Running Head Formatting

Few formatting details carry as much confusion per inch as the running head. Students add it when the current edition of APA no longer requires it. Others skip it entirely on manuscripts that genuinely need it. Some copy “Running head:” onto every page when that label belongs only on page one — and only under an edition that’s been superseded. The problem is compounded by a 2019 rule change that split the world of APA papers into two entirely different header requirements, by the lag between style guide updates and the templates instructors actually distribute, and by word processors that make header configuration unnecessarily opaque. This guide resolves every dimension of running head formatting — from the historical logic behind the requirement to the precise keystroke sequence for setting it up in Word and Google Docs, with visual examples and a corrected-error catalogue for every mistake that actually appears in submitted papers.

Why the Running Head Exists

The running head was not invented to frustrate students. It was a practical solution to a real production problem that predates computers, digital submission portals, and the idea of a PDF. When academic journals first standardised manuscript submission protocols, papers arrived by post — physical pages mailed to an editor, who sent individual pages to anonymous peer reviewers for blind review. Loose pages could become detached from their title sheets during handling, transit, and the circulation between multiple reviewers. A short identifying title printed on every page meant that any separated page could be matched back to its manuscript, and that the review process remained blind because the header carried a title, not the author’s name.

Understanding this origin makes the rules easier to remember. The running head is an identification label, which is why it carries only a title abbreviation and never the author’s name. It is printed in ALL CAPITALS to make it visually distinct from body text headings without relying on size or weight differences that might not survive photographic reproduction of typed pages. Its 50-character limit keeps it short enough to fit comfortably in the top margin without overlapping the page number. Every formal rule follows logically from the original function.

Key Terminology Decoded

Running head documentation uses a cluster of terms interchangeably and sometimes inconsistently. Clearing up the terminology before applying the rules prevents the confusion that comes from an instruction that says “include a running head” when you are not certain what component that refers to.

APA 7th Edition: Full Specification

APA 7th edition, published in October 2019, divided academic papers into two categories — student and professional — and applied significantly different header requirements to each. The Purdue OWL’s summary of APA 7 changes identifies this as one of the most consequential formatting shifts in the edition. Understanding which category your paper falls into is the first question to answer before touching the header.

APA 7 Professional Manuscript: Five Binding Rules

APA 6th Edition: Full Specification

APA 6th edition (2009) required running heads on every paper — student assignments and professional manuscripts alike. Its rules are still actively enforced in many psychology departments, nursing programmes, education schools, and by instructors whose course materials predate the 2019 update. Knowing APA 6 is not a matter of historical curiosity; it remains a live requirement in thousands of courses and at many institutions whose internal style guides have not yet been revised.

The “Running head:” Label: Exact Capitalisation

The capitalisation of the label itself is one of the most frequently mis-copied elements in academic writing. The rule is precise: capital R in “Running,” then entirely lowercase “head:” with no space before the colon, then a single space, then the abbreviated title in ALL CAPITALS. Four variations of this label appear regularly in student submissions — three are wrong:

APA 6 Character Count and Font Rules

The character limit in APA 6 is identical to APA 7: maximum 50 characters including all spaces and punctuation. The character count for APA 6 applies to the abbreviated title text only — the “Running head:” label on page 1 is not counted toward the 50-character limit. So a running head that reads Running head: ABBREVIATED TITLE on page 1 has the character limit applied only to ABBREVIATED TITLE. The font rule is also identical: same font and size as the document body, no bold or italic, plain text.

APA 6 vs APA 7: Complete Comparison

The version mismatch — applying one edition’s rules to a paper that requires the other — is the most common category of running head error. The comparison below covers every element that differs between the two editions so there is no ambiguity about what each standard requires.

Student Paper vs Professional Manuscript

The APA 7 student/professional distinction is not about academic level or quality — a doctoral dissertation is not automatically a “professional paper” under APA 7’s classification. The distinction is about the document’s destination: course submission or journal publication. Each category carries different header requirements, title page elements, and structural conventions.

