APA Citation Guide: Books & eBooks

• Book with One Author (Print or eBook from Library Database)
• Book with Two to Twenty Authors (Print or eBook from Library Database)
• Book with a Group or Corporate Author
• Book with Editor(s), but no Author(s)
• Chapters, Short Stories, Essays, or Articles from a Book (Anthology or Collection)
• eBook from a Website with One Author
• eBook from a Website with Two to Twenty Authors
• In-text Citation for Two or More Authors/Editors
• No Author
• Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year
• In-text Citation for Group or Corporate Authors

A print book means it's printed on paper. If you checked the book out of a library or bought it from a bookstore, it's print.

An eBook is a book you can read entirely online.

Note that most of the time, references are exactly the same for a print copy of a book and an eBook copy of the same book from a library database.

Authors & Editors

An author won't necessarily be a person's name. It may be an organization or company, for example World Health Organization. These are called group or corporate authors.

If a book has no author or editor, begin the citation with the book title, followed by the year of publication in parentheses.

If an author is also the publisher, put the word "Author" where you'd normally put the publisher name. This happens most often with corporate or group authors.

When a book has one to twenty authors or editors, all authors' names are cited in the Reference List entry. When a book has twenty-one or more authors or editors, list the first nineteen authors followed by three spaced ellipse points (. . .) , and then the last author's name. Rules are different for in-text citations; please see the examples provided.

Titles

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title. If there is a colon (:) in the title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon.

Capitalize the first letter of proper names in titles, such as names of places or people. Example: Long Island

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name often shortened.

Note:

Place of publication is not required when using APA 7th edition.

For eBooks, the database is not required. 

Last Name of First Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given, & Last Name of Second Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of     

Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name often shortened. 

Note:

Authors' names are separated by commas. Put a comma and an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author cited.

Must include ALL names in the reference list for publications with up to 20 authors.

Place of publication is not required when using APA 7th edition.

For library eBooks, the database is not required.

Name of Corporate Author. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name often shortened.

Note:

If the Corporate Author is also the publisher of the book, omit the Publisher Name.

Place of publication is not required when using APA 7th edition.

Editor's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Ed.). (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given

and is not first edition). Publisher Name often shortened. 

Note:

Place of publication is not required when using APA 7th edition.

For a book with more than one editor, follow name conventions for a book with two to twenty authors and use. 

When you have one editor the short form (Ed.) is used after the editor's name. If you have more than one editor use (Eds.) instead.

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of chapter, article, essay or short story. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if Given. Editor's Last Name (Ed.), Title of book (edition if given and is not first edition, pp. first page number-last page number). Publisher Name often shortened.

Note:

If you have more than one editor list their name(s) after the first editor listed in the book, giving their initials and last name. Put an ampersand (&) before the last editor's name.

When you have one editor the short form (Ed.) is used after the editor's name. If you have more than one editor use (Eds.) instead.

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher. URL

Last Name of First Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given, & Last Name of Second Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher. URL

Note:

Authors' names are separated by commas. Put a comma and an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author cited.

No place of publication is required when using APA 7th edition.

Must include ALL names in the reference list for publications with up to 20 authors.

If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title/name of the item you are citing instead. Follow the title/name of the item with the date of publication, and then continue with other citation details.

Remember: an author/creator may be an organization or corporation, for example World Health Organization. If you don't have a person's name as the author, but do have the name of an organization or corporation, put that organization/corporation's name as the author.

Anonymous

If and only if an item is signed as being created by Anonymous, use "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name.

In-Text

When you have no author, use a shortened version of the title where you'd normally put the author's name.

If you're citing something which is part of a bigger work, like an article from a magazine, newspaper, journal, encyclopedia, or chapter/short story from a book, put the shortened title in quotation marks in your in-text citation:

Example, paraphrase: ("A few words," 2021)

If you're citing an entire work, like a book, website, video, etc., italicize the shortened title in your in-text citation:

Example, paraphrase: (A few words, 2021)

When you are citing two different sources that share the same author and year of publication, assign lowercase letters after the year of publication (a, b, c, etc.). Assign these letters according to which title comes first alphabetically. Use these letters in both in-text citations and the Reference list.

Example In-Text:

This is paraphrased content from the first source by this author (Emmett, 2015a). "Now I am quoting from the second source by the same author" (Emmett, 2019b, p. 50).

Example Reference List entries:

Emmett, E. (2019a). Name of book used as first source. New York: Fancy Publisher.

Emmett, E. (2019b). Title of book used as second source. New York: Very Fancy Publisher.