essay online

apa citation for an article in a book

The George Washington University

APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Article in a Reference Book

Article in a Reference Book

About Citing Books

For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and an example will be provided.

The following format will be used:

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase) - entry that appears in the body of your paper when you express the ideas of a researcher or author using your own words. For more tips on paraphrasing check out The OWL at Purdue .

In-Text Citation (Quotation) - entry that appears in the body of your paper after a direct quote.

References - entry that appears at the end of your paper.

Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

General Format

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Author Surname [of Article], Year)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

(Author Surname [of Article], Year, page number)

References (Quotation):

Author Surname [of Article], First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Article title. In Editor First Initial. Second Initial. Surname (Ed.), Reference book title: Subtitle (# ed. edition, Vol. volume #, pp. page range of article). Publisher.

(Lindgren, 1994)

(Lindgren, 1994, p.468)

References:

Lindgren, H. C. (1994). Stereotyping. In Encyclopedia of psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 468-469). Wiley.

Subject Guide

Profile Photo

Creative Commons License

Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library

2300 Eye St., NW, Washington, DC 20037 Phone: (202) 994-2850 [email protected] https://himmelfarb.gwu.edu Staff Login -->

app store logo

The George Washington University

Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts

apa citation for an article in a book

Reference List: Books

OWL logo

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style  can be found here .

The following contains a list of the most commonly cited print book sources. E-books are described on our "Electronic Sources" page . For a complete list of how to cite print sources, please refer to the 7 th edition of the APA Publication Manual. 

Note: If available, APA 7 requires a DOI for all works that have one — whether print or digital. If a print work does not have a DOI do not include it in the reference citation.

Basic Format for Books

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle . Publisher Name. DOI (if available)

Stoneman, R. (2008). Alexander the Great: A life in legend . Yale University Press.

Edited Book, No Author

Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle . Publisher. DOI (if available)

Leitch, M. G., & Rushton, C. J. (Eds.). (2019).  A new companion to Malory . D. S. Brewer.

Edited Book with an Author or Authors

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (E. Editor, Ed.). Publisher. DOI (if available)

Malory, T. (2017). Le morte darthur (P. J. C. Field, Ed.). D. S. Brewer. (Original work published 1469-70)

A Translation

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (T. Translator, Trans.). Publisher. (Original work published YEAR) DOI (if available)

Plato (1989). Symposium (A. Nehamas & P. Woodruff, Trans.). Hackett Publishing Company. (Original work published ca. 385-378 BCE)

Note : When you cite a republished work, like the one above, in your text, it should appear with both dates: Plato (385-378/1989)

Edition Other Than the First

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (# edition). Publisher. DOI (if available)

Belcher, W. (2019). Writing your journal article in twelve weeks: A guide to academic publishing success (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (pp. pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI (if available)

Note : When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers: (pp. 1-21). This abbreviation, however, does not appear before the page numbers in periodical references. List any edition number in the same set of parentheses as the page numbers, separated by a comma: (2nd ed., pp. 66-72).

Armstrong, D. (2019). Malory and character. In M. G. Leitch & C. J. Rushton (Eds.), A new companion to Malory  (pp. 144-163). D. S. Brewer.

Multivolume Work

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (Vol. #) . Publisher. DOI (if available)

David, A., & Simpson, J. (Eds.). (2006). The Norton anthology of English literature: The Middle Ages (8 th ed.,Vol. A). W. W. Norton and Company.

USC SOM Library Logo

APA Citation Style Guide (6th Ed.): Overview

7th Edition

For information on the 7th edition of APA, visit the new guide at  USC'sThomas Cooper Library:

7th Edition Guide

About APA Style

American Psychological Association (APA) style is commonly used for citing references in science and social science courses, such as Nursing, Psychology, Education, and Social Work.  This guide is based on the 6th edition published in 2010.

This edition is shelved in the Ready Reference area behind the Library's Circulation Desk and may be used in the library (it can't be checked out). 

The call number is READY REF WZ 345 P976 2010

apa citation for an article in a book

New Content in the 6th Edition

Some of the changes in the new edition include:

To learn more about the changes made in the new edition, check out the " What's New " section on the official APA Website.

