Title

The first letter of the first word of the title should be capitalized. All other words should be lowercase except for proper nouns and abbreviations.

Exceptions

In titles for articles in Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Applied Physiology, and Physiological Reviews, all significant words (i.e., nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives) should be capitalized, regardless of length. In addition, capitalize:

prepositions with 4 letters or less; e.g., "With", "From", etc.
"In Vitro" and "In Vivo"
words following a hyphen; e.g., "Single-Unit", "Respiratory-Related", "Long-Term", etc.
words following a colon

Titles for articles in Advances in Physiology Education should be in ALL CAPS (header 1). Abbreviations that use both upper- and lowercase letters in normal text should be cap/small cap in the title (e.g., PH, MG, CA).

Abbreviations are permitted, especially for chemical names (e.g., 5-HT₃). Abbreviations used in the title should be spelled out in the keywords. Abbreviations are not defined in the title, but should be defined in the abstract.

Delete the words "The," "A," or "An" as the first word of the title or subtitle.

Delete any punctuation (e.g., a period) at the end of the title, unless it is written as a question:

Does estradiol mediate leptin's effects on adiposity and body weight?

Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 276: E955-E963, 1999.

Length

The title of a manuscript should be concise and not exceed 160 characters, including spaces. If the title is too long, e-mail the author and request a new title of shorter length.

In proof, the title should not exceed three printed lines. One printed line is equal to approximately 65 characters and spaces, so when breaking a title, make each line as close as possible to, but not over, 65 characters long. Do not break a line in the middle of a word.

Sometimes a long title is unavoidable. Some commentary articles will quote the full title of the object article in the title of the commentary:

Physiology of a Microgravity Environment
Invited Review: Gravitational biology of the neuromotor systems: a perspective to the next era

J Appl Physiol 89: 1224-1231, 2000.

(Note that the use of italics in this example is particular to this article type. Also note that the title above may break differently than how it would break in print, depending on your web browser settings.)

Whenever possible, do not break the title on a preposition. Start the next line with the preposition instead.

Subtitles

Some companion articles contain a main title, with a different subtitle for each companion enumerated as I, II, III, etc.; such titles very frequently run to three lines .

Layer I neurons of rat neocortex. I. Action potential and repetitive firing properties

J Neurophysiol 76: 651-667, 1996.

Layer I neurons of the rat neocortex. II. Voltage-dependent outward currents

J Neurophysiol 76: 668-682, 1996.

Do not break a title between the roman numeral and the first word of the subtitle. Always keep both of these elements on the same line.

If the roman numeral and subtitle begin a new line, there should be no period after the main title. If the roman numeral and subtitle begin on the same line as the main title, the main title must end in a period.

Using the Toolkit

You do not need to indicate where the title should break in your coded manuscript. The break will be added by the printer according to our guidelines. Any changes to the title break should be made at proof stage.