Journal Submission Title Page: What to Include and How to Format It

A journal submission title page is the first page of your manuscript and the first thing the editor sees. It carries the article title, every author's full name and affiliation, the corresponding author's contact details, and disclosures about funding, conflicts of interest, and any AI tool use. Get it right and your manuscript moves into peer review smoothly. Get it wrong and you risk a desk rejection before anyone reads your abstract.

This guide walks through every element of a current journal title page, including the AI disclosure requirements introduced by Elsevier, Wiley, Springer Nature, Taylor and Francis, SAGE, ACS, and APA between 2023 and 2025. It covers single-blind versus double-anonymized submissions, common formatting requirements, a sample title page layout, the most frequent mistakes, and answers to the questions authors actually ask.

Title Page Elements: At a Glance

The table below summarizes which elements are typically required, sometimes required, or rarely required on a journal submission title page. The detailed explanations follow.

The Article Title

The title is the most important element on the page. It's what indexing services use to surface your article, what readers scan to decide whether to read the abstract, and what reviewers see first.

• Keep it focused and specific. Vague or overly broad titles hurt discoverability and signal weak framing. A title like "A Study of Household Finance" is too broad. "Financial Risk Tolerance Among US Households Following the 2020 Pandemic Recession" tells the reader exactly what's in the paper.
• Include key search terms. The title should contain the terms readers would search for to find your article. Indexing services weight title terms heavily.
• Avoid abbreviations. Use full terms unless an abbreviation is universally recognized in your field. DNA and PCR are fine. Field-specific abbreviations are not.
• Mention study design when journals require it. Medical and clinical research journals often require the design type in the title (a randomized controlled trial, a systematic review and meta-analysis, a cross-sectional study).
• Provide a running title. Most journals require a shortened version of the title (typically 40 to 50 characters with spaces) for the header of published pages. Check the character limit before finalizing.

Author Names, Affiliations, and ORCID iDs

List all contributing authors in the agreed order. The author list should be finalized before submission. Adding or removing authors after submission requires formal documentation and editor approval at most journals.

For each author, include:

• Full name. First name, middle initial if used, and last name. Use the form the author uses on other publications for consistent indexing.
• Highest academic degree. Required by some journals (often medical journals), excluded by others. Check the Instructions for Authors.
• Institutional affiliation. The department and institution where the work was conducted. If an author has moved since the research was completed, list the original affiliation and add a current address note.
• ORCID iD. Required by most major publishers as of 2025. The 16-digit identifier links the article to the author's verified publication record. Authors without an ORCID iD can register for free at orcid.org.

When authors have different affiliations, use superscript numbers to connect each author to their institution. Designate one author as the corresponding author with their full contact details listed separately. Many journals now also require an email address for every author, not just the corresponding author.

AI Disclosure Statement

Every major academic publisher introduced AI disclosure requirements between 2023 and 2025. As of 2026, you should assume your target journal requires disclosure of any AI tool use during the writing process. The exact language varies by publisher, but the underlying expectations have converged.

Disclosure statements typically appear in a dedicated section on the title page or at the end of the manuscript before the references. The statement should specify:

• The specific tool and version. Naming the tool, the developer, and the version is standard. "AI tools" or "language models" is too vague.
• The purpose. Whether the tool was used for grammar checking, translation, paraphrasing, generating text, generating images, statistical analysis, or another purpose.
• The scope. Which sections or which percentage of the manuscript involved AI use.
• Verification. A statement confirming that the human authors reviewed the AI-assisted output and take full responsibility for the content.

AI tools can't be listed as authors. The Committee on Publication Ethics, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, and every major publisher have stated that AI tools don't meet authorship criteria because they can't take responsibility for the content. Listing an AI tool as a co-author will trigger automatic rejection at most journals.

If your manuscript was edited by a professional human editor with no AI assistance, that's worth stating explicitly. Several major publishers, including Nature Portfolio and Elsevier, distinguish between AI-assisted copy editing and traditional human editing. A certificate of editing from a human-only editing service satisfies disclosure requirements at journals that require proof of editing source.

Conflict of Interest and Funding Sources

Conflict of interest disclosures and funding statements appear on the title page or in a dedicated section near the end of the manuscript. Most major journals require both.

The conflict of interest statement covers any financial relationships, employment, consulting arrangements, or other interests that a reasonable reader might consider relevant. Many journals use the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) disclosure form, which captures conflicts in a standardized format. The form must be completed by every author, not just the corresponding author.

The funding statement identifies every source that supported the research. Include the funder name, the grant number, and the role of the funder if relevant. Many funders, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and major European agencies, require specific disclosure language. Check the funder's guidelines as well as the journal's.

Author Contributions (CRediT Taxonomy)

The CRediT taxonomy (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) is a 14-role system for describing each author's contribution to the research. Major publishers (Elsevier, Wiley, Cell Press, Springer Nature) now require CRediT-formatted author contribution statements at submission.

The 14 roles are: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing original draft, and writing review and editing. Each author can be assigned multiple roles. Each role can be shared across multiple authors.

A typical CRediT statement reads: "Author A: conceptualization, methodology, writing original draft. Author B: data curation, formal analysis, visualization. Author C: investigation, validation, writing review and editing." The statement appears on the title page or just before the references depending on the journal.