You may also want to check out the APA blog  to learn more about such topics as using DOIs and citing specific sources.

Attributions

Portions of this LibGuide have been copied, with permission, from the following institutions:

General Guidelines

Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the APA 6th Edition manual.

Author-Date Citation System in Text (p. 174)

In Text: 

The conquest of pellagra is commonly associated with a single name: Joseph Goldberger (Bryan, 2014).

This entry in Reference list: 

Bryan, C.S. (2014).  Asylum Doctor: James Woods Babcock and the Red Plague of Pellagra.   Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press.

Double-space your entire paper, including the References list and any block quotes (pp. 229, 171, 180)

Recommended Typeface:  The preferred APA typeface , or font , is 12-point Times New Roman.  (p. 228)

Page Numbers and Running Head (p. 230)

Tip: Use the "header" function on your word processor to set up the page numbers and running head. Since the running head format is different on the title page than the subsequent pages, you will need to choose "different first page" within your word processor header function.

Learn more about APA Style

About Plagiarism

Give credit to all sources from which you have taken information, whether you have directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized the author’s words.   Failing to document your sources constitutes plagiarism.  

See page 170 of the manual for more information about plagiarism.

Guide Author

Profile Photo

Generate accurate APA citations for free

The Scribbr Citation Generator will automatically create a flawless APA citation

How to Cite a Book in APA Style | Format & Examples

Published on November 14, 2019 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 4, 2022.

A book citation in APA Style always includes the author’s name, the publication year, the book title, and the publisher. Use the interactive tool to see examples.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Table of contents, basic book citation format, ebooks and online books, citing a chapter from an edited book, multivolume books, where to find the information for an apa book citation, frequently asked questions about apa style citations.

The in-text citation for a book includes the author’s last name, the year, and (if relevant) a page number.

In the reference list , start with the author’s last name and initials, followed by the year. The book title is written in sentence case (only capitalize the first word and any proper nouns ). Include any other contributors (e.g. editors and translators) and the edition if specified (e.g. “2nd ed.”).

A citation of an ebook (i.e. a book accessed on an e-reader) or a book viewed online (e.g. on Google Books or in PDF form ) includes the DOI where available. If there is no DOI, link to the page where you viewed the book, or where the ebook can be purchased or accessed.

Since ebooks sometimes do not include page numbers, APA recommends using other methods of identifying a specific passage in your in-text citations—for example, a chapter or section title, or a paragraph number.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

apa citation for an article in a book

When citing a particular chapter from a book containing texts by various authors (e.g. a collection of essays), begin the citation with the author of the chapter and mention the book’s editor(s) later in the reference. A page range identifies the chapter’s location in the book.

Some books come in multiple volumes. You may want to cite the entire book if you’ve used multiple volumes, or just a single volume if that was all you used.

Citing a single volume

When citing from one volume of a multivolume book, the format varies slightly depending on whether each volume has a title or just a number.

If the volume has a specific title, this should be written as part of the title in your reference list entry.

Eliot, T. S. (2015). The poems of T. S. Eliot: Vol. 1. Collected and uncollected poems (C. Ricks & J. McCue, Eds.). Faber & Faber.

If the volume is only numbered, not titled, the volume number is not italicized and appears in parentheses after the title.

Dylan, B. (2005). Chronicles (Vol. 1) . Simon & Schuster.

Citing a multivolume book as a whole

When citing the whole book, mention the volumes in parentheses after the title. Individual volume titles are not included even if they do exist.

Eliot, T. S. (2015). The poems of T. S. Eliot (Vols. 1–2) (C. Ricks & J. McCue, Eds.). Faber & Faber.

All the information you need to cite a book can usually be found on the title and copyright pages.

APA book source info

The APA reference list entry for the book above would look like this:

Butler, C. (2002). Postmodernism: A very short introduction . Oxford University Press.

When a book’s chapters are written by different authors, you should cite the specific chapter you are referring to.