Determining Which Format Your Paper Requires

1. Is this going to a journal? If yes — professional manuscript. Running head required under APA 7. Check the journal’s author guidelines for any journal-specific modifications to the APA default.
2. Is this a dissertation or thesis? If yes — check your institution’s graduate school formatting guide. It overrides APA defaults. Many universities specify running heads for dissertations even though APA 7 does not require them for student papers.
3. Did your instructor explicitly request a running head? If yes — include one. Follow the APA 7 professional manuscript format for the running head regardless of what the student-paper classification says.
4. Is this a standard course assignment with no explicit running head instruction? If yes and the course uses APA 7 — omit the running head. Add a page number only in the top-right header.

Creating the Shortened Title

The running head is not a truncated title — it is a deliberately constructed abbreviated identifier. APA guidance is consistent on this: the running head should be a shortened version of the title that conveys the same essential subject matter. Someone reading only the running head should have an accurate sense of what the paper covers, even without access to the full title page.

Character Count Visualiser — Real Title Examples

Running Head Examples: Full Title → Shortened

Step-by-Step: Setting Up the Running Head in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word’s header system is flexible but requires several discrete steps to produce a correctly formatted APA running head. The Purdue OWL APA general format guide confirms the positioning requirements — left-aligned running head with right-aligned page number in the header field. Here is the exact sequence for both APA 7 and APA 6.

APA 7 Professional Paper in Word

APA 6 Paper in Word — The Different First Page Setup

APA 6 requires a “Running head:” label on page 1 only, making the “Different first page” setting essential. Without it, any text typed in the page 1 header automatically propagates to every subsequent page.

1. Double-click above the top margin to open the header field.
2. In the Header & Footer Tools ribbon (Design tab), tick “Different first page.” This creates two independent header zones: the First Page Header and the Header (for all other pages).
3. In the First Page Header (page 1): type Running head: YOUR ABBREVIATED TITLE — capital R, lowercase “head:”, colon, space, then ALL CAPS title. Tab to the right margin. Insert page number 1.
4. Navigate to page 2 of the document. In the page 2 header (which now reads “Header” not “First Page Header”): type only YOUR ABBREVIATED TITLE in ALL CAPS. Tab to right. Insert auto-incrementing page number.
5. Close the header. Scroll through the entire document to verify: page 1 shows the label, all subsequent pages show only the title, and page numbers increment correctly.

Common Word Header Problems and Exact Fixes

Step-by-Step: Setting Up the Running Head in Google Docs

Google Docs manages headers through a dedicated field accessed via the Insert menu. The tab stop mechanism for right-aligning the page number works slightly differently from Word but achieves the same result. Google Docs also supports the “Different first page” option, required for APA 6.

APA 7 Student Paper in Google Docs — Page Numbers Only

1. Go to Insert › Page numbers. Select the top-right position option. Google Docs inserts an automatic right-aligned page number in the header on every page. No additional configuration is needed for a student paper.
2. Verify the page number font matches the document body: double-click the header to open it, select the page number, and confirm the font settings.

APA 7 Professional Paper or APA 6 in Google Docs

1. Go to Insert › Headers & footers › Header. The header area opens and a grey header options bar appears above it.
2. In the grey options bar, tick “Different first page” if you need page 1 to differ from subsequent pages (required for APA 6; not required for APA 7 professional papers where all pages are identical).
3. Enable the ruler: View › Show ruler. Click the tab-type selector at the far left of the ruler until it shows a right-tab symbol. Click the ruler at the far right margin (approximately 6.5 inches) to place a right-aligned tab stop there.
4. In the header field, type the abbreviated title in ALL CAPITALS. Press Tab once to jump to the right margin. Go to Insert › Page numbers › Page count — or use the page number field from the Insert menu to place an auto-incrementing number at the cursor.
5. For APA 6 page 1 (with Different first page checked): type Running head: TITLE on the left of the First Page Header, Tab to right, insert page number 1. Navigate to page 2 and type only TITLE on the left of the subsequent-pages header, Tab, insert page number.
6. Verify the font in the header matches the document body. Close the header by clicking in the body text area.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Header Work

Visual Examples: Correct vs Incorrect

Seeing the header rendered visually — rather than reading a rule about it — makes correct format far easier to reproduce. The mock-ups below represent how the header area looks in a printed or PDF academic document.

