APA Running Head & Page Numbers: When You Actually Need Them
You spent fifteen minutes wrestling a running head into your header, all caps and everything. Your professor never asked for one, and neither did APA 7. It's a frustrating way to lose time you needed for the actual paper.
An APA running head is one of the most over-applied rules in student writing, mostly because it used to be mandatory for everyone and now it isn't. APA 7 (Section 2.4) requires a running head only on professional papers, the kind being submitted for publication in a journal. Page numbers are a separate rule with no exceptions: every paper gets them, on every page, starting with the title page (Section 2.18). Two rules, two different answers to "do I need this," and most of the confusion comes from treating them as one thing. Once you know which rule applies to your paper, both are quick fixes.
Do you even need a running head?
The mistake: adding a running head to a class paper because a template had one, a friend's dissertation had one, or an older guide said every paper needs one.
That last part used to be true. Under APA 6th edition, every paper carried a running head, no exceptions. APA 7 split papers into two categories, student and professional, and only professional manuscripts (the ones going to journals, conferences, or other publication venues) still require it. A class paper, a lab report, even a thesis, if your instructor treats it as student work rather than a manuscript for submission, does not need one by default.
Why it matters: a running head on a paper that doesn't need one quietly signals you're working from an outdated template or copied a format without understanding why it's there, and it invites the same scrutiny as any other leftover APA 6 habit. If your paper is following the student title page format described in our breakdown of student versus professional title pages, a running head does not belong in the header at all.
The fix: check your syllabus or assignment sheet first. If it says nothing about a running head, don't add one. If you're genuinely unsure, ask your instructor directly, because "does this paper need a running head" is a two-second question that saves you from guessing. Only add it if you get a yes, or if you already know the paper is headed for submission somewhere.
Page numbers: the one thing every paper needs
The mistake: leaving the title page unnumbered, or starting the count at "1" on the first page of body text instead of the title page.
Page numbers don't follow the student-versus-professional split. APA 7 Section 2.18 requires a page number on every page of the document, including the title page, placed in the top right corner of the header, in the same font as the rest of the paper, using plain Arabic numerals starting at 1. There's no separate numbering system for front matter in a standard student or professional paper. (Dissertations are the one place this gets more complicated, since front matter often uses roman numerals before the numbering resets. If that's your situation, see our guide to dissertation page numbers and when roman numerals apply.)
Why it matters: missing or misaligned page numbers are one of the fastest things a grader notices, because they're checking the header before they've read a word of your introduction. It's also one of the easiest fixes available, which makes leaving it broken look careless rather than rushed.
The fix: in Word, go to Insert → Page Number → Top of Page, and choose "Plain Number 3," which places a right-aligned number in the header. Do this once, on any page, and Word repeats it automatically across the entire document, title page included. In Google Docs, use Insert → Headers & footers → Page numbers, and set it to start at 1 with the title page included, not excluded.
The APA running head format, if your paper needs one
If you've confirmed you need a running head, either an instructor asked for it or you're formatting for professional submission, the format itself is specific. It is an abbreviated version of your paper's title, in all capital letters, left-aligned in the page header, with a maximum length of 50 characters including spaces and punctuation. Getting there usually means trimming your title word by word until it fits, while keeping enough of it that a reader still recognizes your paper.
The fix: in the same header where your page number lives, click into the header area and type your abbreviated title in all caps at the left margin. Use a right tab to jump to the right side of the header where the page number sits, so both elements share one header line, title on the left, number on the right. Because Word repeats the header automatically, you only set this up once and it carries through the whole document.
The label mistake left over from APA 6
The mistake: typing "Running head: YOUR TITLE HERE" on the title page, the way APA 6 required.
APA 6 asked writers to label the running head explicitly on the title page, with the words "Running head:" preceding the abbreviated title in capital letters. APA 7 removed that label entirely. The running head, when one is required, now appears simply as the all-caps abbreviated title, with no "Running head:" prefix anywhere in the document, title page included.
Why it matters: this is a small detail with an outsized tell. A paper that still carries the "Running head:" label is following instructions from a manual that's been superseded since 2020, and it's one of the fastest ways an instructor can spot a template that hasn't been updated.
The fix: if you see "Running head:" anywhere in your header or on your title page, delete the label and leave only the capitalized abbreviated title. Nothing else changes about the format, just drop the prefix.
Do this in one step instead
You can work through this by hand: decide whether you need a running head, build the header, check the character count, confirm the page numbers start on page one. Once you know the two rules apart, neither one takes long to fix. Or skip the header settings entirely and upload your draft to StyleMyPaper. We built it to spot which rule applies to your paper and set up the header correctly in about a minute. It catches the same details covered in our complete guide to APA 7th edition format, without you having to hunt through your own header settings. See how the APA formatting tool handles it.