Capitalize rule for an article title

Question

I am wondering if there is any rule on capitalization regarding to the title of articles.

For example, Should I write: "The Road to Berlin" Or "The road to Berlin" ?

I understand that the city name must be capitalized. However, the common word such as "road", should it be capitalized as well ?

Here is another tricky example: "A fast learning algorithm for deep belief nets"

The correct capitalized should be: "A Fast Learning Algorithm for Deep Belief Nets" since I must capitalize everything except a preposition. Is this true?

What's about the title containing a consecutive word like this example: "Deep learning in neural networks: An overview" I am not sure why the author does not capitalize everything.

I conclude that there is no specific rule for this and it is a matter of writing style. Can anyone help me confirm this?

Here is the similar question but it does not answer my specific question. How to capitalize (or not) an abbreviation, is there any rule?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Generally, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other important words are capitalized. Prepositions and article adjectives (other than the ones at the beginning of the title or after a colon) do not get capitalized.

The correct forms of titles should be these:

The Road to Berlin

A Fast Learning Algorithm for Deep Belief Nets (as you said yourself)

Deep Learning in Neural Networks: An Overview (although some peer-reviewed articles don't conform to normal capitalization techniques; I would guess this is to the author's discretion)

It's up to the author in the end if they wish to not capitalize words in their title, but the rules I mentioned above are the standard for title capitalization, and titles that do not conform to this are abnormal titles.

Here is a good site that will automatically capitalize whatever title you're not sure about, as well as give you the concise rules for capitalization.

Answer 2

This is one of those rules that change depending on what style you want to use and what it is the title of. Since you describe these as "articles," using sentence case would be appropriate.

"Deep learning in neural networks: An overview" I am not sure why the author does not capitalize everything.

For many styles, the name of the journal/newspaper/magazine/website would be the title case BUT the name of the article would be the sentence case. That is the style that Neural Networks uses for their article titles. (I am assuming this is the article you are referring to: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0893608014002135?via%3Dihub ) So this would be correct: Deep learning in neural networks: An overview was published in Neural Networks in 2015. (this follows both Associated Press (AP) style and the American Medical Association (AMA) style)

The road to Berlin would be correct if it were the title of an article in something else, like a journal or magazine.

If it were the title of a book or a movie, however, it would be The Road to Berlin

MORE EXAMPLES:

A fast-learning algorithm for deep belief nets was published in Neural Computation in 2006.

Are video game pro controllers worth it? Here’s a guide to find out. is an Article in The Washington Post.

Creator of ‘Final Fantasy’ reflects on his last game, his career and the puppetry of his works is also an Article in The Washington Post.

Gastrointestinal and cardiovascular adverse events associated with NSAIDs was published in the journal Expert Opinion on Drug Safety.

The Road to Rio was a movie starring Bing Crosby.

If you need this information to write a paper for a class or a journal, ask what style guide you should follow to find out exactly what you need to do. If this is for something personal, pick a style and be consistent.