate their names with the word “and”, like this:
If there are more than two authors, separate their names with a comma. Only write “and” before the last author, like this:
Institutional affiliation
Write the author’s affiliation on the next line under the author names. Students should specify the department and institution where they’re attending school. Professional researchers should specify the department and institution where they conducted their research.
Multiple authors with different affiliations
Use superscript numbers on the author line to indicate which institution they’re affiliated with. Don’t use superscript numbers if all authors are affiliated with the same institution (and department).
1 Department of Psychology, Harvard University
2 Department of Economics, Princeton University
3 Department of Mathematics, Stanford University
Course information
On a student title page, provide information about the course. List the following information on separate (double spaced) lines under the author’s affiliation:
- Course number and name
- Instructor(s)
- Assignment’s due date
Author note
For professional papers, you may include an author note. This note may contain the author’s ORCID iD, affiliation changes, disclosures of conflicts of interest, brief acknowledgments, and contact information (in that specific order). Present this information in separate paragraphs.
Place the author note on the bottom half of the page. Center the label “Author note” and apply bold styling. The paragraphs in the author note are left-aligned. The first line of each new paragraph is indented.
For more information about formatting the author note, see section 2.7 of the APA Publication Manual.
Page header
For a student title page, the page header consists of just a page number in the top-right corner. There is no need for a running head (as was the case in APA 6th edition).
A professional title page does have a running head. The running head is an abbreviated version of the paper title in all capital letters. The maximum length is 50 characters (counting spaces).
Including an image on the title page
Images are not usually included on an APA title page, and APA does not provide any guidelines for doing so. It’s usually viewed as unprofessional to include an image, since the title page is there to provide information, not for decoration.
If you do decide to include an image on your title page, make sure to check whether you need permission from the creator of the image. Include a note directly underneath the image acknowledging where it comes from, beginning with the word “Note.” (italicized and followed by a period):
- If you found the image online or in another source, include a citation and copyright attribution.
- If it’s an image you created yourself (e.g., a photograph you took, an infographic you designed), explain this (e.g., “Photograph taken by the author.”).
Don’t give the image a label, title, or number. Only images within the text itself are labeled as figures.
17 comments
Ken A. Pilkenton
October 7, 2021 at 2:49 AMHow do i l list multiple instructors on my coversheet? I have 3
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
October 11, 2021 at 3:54 PMHi Ken,
APA doesn't specifically cover how to format multiple instructors, but it seems fine to me to just place them all on the same line, separated with commas, e.g. "John Smith, Mike Davis, and Ellen Johnson"
Ken A. Pilkenton
October 12, 2021 at 6:48 AM@Jack Caulfield, Thank You very much.
I sincerely appreciate your help with this issue.
v/r,
Ken A. Pilkenton
Elizabeth Yaeger
August 6, 2021 at 11:46 PMHow many spaces is there from head of page to tittle and from title to name? I'm having a hard time finding this.
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
August 9, 2021 at 12:32 PMHi Elizabeth,
APA suggests that the title should be three or four (double-spaced) lines from the top, and there should be one blank line (again double-spaced) between the title and the author name.
Taylor McKenzie
June 12, 2021 at 2:49 AMHi there! If I have multiple professors how do I list them in my header? Specifically 3, in case there's an APA oxford comma rule I need to know about.
Ex1: Professor FirstN Last, Professor FirstN LastN
Ex2: Professors FirstN Last, FirstN Last
Wonderful guide by the way! Thanks.
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
June 14, 2021 at 4:27 PMHi Taylor,
APA doesn't provide an example of listing several instructors on your title page, but they do advise you to use the Oxford comma in general, so this would definitely apply here too. And it makes most sense to me to include titles with each name rather than a collective title for all. So something like:
Professor First name Last name, Professor First name Last name, and Professor First name Last name
Rija Haque
May 21, 2021 at 2:16 PMI wanted to know what font size should I use for the title page?
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
May 24, 2021 at 2:21 PMHi Rija,
Usually, the title page should use the same font size as the rest of your paper.
Yajayra
May 7, 2021 at 3:36 AMFor instructor name, do we include first & last name or just the last name.
Ex: Dr. Jane Doe or Dr. Doe
Jack Caulfield (Scribbr Team)
May 10, 2021 at 3:59 PMHi Yajayra,
There's no specific rule regarding whether to include the first name. APA recommends checking with your instructor to see what their preference is, and then following what they suggest. Or you could just go with the full name—it's unlikely that it would be a problem.
Chris Darbo
December 9, 2020 at 1:57 AMThis is a great explanation of what is needed but it is missing an explanation of how to actually format the required fields. Most sources are great at providing the what but not the how. Do you have any suggestions of where to find that information?
Shona McCombes (Scribbr Team)
December 10, 2020 at 8:22 PMHi Chris,
The easiest option is to use our APA format templates. These contain all the necessary fields pre-formatted, so all you have to do is fill in your details. Let me know if that helps!
Giovana
December 5, 2020 at 6:32 PMHi,
Thank you for the video.
I have to create a cover that includes four names because it is a group project.
When adding the names of the students, do I add what part we were responsible for? For example:
Part 1 - John Smith
Part2 - Wilma Stones
Or:
Parent/Family Analysis - John Smith
Observation of Family - Wilma Stones
I would really appreciate your guidance. I haven't been able to find any sites that answered this question.
Giovana
Shona McCombes (Scribbr Team)
December 10, 2020 at 8:18 PMHi Giovana,
No, you shouldn't split up the authors by responsibility – an APA title page simply lists all authors on one line after the title. However, check with your instructor if and how to specify who was responsible for each part. Some universities have their own title page requirements for student papers, and these always override official APA format.
I hope that helps!
M Saiham Hossain
October 28, 2020 at 12:51 PMHello!
Thank you for writing. This is by far the best guideline I have found.
I have one small confusion on whether a question can be the title/running head of a paper? Or does the title/running head needs to be a statement?
Thank you!
Shona McCombes (Scribbr Team)
October 30, 2020 at 9:25 PMHi,
Glad to hear that you found this article helpful!
The title should describe your paper's content as accurately and concisely as possible. There's no specific rule against making your title a question, as long as it very clearly communicates what the paper is about.