APA Title Page Format: Student and Professional Examples

TL;DR — An APA 7 student title page has, centered and double-spaced: the bold title three or four lines from the top, a blank line, your name, your department and university, the course code and name, the instructor's name, and the due date. Page number 1 goes in the top right corner. No running head for student papers. Professional papers swap the course details for an author note and add a running head.

Here is a student title page in APA 7 format, laid out exactly as it would print on letter paper with one-inch margins. Everything after it explains the choices.

                                                                    1




                 Handwritten Versus Typed Notes and Conceptual Recall

                              in First-Year Biology



                                  Priya Raghunathan

                  Department of Psychology, Halvorsen State University

                         PSY 2210: Research Methods in Psychology

                                Dr. Tomas Lindqvist

                                 September 30, 2026

The page number sits flush right in the header, half an inch from the top edge. The title starts three or four double-spaced lines below the top margin. Every line is centered and double-spaced. The blank line between the title and the author’s name is one double-spaced line, not two.

That is the whole page. It contains no running head, no logo, no date line reading “Date submitted,” and no abstract (the abstract, when required, starts on page 2).

Student paper or professional paper?

APA 7 defines two title page formats, and picking the right one comes first.

Student paper. Written for a course, thesis, or dissertation. Includes course and instructor details. No running head unless the instructor asks for one. Almost every undergraduate and graduate assignment falls here.

Professional paper. Written for submission to a journal or conference. Includes an author note and a running head; excludes course and instructor details.

If your syllabus just says “APA format,” use the student version. If it says “format as for journal submission” or names a journal, use the professional version. When in doubt, ask; the two pages look different enough that using the wrong one is noticeable.

The body of the paper is formatted the same way either way; How to Format a Research Paper in APA Style covers margins, fonts, and section order for the pages that follow.

The student title page, line by line

Page number

Insert a page number in the header, flush right, using your word processor’s automatic page numbering. The title page is page 1. Do not type the number manually, and do not add “Page” or “p.” before it.

Title

Three or four double-spaced lines from the top margin, centered, in bold, in title case. If the title runs to a second line, break it at a sensible point and keep both lines centered and bold, double-spaced like everything else.

Title case means capitalizing the first word, the first word after a colon, and every major word. Lowercase minor words of three letters or fewer (articles, short prepositions, and conjunctions such as a, an, the, of, to, in, and, or, but, for) unless they begin the title or follow a colon. Words of four letters or more are always capitalized, including With, From, and Into.

APA 7 sets no word limit for the title. The old twelve-word limit belonged to the sixth edition. The current advice is to keep the title focused: it should name the main variables or theoretical issue and leave out filler such as “A Study of” or “An Investigation Into.”

Do not underline the title, put it in quotation marks, italicize it, or increase its font size.

Blank line

Leave one double-spaced blank line after the title. That is the only deliberate empty line on the page.

Author name

Your full name as you want it to appear, centered, plain (not bold). APA recommends first name, middle initial, and last name, with no titles or degrees (no “Dr.,” no “B.A.”). Use the same form of your name on every paper you write so that your work can be associated with you.

For two authors, put both on one line separated by “and”:

Priya Raghunathan and Marcus O. Bell

For three or more, separate with commas and put “and” before the last:

Priya Raghunathan, Marcus O. Bell, and Xiu Chen

Affiliation

The next line names the department and the institution, separated by a comma:

Department of Psychology, Halvorsen State University

If every author shares one affiliation, list it once. If authors come from different departments or institutions, give each affiliation on its own line and mark authors and affiliations with matching superscript numerals (Raghunathan¹ and Bell²). A student who has no departmental home, for instance in a general-education course, can give the college or school instead of the department.

Course number and name

Use the code and name exactly as they appear in the course catalog or syllabus, separated by a colon:

PSY 2210: Research Methods in Psychology

Instructor name

The instructor’s name in the form they use in the syllabus. If the syllabus says “Dr. Tomas Lindqvist,” write that; if it says “Professor Lindqvist,” write that. This is the one place on the page where a title is appropriate, because it reflects the instructor’s preference, not yours.

Due date

The assignment due date, spelled out in the format your country uses. For U.S. papers that is Month Day, Year:

September 30, 2026

Use the due date, not the date you finished. If you submit late with permission, the date stays the due date unless the instructor says otherwise.

The professional title page

A professional paper keeps the page number, title, author names, and affiliations, then replaces the course details with an author note, and adds a running head.

NOTES AND CONCEPTUAL RECALL                                          1




                 Handwritten Versus Typed Notes and Conceptual Recall

                              in First-Year Biology



                       Priya Raghunathan¹ and Marcus O. Bell²

                ¹Department of Psychology, Halvorsen State University

                    ²School of Education, Riverside Community College



                                   Author Note

     Priya Raghunathan  https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000

     We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

     Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Priya

Raghunathan, Department of Psychology, Halvorsen State University, 400

College Avenue, Halvorsen, MN 55000. Email: p.raghunathan@example.edu

Three things differ from the student page.

