APA Cover Page (Title Page): Student Format, Example and Checklist

An APA cover page is the title page: the first page of an APA 7th edition student paper, carrying the paper title, author name, affiliation, course, instructor and due date, with page number 1 in the top right corner. APA’s own name for it is “title page”; the official student guides write “title page or cover page” for the same thing, so there is no separate cover to add. This guide follows APA’s 7th edition Student Title Page Guide and Student Paper Setup Guide, sources checked 2026-10-29 (listed under Sources).

Purpose of the section

The title page tells the reader what the paper is about, who wrote it and which course it was submitted to. APA describes it as providing “information about the paper’s topic and authors and the course to which it is being submitted.” Its first rule is a limit on all the other rules: if an instructor or institution gives different guidance, follow that instead.

This guide covers the student title page. A professional paper (for journal submission) has different elements, including a running head, and is not covered here. For where page numbers go on the rest of the paper, see APA format page numbers; for the general concept, see the dictionary entry for a title page.

Structure of an APA student title page

Include these elements, each on its own line, in this order:

1. Paper title. Title case, bold. The only bold or italic text on the page.
2. Author name(s). Full names in the form first name, middle initial, last name (Betsy R. Klein). Two authors are joined with “and” (Ainsley E. Baum and Lucy K. Reid). Three or more are separated by commas with “and” before the last (Riley S. Rodrigo, Dev M. Kumar, and Aidan T. Zhang). A suffix is separated by a space, not a comma (Felicien L. Cooke Jr.).
3. Affiliation. Usually the university the author attended. Give the department or division first, then the university, separated by a comma (Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska).
4. Course name and number. Use the format shown on the institution’s materials for the course (PSY 202, NURS101).
5. Instructor name. Use the instructor’s preferred designation (Dr., Professor) and spelling.
6. Assignment due date. Month, day and year in the format used in your country, with the month spelled out (March 6, 2020).

Layout, from the same guide: 1-inch margins on all sides; the six elements are centered, double-spaced and placed in the upper-middle of the page, three or four lines below the top; no extra lines between elements except one double-spaced blank line between the title and the author names; and the page number sits in the header at the top right, inserted with the word processor’s automatic page-numbering function, starting at 1. The Student Paper Setup Guide adds that the page number appears on every page “including the title page or cover page, which is page 1.”

A short annotated example

The example below is a constructed illustration, not a real student paper. The author, affiliation, course and date patterns are APA’s own examples; the title is invented to show the capitalization rules.

                                                          1   (page number, top right header)

            Sleep and Self-Report Measures: A Review With Practical Limits   (bold title)
                                                                             (one blank double-spaced line)
            Betsy R. Klein                                                   (author)
            Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska                 (affiliation)
            PSY 202                                                          (course)
            Dr. [Instructor surname]                                         (instructor)
            March 6, 2020                                                    (due date)

• “and” is lowercase because it is a three-letter conjunction; “Self-Report” keeps a capital on its second part; “A” opens the subtitle after the colon; “With” is capitalized because it has four letters.
• The affiliation line names the department first, then the university, with a comma.
• No running head appears in the header, only the page number.

Title capitalization rules

APA writes the paper title in title case:

• Capitalize the first word of the title and the first word of any subtitle (after a colon, dash and similar).
• Capitalize all major words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and words of four letters or more.
• Capitalize the second part of a hyphenated major word (“Self-Report”).
• Lowercase minor short words: conjunctions of three letters or fewer, prepositions of three letters or fewer, and the articles “a,” “an” and “the.”
• Capitalize “is” and “be” (they are verbs) and “with” (it has four letters).

Common mistakes

• Adding a running head. Student papers do not need one unless the instructor or institution asks. If one is requested, it is an abbreviated title of 50 characters or fewer (counting letters, punctuation and spaces), in all capital letters, flush left across from the right-aligned page number.
• Bolding or italicizing everything. Only the paper title is bold; the other lines are plain.
• Extra blank lines. The only added space is one double-spaced blank line after the title.
• A comma before a suffix. Write Felicien L. Cooke Jr., not Felicien L. Cooke, Jr.
• Abbreviating the month. Spell it out: March 6, 2020.
• Numbering the page from the first text page. The title page is page 1.
• Ignoring the instructor. A course template or instructor instruction overrides APA’s defaults.
• Labelling the opening “Introduction”. The Student Paper Setup Guide says to repeat the paper title at the top of the first page of text and not to label the opening “Introduction.” Citation formats for that text are covered in how to cite in APA when there is no author.

Checklist

• Instructor or institution guidance checked first.
• Margins 1 inch on all sides; double-spaced throughout.
• Font from the APA lists: the Student Title Page Guide lists 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia and 10-point Computer Modern; the Student Paper Setup Guide lists 12-point Aptos, 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 12-point Times New Roman and 11-point Georgia. The word processor default is also acceptable per the Setup Guide.
• Title in title case and bold, three or four lines from the top, centered.
• One blank double-spaced line after the title, none elsewhere.
• Author, department and university, course, instructor, due date, each on its own line.
• Page number 1 at top right through automatic page numbering; no running head unless requested.

FAQ

Is a cover page the same as a title page in APA?

Yes. APA’s student guides use “title page or cover page” for the same single page. There is no additional cover sheet in APA 7 student format.

Is the title page page 1?

Yes. The page number 1 appears in the top right of the title page, and numbering continues on every page after it.

Does a student paper need a running head?

No, not unless the instructor or institution requests one.

What goes on the affiliation line?

The department or division, then the university, separated by a comma.

How do I write the date?

Use the month, day and year format used in your country and spell out the month, for example March 6, 2020.

Sources

• American Psychological Association. Student Title Page Guide, 7th Edition. apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/student-title-page-guide.pdf. Date checked: 2026-10-29.
• American Psychological Association. Student Paper Setup Guide, 7th Edition. apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/student-paper-setup-guide.pdf. Date checked: 2026-10-29.
• American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 2020), sections 2.3 to 2.6, which the Student Title Page Guide names for further detail on student title pages.