The title page for student papers following APA guidelines presents specific details about the academic course and institution. An APA paper title page should include?:
- Full title of the paper
- Name(s) of the author(s)
- Department and university affiliation
- Course number and name
- Instructor’s name
- Due date for the assignment
The professional title page omits the course-related information in favor of an author note section aligned to the left margin. The key similarities are the prominent display of the paper’s title and the author(s)’ name(s) and affiliation(s).
This distinction allows student title pages to provide relevant context about the academic environment surrounding the work. Professionals, alternatively, utilize the author note section to present brief biographical details about the writers and any relevant acknowledgments.
Title page example (student and professional version)
Professional title page example:
Student title page example:
Paper title
The title represents your first opportunity to capture a reader’s interest in your paper’s topic. Aim for a title that is informative, summarizing the central focus, and attention-grabbing. Incorporating relevant keywords can also boost discoverability.
Position the title three to four lines from the top margin of the first page. Center and boldface the text, taking care to employ title case capitalization. This ensures major words are capitalized while minor words like articles and short prepositions remain lowercase.
Author
Directly below the paper’s title, separated by a blank line, indicate the author’s name. Use their full name in the order of first, middle initial(s), and last name – omitting any prefixes like titles or degrees.
Multiple Authors
When there are multiple authors, list them in order based on their respective contributions to the work.
For two authors, join their names with the word “and”:
Example: Jane D. Smith and Michael P. Jones
If there are three or more authors, separate each name with a comma, including before the final author’s name, which is preceded by “and”:
Example: Jane D. Smith, Michael P. Jones, and Karen R. Thompson
This straightforward approach to presenting the author’s name(s) maintains a clean, consistent appearance on the title page while giving appropriate recognition to all contributors.
Institutional affiliation
Immediately following the author’s name(s), indicate the institutional affiliation on the next line. For students, list the specific department and university where they are enrolled. Professional researchers should provide the department and institution where the research took place.
Multiple authors with different affiliations
When authors have different institutional affiliations, use superscript numbers following each name to connect them to the organization(s) listed below. However, no numbering is needed if all authors share the same affiliation.
Example
Jane D. Smith¹, Michael P. Jones², and Karen R. Thompson¹
¹Department of Biology, UCLA
²Department of Chemistry, Stanford University
This system identifies each author’s institutional ties from the same or separate organizations. It maintains a logical flow from the authorship line to the affiliation details.
Course information
Important details about the relevant course should be included on the title page after listing the author’s institutional affiliation for student papers. Provide the following information with each component on a separate, double-spaced line:
- The specific course number and name
- The name(s) of the instructing professor(s)
- The due date of the assignment
Author note in Apa
For papers intended for professional publication, an “author note” section can be included to provide additional details about the author(s). Placed in the bottom half of the title page, this section is introduced by the bolded, centered label “Author Note.”
Within the author’s note, present information in separate paragraphs with a hanging indent for each new paragraph. In that prescribed order, cover details like updates on affiliation changes, disclosures of potential conflicts of interest, brief acknowledgments, and contact information.
Note: Refer to Section 2.7 of the APA Publication Manual for guidance on properly formatting and structuring the author note content.
Page header
The header displays the page number in the top right corner for student title pages. A running head, used in the previous 6th edition guidelines, is not required.
However, professional submissions do include a running head in the header. This running head consists of an abbreviated version of the paper’s full title, capitalized and not exceeding 50 characters, including spaces.
Including an image on the title page
Including images on an APA-style title page is generally considered unconventional and unprofessional, as this page’s purpose is to provide key identifying information about the work rather than decoration. APA does not provide guidance for placing images here.
If choosing to incorporate an image regardless, be mindful of any permission or attribution requirements. Directly below the image, include an italicized “Apa Author Note:” followed by relevant details like the image source, a citation, copyright attribution, or clarification that it is an original work.
Images within the body of the paper should be properly labeled as figures, following APA guidelines. However, no labels or captions should accompany images on the title page.
