CSU Stanislaus Library APA Citation Tutorials

Book & eBook Citation Tutorial

Book & eBook Citation Rules

Basic Structure of a Book Citation

Example of Citation for a Book with One Author

Example of a Book Citation with Edition Information and a DOI

Examples of Book Citations for Edited Books

Book and eBook In-Text Citation Rules

Parenthetical Citations

Narrative Citations

Book & eBook Citation Rules

When citing a book or ebook include:

The author, year of publication, title, and publisher of the book. Use the same format for both print books and ebooks.

The title of the book should be italicized and written in sentence-case, meaning only the first word and proper nouns in the title are capitalized. The first letter of the first word in the subtitle of a book is also capitalized. All references should also be double-spaced.

If the book is edited use the abbreviation “(Ed.)” for one editor and the abbreviation “(Eds.)” for multiple editors after the editor names, followed by a period. In the case of multiple editors, include the role once, after all the names.

Use the copyright date shown on the book’s copyright page as the year of publication in the reference, even if the copyright date is different than the release date.

Include any edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics.

Do not include the publisher location.

If the book includes a DOI, include the DOI in the reference after the publisher name. A DOI is a digital object identifier which is a persistent identifier or handle used to identify a document.

Present both DOIs and URLs as hyperlinks (i.e., beginning with “http:” or “https:”). It is acceptable to use either the default display settings for hyperlinks in your word-processing program (e.g., usually blue font, underlined) or plain text that is not underlined. Leave links live if the work is to be published or read online.

If the ebook without a DOI has a stable URL that will resolve for readers, include the URL of the book in the reference. Do not include the name of the database in the reference.

If the ebook is from an academic research database and has no DOI or stable URL, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include the name of the database in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.

Below are examples of book and ebook citations. After you are finished reviewing examples and in-text citation information you can test your knowledge with our APA Book Citation Game!

Basic Structure of a Book Citation

The author's last name should be written first followed by a comma and then the author's initials for their first name and middle name (if given). See the examples below.

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). The title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI (if available) The image also has a box with an arrow pointing to the title of the book. The box states: The title of a book is italicized and written in sentence case.

Example of Citation for a Book with One Author

Sapolsky, R. M. Behave: The biology of humans at our best and worst. Penguin Books.

Example of a Book Citation with Edition Information and a DOI

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10/1037/0000168-000

Examples of Book Citations for Edited Books

Hygum, E. & Pedersen, P. M. (Eds.). (2010). Early childhood education: Values and practices in Denmark. Hans Reitzels Forlag. https://earlychildhoodeducation.digi.hansreitzel.dk/ Kesharwani, P. (Ed.). (2020). Nanotechnology based approaches for tuberculosis treatment. Academic Press. Torino, G. C., Rivera, D. P., Capodilupo, C. M., Nadal, K. L., & Sue, D. W. (Eds.). (2019). Microaggression theory: Influence and implications. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119466642

Book and eBook In-Text Citation Rules

In-text citations are the brief citations included in the body of your paper. They refer your reader to the full citation in the references section of your paper.

In APA, the in-text citation can either be a parenthetical citation or a narrative citation. Below are examples of each type of in-text citation.

Parenthetical Citations

In APA, the in-text citation is usually placed in parenthesis at the end of your sentence with the author's last name and year. The page number is also required if you are directly quoting from a source or paraphrasing a source.

Precede a single page number with p.
Precede a range of pages with pp.
If page numbers are unavailable, you will need to use the paragraph number preceded by para. or paras.
To direct quote from an article that has an article number, use the page numbering from the document in your in-text citations. For example, for information taken from “Page 4 of 9", use “p. 4” for the direct quote.

The period goes after/outside the parenthesis.

(Held, 2022).

(Hall, 2022, para. 5).

(Ricks, 2018, pp. 175-176).

Multiple Authors, Corporate Authors, No Authors:

Two Authors From the Same Source:

When referring to a source with two authors, join the authors' last names with an ampersand. For example:

(Hall & Ricks, 2016, p. 198).

Three or More Authors From the Same Source:

When referring to a source with three authors or more, list the first author's last name followed by et al. For example:

(Hall et al., 2022, pp. 201-202).

Corporate or Group Author:

If the author of a work is a business, organization, government agency, group, etc. that is referred to as a corporate or group author. Use the corporate author's name. For example:

(American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 277).

No Authors:

If there is no author listed, use the title of the work in place of the author's last name. If the title is long, it should be shortened for the in-text citation. The main words of the title should also be capitalized. If the title is not italicized within the reference, use quotation marks around the title. It the title is italicized within the reference, then the title also needs to be italicized in the in-text citation. For example:

("News Today," 2022)

(On This Day, 2022).

Examples in a Sentence:

Participating in professional organizations allows for career professionals to network (Held, 2022).

“Creating interactive lessons helps students retain information” (Hall, 2022, para. 5).

“Participating in water polo has a positive impact on high school students’ well-being” (Hall & Ricks, 2018, pp. 175-176).

"Participating in high school band correlates with higher math scores" (Hall et al., 2022, pp. 201-202).

Long Quotes:

Quotes longer than 40 words need to be formatted as a block quote. The quotation should begin on a new line and is indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. The entire block quote is double-spaced. Do not add an extra line space before or after the block quote. The period goes before the in-text citation in a block quote.

Below is an example of a parenthetical block quote:

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves: Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people’s everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Narrative Citations

In narrative citations the author appears in running text and the date appears in parentheses immediately after the author’s name. For example:

Hall (2022) found that youth sports increase self-confidence.

If the narrative citation includes a direct quote or is a paraphrase then include the page or paragraph number(s) at the end of the sentence. For example:

Hall (2022) stated, “Networking helps improve employment prospects” (p. 205).

Multiple Authors, Corporate Authors, No Authors:

Two Authors From the Same Source:

When referring to a source with two authors, join the authors' last names using the word "and." For example:

Hall and Ricks (2016) stated, “…” (p. 198).

Three or More Authors From the Same Source:

When referring to a source with three authors or more, list the first author's last name followed by et al. For example:

According to Hall et al. (2022), “….” (pp. 201-202).

Corporate or Group Author:

If the author of a work is a business, organization, government agency, group, etc. that is referred to as a corporate or group author. Use the corporate author's name. For example:

The American Psychological Association (2020) stated, “…” (p. 277).

Long Quotes:

Below is an example of a narrative long quote:

Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color: Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)

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