Title case

A way of capitalizing a title in which the major words start with a capital letter and short minor words stay lowercase.

In title case the major words of a title start with a capital letter. In APA’s version, major words are nouns, verbs (including linking verbs such as “is” and “be”), adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and any word of four letters or more. Minor words are articles and short conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer, and they stay lowercase.

Learning From Failure in Group Projects: A Study of Norwegian Universities

The first word of a title and the first word of a subtitle are always capitalized, even when they are minor words. In a hyphenated major word, both parts are capitalized, as in “Self-Report.”

Where it is used. In APA, title case is used for the titles of works you mention in your text and for headings. In an APA reference list, article and book titles use sentence case instead, but the journal name is written in title case. MLA writes titles in title case in the Works Cited list.

When a database gives you a title in capitals, or entirely in lowercase, fix it before you copy it into a paper.