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APA Citation Style: Books

When Citing a book...

Each citation should contain the following information:

  • Author - Last name, initials for first and middle name.
  • Publication date - Put the date in parenthesis.
  • Title - Write the title in italics and capitalize only the first word of the title.
  • Place of Publication
  • Publisher

Complete citations are placed on the References page at the end of the paper.

Parenthetical Citations appear immediately after the source is referenced in your paper. There are two types of parenthetical citations: 

  • In-Text Citation (Paraphrase) -use this when you express the ideas of a researcher or author using your own words.  
  • In-Text Citation (Quotation) - use this when you use a direct quote from your source.

***  If the book has an editor instead of an author, insert the editor's name in the place of the author's name  followed by (Ed.) .

Books with One Author

Format:
 Author's   last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Place of  Publication: Publisher.
Example:  Rollin, B. E. (2015). Science and Ethnics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
 
  In-Text Citation  - Paraphrase: 
   (Author Surname, Year)
   Example: (Rolllins, 2015)
  In-Text Citation  - Quotation:
 (Author Surname, Year, page number)  
  Example: (Rollins, 2015, p. 112)   

Books with Two Authors

Format:
Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial., & Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher.
Example:  Benjamin, J., & Haufmann, L. (Eds.). (2012). A guide to genectic engineering. New York: Rosen.
 
In-Text Citation - Paraphrase: 
(Author Surname & Author Surname, Year)
Example: (Benjamin & Haufmann, 2012)
 In-Text Citation - Direct Quote:
      (Author Surname & Author Surname, Year, page number)
Example: (Benjamin & Haufmann, 2012. p 15)

Books with Multiple Authors

When a book has three to seven authors list all the authors and separate thier names with commas and an ampersand ( & )

Example: Smith, J. D., Jones, R. L., & Harper, S. G.

When a book has seven or more authors list the first 6 authors and then ellipses (...) and then the last author.

Example: Smith, J. D., Jones, R. L., Harper, S. G., Harris, K., Thomas, L. , Nelson, G. A., ...Sampson, D.

In text Citations:

When a work has three, four, or five authors, cite all authors the first time the reference occurs. 

Example: (Smith, Jones, and Harper 2011)

In all subsequent citations per paragraph, include only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." and the year of publication.

Example: (Smith et al. 2011)

Article in an Encyclopedia

Format:

Author 's Last Name [of the Article], First Initial.  (Year of publication). Article title. In Reference book title: Subtitle  (# ed. edition, Vol. volume #, pp. page range of article). Place of Publication: Publisher.

Examples

Nordenson, N.  (2009). Diabetes. In Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. (3rd ed., Vol. 1, pp 3-5). Boston: Gale