Title Page Formatting Requirements

Formatting varies by journal and citation style. The defaults below cover most cases. Always check the Instructions for Authors before finalizing.

• Font. Times New Roman or another readable serif font, typically 12-point. APA-style journals specify Times New Roman 12-point explicitly.
• Spacing. Double-spaced throughout, including the title, author block, and affiliations.
• Margins. One inch (2.5 cm) on all four sides.
• Alignment. Most journals center the title and author information. Some prefer left-aligned. Follow the target journal's convention.
• Page numbering. The title page is page 1. The page number appears in the upper right corner of every page.
• Running head. Required by APA-format journals and some others. Place the running head in the page header, flush left, in all capital letters. The maximum is 50 characters including spaces.
• File format. Microsoft Word (.docx) is the universal default. PDF is accepted by some journals but discouraged at most because the editorial workflow uses Word.

Sample Title Page Layout

Below is a typical layout for a journal submission title page. Element placement varies by journal, but the structure shown here matches the requirements at most major publishers.

Blinded vs Non-Blinded Submissions

If your target journal uses double-anonymized peer review, the title page won't be sent to reviewers. You'll need to prepare two separate files. Confusion between the two is one of the most common reasons manuscripts are returned at the technical check stage.

When preparing the blinded manuscript, remove every reference that could identify the authors. This includes names in self-citations ("In our previous work [Smith and Jones, 2023]" becomes "In previous work [Smith and Jones, 2023]"), institutional names in the methods section, grant numbers that could be traced to specific recipients, and any acknowledgment that names individuals or institutions.

Single-blind review keeps author identity visible to reviewers. In a single-blind submission, the title page and the manuscript can be a single file with author information at the top. Always check the journal's peer review policy before deciding which format to use.

Common Title Page Mistakes

The same errors trigger desk rejections and technical returns at journals across every field. Knowing them in advance saves a round of revisions.

• Using your institution's default formatting instead of the journal's. Word's default font, spacing, and margins rarely match the journal's specifications. Reformat the document to the target journal's requirements before submission.
• Listing the wrong affiliation. Affiliations should be where the work was conducted, not where the author currently works. If an author has moved, list the original affiliation and add a current address note.
• Including identifying information in a blinded manuscript. Author names, institutional addresses, grant numbers, and self-references in first person all break anonymization. Run a separate pass to remove identifying information from the blinded file.
• Omitting or weakening the AI disclosure statement. Vague statements like "no AI was used in any meaningful way" or "AI was used minimally" don't satisfy current publisher requirements. Be specific about which tools, which purposes, and which sections.
• Missing the corresponding author's contact details. The journal needs a current email address that the corresponding author actually monitors. A defunct or rarely-checked institutional email delays everything.
• Forgetting the running title. Most journals require a shortened title within a specific character limit. Authors who skip this field often have their submission returned at the initial check.
• Submitting CRediT-required journals without author contribution statements. If your target journal uses CRediT, the author contribution statement is mandatory. A submission without one is incomplete.
• Skipping the Instructions for Authors. Every journal has specific requirements. What's correct for one journal is wrong for another. The Instructions for Authors is the only authoritative source for title page requirements at any specific journal.

Pre-Submission Checklist

Before submitting, run through this checklist. Each item maps to a requirement at one or more major publishers.

• The title is concise, descriptive, and includes key search terms
• A running title within the journal's character limit is included
• Every author's full name and ORCID iD are listed
• Affiliations match where the work was conducted, with current address notes where needed
• The corresponding author's email address is current and monitored
• The conflict of interest statement is complete for every author
• Funding sources include funder names and grant numbers
• The AI disclosure statement is specific about tools, purposes, and scope
• Author contributions are stated using CRediT roles where the journal requires them
• Word count, table count, and figure count are reported if the journal requires them
• The blinded manuscript has every identifying detail removed for double-anonymized submissions
• Formatting (font, spacing, margins, alignment) matches the journal's Instructions for Authors

Frequently Asked Questions

Professional Editing for Journal Submission

A correctly formatted title page is the first signal to the editor that your submission has been prepared carefully. The next signal is the writing itself. Editors and peer reviewers evaluate the clarity of your argument, the precision of your methodology section, the accuracy of your citations, and whether your abstract represents your findings honestly. Small errors in any of these areas can turn a strong paper into a weak submission.

Editor World provides journal article editing and academic editing services for researchers preparing manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication. Every editor is a native English speaker from the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada, with an advanced degree in their field and an average of 15 years of professional editing experience. Every document is reviewed by a real person, never by AI. To see who would be working on your manuscript, you can choose your own editor from the Editor World roster, or request a free sample edit of up to 300 words before committing to a full edit. Pricing is fully transparent through an instant price calculator that shows your exact cost before you commit.

A certificate of editing confirming human-only native English editing is available as an optional add-on. The certificate satisfies the AI disclosure requirements at journals that ask for proof of editing source. For more on academic writing and submission, see our journal article cover letter guide, research methodology guide, and population vs sample guide.

This article was reviewed by the Editor World editorial team. Editor World, founded in 2010 by Patti Fisher, PhD, provides professional editing and proofreading services for graduate students, academics, and researchers worldwide. BBB A+ accredited since 2010 with 5.0/5 Google Reviews and 5.0/5 Facebook Reviews. More than 100 million words edited for over 8,000 clients in 65+ countries.