✓ Correct — APA 7 Professional Paper, Page 1 and All Subsequent Pages

✗ Incorrect — APA 7 Professional Paper with Deprecated Label

✓ Correct — APA 6, Page 1 (Title Page)

✓ Correct — APA 6, Pages 2 and Onwards

✓ Correct — APA 7 Student Paper (No Running Head)

The 14 Most Common Running Head Errors

Running head mistakes cluster around five root causes: edition confusion, software misconfiguration, capitalisation errors, font mismatches, and position errors. Each error below identifies the root cause and its precise fix.

Running Heads in Dissertations and Theses

Dissertations and theses occupy a unique position in the running head question. They are neither standard student papers (which APA 7 exempts from running heads) nor journal submissions (which require them). They are formal institutional documents produced under university authority, and that authority — your institution’s graduate school or thesis office — holds higher formatting power than the APA Publication Manual itself.

Front Matter Page Numbering in Dissertations

Most dissertations use a dual page-numbering system: Roman numerals (i, ii, iii…) for front matter — abstract, table of contents, list of figures, acknowledgements, dedication — and Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3…) from the first body chapter or introduction onwards. When a running head is required throughout, the running head text typically remains constant while the page number format changes between sections. This requires section breaks with “Link to previous” disabled in Word, and careful configuration of each section’s header independently. Starting from your institution’s provided thesis template (if available) avoids manual setup of this complex section structure. For dissertation-level formatting support aligned with your institution’s specific requirements, our dissertation and thesis writing service covers the full document structure from title page to appendices.

Running Heads in MLA, Chicago, and Other Style Guides

The running head is specifically an APA concept. Other major style guides use different header approaches that share the function — page identification — but differ significantly in format, content, and placement.

Students working across multiple courses with different style requirements simultaneously face the practical risk of applying APA header logic to an MLA paper. The quick check: if the assignment uses APA, determine student vs professional and apply the appropriate APA rule. If it uses MLA, add only the right-aligned surname-page number header and nothing else in the header. For full guidance on citation and formatting across all major style guides, our citation and referencing guide covers header requirements for each style in dedicated sections.

When Your Instructor’s Requirements Differ From APA

APA is a guide to scholarly writing standards — it is not a binding contract that overrides the authority of a course instructor within their own classroom. When an instructor’s stated requirements differ from what the APA Publication Manual specifies, the instructor’s requirements are binding for that assignment. This applies specifically to running heads: if an instructor teaching an APA 7 course tells students to include a running head on their papers, include one. The fact that APA 7 classifies course papers as student papers exempted from running heads does not override a specific instructional requirement.

Pre-Submission Running Head Checklist

Before exporting to PDF or submitting any APA paper, work through this checklist. Each point corresponds to a specific, verifiable criterion that determines running head compliance.

Running Head Through the Document Structure

Frequently Asked Questions About Running Head Formatting

What a Correct Running Head Signals About Your Work

The running head is a small element that carries disproportionate signal value in academic submission. Editors reading manuscripts, instructors marking assignments, and journal reviewers receiving papers all form immediate impressions about a writer’s attention to detail from the state of the first page header. A running head formatted to APA 6 standards on an APA 7 manuscript tells a reviewer that the writer either did not consult the current edition or is applying templates from a previous course. A running head present on a student paper where none is required tells an instructor that the student learned the format from an outdated source. Neither impression helps the work.

The correction is entirely within your control. The rules, once understood in their edition-specific form, are not complex: identify your paper type, determine which edition applies, create a meaningful 50-character maximum abbreviated title in ALL CAPITALS, position it left-aligned in the header field with the page number right-aligned on the same line, and match the font to the document body. Every other running head question is a variant of one of those five steps.

For students managing APA formatting across multiple courses and assignments simultaneously, our proofreading and editing service reviews running heads, title pages, in-text citations, and reference lists against the specific edition and requirements of each course. The citation and referencing guide on this site extends the coverage in this article to the full scope of APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard formatting requirements. Students preparing dissertations will find the formatting standards outlined in this guide apply with the institution-specific modifications documented in our dissertation support service.

For writers working on research papers who need complete format compliance alongside content support, our research paper writing service covers both — from the running head at the top of page 1 to the final reference entry on the last page. And for students who find that formatting anxiety is part of a wider challenge with academic writing, our resources on overcoming writer’s block and achieving academic goals address the broader context in which individual formatting details sit.