What Is a Running Head? APA 7's Page-Header Rule

What the running head contains

The professional-paper running head has three properties: it is an abbreviated version of the paper title, it prints in ALL CAPS, and it never exceeds 50 characters including spaces and punctuation. A title like 'Democratic Backsliding in Regional Election Administration' becomes DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING IN REGIONAL ELECTIONS — the abbreviation can end anywhere it stays intelligible. Intelligible means a reader connects it to the title in one glance.

The page number shares the header line, flush right, on every page including the title page. The two elements never wrap: if the title is too long at 50 characters, the problem is the title choice, not the font size — shrinking text to fit a header is a formatting error graders flag. APA fonts run from 11-point Calibri to 12-point Times New Roman; the header follows the body font.

The numbers at a glance

Running head rules at a glance — the range, and where each row actually shows up in coursework. Skim it first; the sections below explain why the range exists and which row applies to you.

The APA 7 change students miss

APA 7 removed the running head from student papers entirely. Unless your instructor says otherwise, an undergraduate essay needs only the page number in the top right corner of every page — no abbreviated title, no special header, no first-page exception. Millions of tutorials still teach the APA 6 version, which is why the confusion persists. When in doubt, the page number alone is never wrong for coursework.

The 'Running head:' label died in the same revision. APA 6 required the label on the title page and the bare header afterward; APA 7 professional papers print the bare header everywhere, title page included. If your course materials mention the label, they predate 2019 — ask which edition the class follows. Edition questions sound trivial until a graded draft returns covered in header corrections.

Setting it up in Word in 60 seconds

Double-click the top margin to open the header field. Check the Different First Page box only if your template demands it — APA 7 does not. Type the page number field via Insert > Page Number > Top of Page > Plain Number 3, which places it flush right on every page. Word's default header font sometimes differs from the body — set it to match.

For a professional paper, add the ALL CAPS title flush left in the same header, then set a right-aligned tab stop at the margin so title and number share one line without drifting. Google Docs mirrors the steps through Insert > Page numbers. LibreOffice users set the header once in the page style and never touch it again. Headers inherit from the page style, which is why template papers rarely need manual work.

Shortening a title that will not fit

The 50-character cap forces choices on long titles. Keep the meaningful core: 'A Qualitative Study of First-Generation College Students' Navigation of Institutional Bureaucracy' becomes FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS AND BUREAUCRACY. Drop articles, adjectives and methodology words before you drop the subject — the header should still tell a browser what the paper argues. Numbers and symbols count toward the cap too.

Two rules keep abbreviations safe: never introduce a vague placeholder like PAPER 1, and never let the header contradict the title page. If the shortened form needs a colon to make sense, it is too short. The test is whether a reader skimming printed pages could match header to title without flipping back. Journal editors reject headers that read as internal file names. Header text is metadata, not prose — keep it flat and factual.

The format check graders run before reading

Graders check mechanics first and content second — a two-minute scan that decides the paper's first impression. The list: correct font and size, double spacing throughout (no stray single-spaced paragraphs), one-inch margins, page numbers in the right corner, the required title-page fields, heading levels used consistently, and references formatted with hanging indents. Each item is trivial; missing two costs measurable points in most rubrics.

Do this scan on the exported PDF, not the working document — export quirks (shifted margins, dropped page numbers, orphaned headings) only appear there. The style switcher below shows the same source formatted in APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago side by side, which is the fastest way to catch the format you've been half-remembering from the wrong course.