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12.10 How should I punctuate my title? What words should
I capitalize?
There are two common standards for punctuating titles. Both standards are exempli-

fied in the Factoids at the beginning of this chapter. Check which system is used in
your chosen journal.
You can capitalize the fi rst letter of every word except for articles ( a, the, an ), and
prepositions and conjunctions:

Describing the Relationship between Cat Bites and Human Depression Using Data from an
Electronic Health Record

College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage
Or you can just capitalize the fi rst word.

Aesthetic value of paintings affects pain thresholds

On what I do not understand (and have something to say)

Note that some words require an initial capital letter if they are proper nouns:

Does the fact that there are three different electric plug sizes in Italy indicate the level of chaos
in the Italian government or economy?

The above title also indicates that the title can end with a question mark. However
no other punctuation is required at the end of the title.
Two-part titles may contain a colon:

The causes of cancer: quantitative estimates of avoidable risks of cancer

For more precise rules, see 24.1 in English for Research: Grammar, Usage and
Style.