Hi Shana,

The running head should be abbreviated, but mainly by cutting it down to just the key words. The running head should be 50 characters or fewer (including any punctuation and spaces). APA does recommend avoiding abbreviations though, so I would avoid “vs.” I’m not sure how exactly you would use parentheses to shorten your title, but they’re certainly allowed. In general, just focus on cutting down your title to a few words that convey the topic effectively; the words don’t necessarily have to be in the same order as they are in the full title.

I am currently finishing my masters thesis and now comes the most difficult part: the running head. I have quite a long title and was wondering, if it is allowed to use parentheses and VS instead of versus (although it is an abbreviation).

Thank you!

Best regards
Shana