Running head. A shortened version of the title, in all capital letters, flush left in the header on every page, on the same line as the page number. It is limited to 50 characters including spaces and punctuation. The words “Running head:” that the sixth edition required on the first page are gone in APA 7; the header shows only the abbreviated title itself. Student papers do not have a running head at all unless the instructor requests one.

Author note. Placed in the bottom half of the title page, with the heading “Author Note” centered and bold. It has up to four paragraphs, each indented like a normal paragraph: ORCID iDs, changes of affiliation since the work was done, disclosures and acknowledgments, and contact information for correspondence. Omit any paragraph that does not apply.

No course, instructor, or date. The journal supplies its own dates.

The ORCID, address, and email above are placeholders; a real author note carries the real ones.

Fonts, margins, and spacing

The title page obeys the same settings as the body.

Setting	Requirement
Margins	1 inch on all four sides
Font	One of the APA-accepted fonts, used throughout: 12-pt Times New Roman, 11-pt Calibri, 11-pt Arial, 11-pt Georgia, 10-pt Lucida Sans Unicode, or 10-pt Computer Modern
Line spacing	Double, everywhere on the page, no extra space before or after paragraphs
Alignment	Centered for every element except the running head and the author note
Page number	Automatic, top right, page 1
Title style	Bold, title case, same size as body text

The manual permits other fonts if they are similar in size and legibility, but the six listed are the safe choices, and instructors recognize them. Pick one and do not mix.

Variations you may be asked for

Running head on a student paper. Some instructors want one. Add it exactly as on the professional page: all caps, up to 50 characters, flush left in the header of every page, with the page number flush right on the same line.

Group project. List every student on the author line(s) in the order the group agrees on, usually alphabetical or by contribution. If the group is large enough to need three lines, keep the lines double-spaced and centered.

Thesis or dissertation. Universities almost always issue their own title page template with a signature block, degree name, and month of graduation. That template overrides APA. Use it for the title page and APA for everything else.

Instructor-specific additions. Word count, student ID, section number, honor pledge. APA has no position for these, so put them where the instructor specifies, most often on separate lines after the due date, and keep them in the same font and spacing.

Common mistakes

A title page is graded by eye, so small deviations are seen at once.

Title not bold. The most frequent error, because the sixth edition had a plain title. In APA 7 the title is bold on the title page and bold again at the top of page 2 (or page 3, after an abstract) where the text begins.
“Running head:” label on a student paper. Delete both the label and the head unless the instructor wants a running head.
Extra blank lines. One blank double-spaced line after the title, and none elsewhere. Students often add a gap before the course details or push the block to the middle of the page with the Enter key.
Title page single-spaced. The whole page is double-spaced.
Date of completion instead of due date. Use the due date.
Degrees and titles after your name. Omit them.
Page number missing or typed by hand. Use the header tool so numbering continues correctly.
Title in all caps or a larger font. Same font size as the body; title case, not capitals.
Abstract on the title page. The abstract starts on its own page.

If the first page of the paper is your only formatting worry, the pages that follow bring their own rules on section titles; APA Headings lays out all five levels with examples.

Checklist before you submit

Page number 1, top right, automatic.
Title bold, title case, centered, three or four lines down.
One blank double-spaced line after the title.
Full name, no titles or degrees.
Department and university on one line, separated by a comma.
Course code and name as in the syllabus.
Instructor’s name in the form the syllabus uses.
Due date spelled out in full.
Double-spaced throughout, one-inch margins, an accepted font.
No running head, unless required; if required, all caps, 50 characters or fewer, no “Running head:” label.
Nothing decorative: no logos, borders, images, or colored text.

Ten minutes with this list is usually the difference between a paper that opens cleanly and one that starts with a comment in the margin. The rest of the paper, including how the citations in the body should look, is covered in APA In-Text Citation: Rules, Examples, and Edge Cases.

Frequently asked questions

Is an APA title page the same as an APA cover page?

Yes. The manual calls it a title page; many instructors and syllabi call it a cover page. Both mean the first page of the paper, numbered 1, carrying the title, author, affiliation, and, for student work, the course, instructor, and due date. If an assignment asks for a cover page in APA format, build the student title page described here.

Should the title page be double-spaced like the rest of the paper?

Yes. Every element on the title page is double-spaced, with no extra blank lines between the author, affiliation, course, instructor, and date. The only deliberate gap is the single blank double-spaced line between the title and the author’s name. Do not single-space the block to make it look tighter.

Where does my student ID number or the word count go?

APA does not include either on the title page. If your instructor or department requires a student number, word count, or honor code statement, add it where they tell you to, usually on its own line after the due date, and keep the same font and double spacing. Anything the manual does not mention is the instructor’s call, not a rule of APA Style.

Can I use a picture, logo, or colored text on the title page?

Not in a standard APA paper. The title page uses the same plain font and black text as the body, with no images, borders, university logos, or decorative lines. Some departments use their own template with a crest; if yours does, use that template and follow the rest of APA formatting for the paper itself.