When all the chapters are written by the same author (or group of authors), you should usually cite the entire book, but some styles include exceptions to this.

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (meaning “and others”) is used to shorten APA in-text citations with three or more authors . Here’s how it works:

Only include the first author’s last name, followed by “et al.”, a comma and the year of publication, for example (Taylor et al., 2018).

In the 7th edition of the APA manual, no location information is required for publishers. The 6th edition previously required you to include the city and state where the publisher was located, but this is no longer the case.

If you’re citing from an edition other than the first (e.g. a 2nd edition or revised edition), the edition appears in the reference, abbreviated in parentheses after the book’s title (e.g. 2nd ed. or Rev. ed.).

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, July 04). How to Cite a Book in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/book/

Is this article helpful?

Jack Caulfield

Jack Caulfield

Other students also liked, apa 7th edition: the most notable changes, setting up the apa reference page | formatting & references (examples), beginner's guide to apa in-text citation, scribbr apa citation checker.

An innovative new tool that checks your APA citations with AI software. Say goodbye to inaccurate citations!

American Psychological Association

Chapter in an Edited Book/Ebook References

This page contains reference examples for chapters in edited books/ebooks, including the following:

Use the same formats for both print and ebook edited book chapters. For ebook chapters, the format, platform, or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference.

Do not create references for chapters of authored books. Instead, write a reference for the whole authored book and cite the chapter in the text if desired.

1. Chapter in an edited book

Aron, L., Botella, M., & Lubart, T. (2019). Culinary arts: Talent and their development. In R. F. Subotnik, P. Olszewski-Kubilius, & F. C. Worrell (Eds.), The psychology of high performance: Developing human potential into domain-specific talent (pp. 345–359). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000120-016

Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge.

Thestrup, K. (2010). To transform, to communicate, to play—The experimenting community in action. In E. Hygum & P. M. Pedersen (Eds.), Early childhood education: Values and practices in Denmark . Hans Reitzels Forlag. https://earlychildhoodeducation.digi.hansreitzel.dk/?id=192

2. Chapter in an edited book, reprinted from another book

Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). The social ecology of human development: A retrospective conclusion. In U. Bronfenbrenner (Ed.), Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development (pp. 27–40). SAGE Publications. (Reprinted from Brain and intelligence: The ecology of child development , pp. 113–123, by F. Richardson, Ed., 1973, National Educational Press)

apa citation for an article in a book

This guidance has been revised from the 6th edition.

apa citation for an article in a book

APA Quick Guide: 6th Edition: Home

Citation Managers

APA Edition

Examples in this quick guide follow the guidelines in:

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). (2010). Washington, DC: APA . READY REFERENCE BF76.7 .P83 2010

Please note: other editions of the Publication Manual may format some citations differently.  Confirm your instructor's expectations before completing your research paper.

Additional Information:

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). [Supplemental material]. (2010). Washington, DC: APA . Retrieved from http://apastyle.org/manual/supplement/index.aspx

Works referred to in a paper are provided brief In-Text Citations at the point in the paper where the reference is made and complete citations in the References section of the paper.  Each source mentioned in the text must be cited in the Reference list and each source in the Reference list must be referred to in the text. 

In-Text Citation

A brief citation within the text of the paper.

Example: (Costall, 2004)

Reference List Entry

A complete citation of the source in an alphabetized list at the end of the document.

Costall, A. (2004). From Darwin to Watson (and Cognitivism) and back again: the principle of animal-environment mutuality. Behavior & Philosophy , 32 , 179-195.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the creators of the following LibGuides, which served as useful resources in the development of this guide.

Subject Guide

Profile Photo

Cite a Book

Worldcat logo

Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper

Citing books in apa, print books with one author:.

APA citation format:

Author Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year Published). Title of work . Publisher.

Moriarty, L. (2014). Big little lies . G. P. Putnam’s Sons.

Print books with two or more authors:

Last name, First initial. Middle initial., Last name, First initial. Middle initial., & Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Date). Title . Publisher.

Goldin, C. D., & Katz, L. F. (2008). The race between education and technology . Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Matthews, G., Smith, Y., & Knowles, G. (2009). Disaster management in archives, libraries and museums . Ashgate.

