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American Psychological Association
title-case rules

For behavioral and social-science papers.

The APA rules

APA style (7th edition) is the standard for psychology, education, and social-science publishing.

  1. Capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle.
  2. Capitalize all major words, including the second part of hyphenated compounds.
  3. Capitalize all words of four or more letters — even if they are prepositions or conjunctions. This is the distinctive APA rule.
  4. Lowercase short words of three or fewer letters that aren't the first word.
  5. Capitalize after a colon.

Note: APA uses sentence case for article titles in reference lists and figure captions.

Worked examples

The same set of titles, converted under American Psychological Association rules. Try them yourself by switching the style pill on the homepage.

Input APA
with great power comes great responsibility With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
a study of cognitive biases in decision making A Study of Cognitive Biases in Decision Making
the role of context in language acquisition The Role of Context in Language Acquisition
when good intentions go wrong When Good Intentions Go Wrong

Edge cases we handle

  • Proper nouns — iPhone, JavaScript, NASA stay capitalized correctly mid-title.
  • Hyphenated compounds — handled per APA's specific rule.
  • After a colon — the first word after a colon is capitalized.
  • Acronyms and ALLCAPS runs — preserved as-is.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the specific rules for APA title capitalization?
Capitalize the first word, all major words, and every word of four-plus letters — even prepositions and conjunctions. Words of three letters or fewer stay lowercase unless they open the title.

How do you format headers for an APA style paper?
Paper titles and headings use APA title case (above). Reference-list article titles are different — they use sentence case, with only the first word, the word after a colon, and proper nouns capitalized, while the journal name next to it stays in title case.

Source

This page summarizes public guidance from the APA Publication Manual. For the complete, authoritative rules, consult the official source directly:

  • APA Style — the official reference site maintained by the American Psychological Association

Want to compare with another style? See the style guides index.