Center the title of your paper in the upper half of the cover page. The title is written in upper and lowercase letters. Keep the title of your paper to less than 12 words if possible. The title should be a concise summary of the paper. Avoid using unnecessary words, such as method, results or study. These words do not help to explain the topic of the paper.
APA recommends that the author's name be formatted as first name, middle initial and last name. An example is John K. Smith. Do not include titles such as Dr. or Ph.D. If there are two authors, separate the names with "and." An example is John K. Smith and Jane L. Doe. If there are three or more authors, use a comma to separate the first two names. An example is John K. Smith, Jane L. Doe and Elvis Presley.
Institutional affiliation is the location where the research was performed. This designation is listed below the author. If two or more authors have different affiliations, list each author separately. The first author will be on the line below the title. The next line is that author's affiliation. The next line will be the second author. The following line will be the second author's affiliation. If the first two authors are from the same affiliation, they can be listed on the same line separated with "and."
A running head is included on every page in APA style, including the cover page. In the upper left corner of the page, you will type "Running head:" followed by a shortened version of your title. The abbreviated title is not to exceed 50 characters and will be typed in all capital letters. An example is "Running head: APA COVER PAGE FORMAT." The header includes the page number in the upper right corner. You will put "1" in the upper right corner for the cover page.