Full versions of E-books:

E-books are generally read either on a website, on an e-reader, or on a database.

Author Last Name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year Published). Title of work . https://doi.org/xxxx or http://xxxx

Auster, P. (2007). The Brooklyn follies . http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

To cite your ebooks automatically, use the “Book” form at CitationMachine.com, click “Manual entry mode,” and click the “E-book” tab. Everything will be properly formatted following APA bibliography guidelines.

Featured links:

APA Citation Generator  |  Website   | Books | Journal Articles | YouTube | Images | Movies | Interview | PDF

Banner

APA (7th Edition) Referencing Guide

Is it a book or a chapter?

Book and book chapters video.

When to cite the whole book :

When the entire book has been written by the same set of authors, and the chapters have not been contributed by different authors, then you regard the entire book as a single source and cite the whole book . If you use three different chapters from the same book, it still only counts as one source - only one book.

Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2007). Introduction to academic writing . Pearson/Longman.  

When to cite the individual chapters :

If the book has been edited or compiled, and each chapter has its own authors, then you cite each chapter separately . If you use three different chapters, each chapter counts as a separate source.

Martin, A. (2006). Literacies for the digital age. In A. Martin & D. Madigan (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 3-25). Facet.

Are you trying to cite a section of a custom textbook? Custom textbooks are works that have been compiled for a particular course or cohort, and the chapters may have originally come from a variety of sources. Please see the section on Custom Textbooks under Class Handouts and Lectures.

Acknowledgement of Country

IMAGES

  1. APA Citation

    apa citation for an article in a book

  2. Citation Machine®: APA Format & APA Citation Generator

    apa citation for an article in a book

  3. Citing of Six or More Multiple Authors in APA

    apa citation for an article in a book

  4. APA Citation

    apa citation for an article in a book

  5. Citation Machine Apa Format Citation Generator For Journal Article

    apa citation for an article in a book

  6. APA Book Citation Examples

    apa citation for an article in a book

VIDEO

  1. (Lesson 02) APA Referencing and Citation for Article/ Paper #TheRizwanHassan

  2. APA (6th Edition) Journal Article without a DOI

  3. APA Journal Article with a DOI (6th Edition)

  4. APA Citation Workshop

  5. Top 5 free citation and bibliography online tools to reference in one minute

  6. APA Citations

COMMENTS

  1. APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

    or chapter title. In Editor First Initial. Second Initial. Surname (Ed.), Book title: Subtitle (pp. page range of article or chapter). Publisher

  2. APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Article in a Reference Book

    Article in a Reference Book ; General Format ; In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):. (Author Surname [of Article], Year) ; In-Text Citation (Quotation):.

  3. Reference List: Books

    Article or Chapter in an Edited Book ... Note: When you list the pages of the chapter or essay in parentheses after the book title, use "pp." before the numbers:

  4. Article or Chapter in an Edited Book

    Article or Chapter in an Edited Book ; In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):. (Author Surname [of Chapter or Article], Year) ; In-Text Citation (Quotation):. (Author

  5. How to Cite a Book in APA Style

    Basic book citation format ... The in-text citation for a book includes the author's last name, the year, and (if relevant) a page number. In the

  6. APA Style Reference Guide for Journal Articles, Books, and Edited

    Reference Guide for Journal Articles,. Books, and Edited Book Chapters. Journal. Article. Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article.

  7. Chapter in an edited book/ebook references

    Use this format for both print and ebook edited book chapters, including edited book chapters from academic research databases. · If the chapter has a DOI

  8. APA Quick Guide: 6th Edition: Article in a Book

    Model Citation for an Article in a Book ... Author Name, Reversed. (Date). Title of article. In Editor of book (Ed.), Title of book (pp.

  9. Citing a Book in APA

    Author Last name, First initial. Middle initial. (Year Published). Title of work. Publisher. Example: Moriarty, L. (2014). Big little lies.

  10. Books & Book Chapters

    If the book has been edited or compiled, and each chapter has its own authors, then you cite each chapter separately.