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APA 7th Edition Citation Examples

General Format for books

Format:

Author last name, first initial. (Year). Book title. Publisher. DOI or URL (if there is one)

Elements:

  • Author: List the last name, followed by the first initial (and second initial). See Authors for more information.
  • Year: List the publication year between parentheses, followed by a period.
  • Book title: In italics. Capitalize the first word of the title, subtitle, and proper nouns, followed by a period.
  • Publisher: List the name of the publisher when available. If the publisher is also the author, do not list the publisher's name a second time in the reference.
  • DOI or URL: Use DOI when available. If no DOI and from the free web, use a URL. If no DOI and from a database, do not use a DOI or URL. 

The name of the format, platform or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference.

See specific examples below.

Physical book or library database without DOI

Burgess, R. (2019). Rethinking global health: Frameworks of power. Routledge.

Veletsianos, G. (2020). Learning online: The student experience. Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Publisher names: "Co.", "Inc." and related abbreviations should not be included in citations (for example, "Ivan R. Dee, Inc." should be given as "Ivan R. Dee".)

Library database with DOI

Chaffe-Stengel, P., & Stengel, D. (2012). Working with sample data: Exploration and inference. Business Expert Press. https://doi.org/10.4128/9781606492147

What is a DOI?
Some library databases, such as Academic Search Ultimate and APA PsycInfo, list a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for individual ebooks. A DOI is a unique identifying number for an ebook. In the database record for an ebook, you will see an element that looks like this, which you should include at the end of your APA reference, preceded by "https://doi.org/":

Digital Object Identifier

This link will allow a reader to link to doi.org for more information about the ebook.

Book read on an ebook reader

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. Little, Brown and Company. https://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell-ebook/dp/B001ANYDAO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It is not necessary to note that it is an ebook if the content is the same as the print version.

Free web ebook

Seton, E. T. (1911). The Arctic prairies: A canoe-journey of 2,000 miles in search of the caribou. Charles Scribner's Sons. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6818

Book chapter from a library database

Quina, K., & Kanarian, M. A. (1988). Continuing education. In P. Bronstein & K. Quina (Eds.), Teaching a psychology of people: Resources for gender and sociocultural awareness (pp. 200-208). American Psychological Association.

When using just a chapter from a book the same rules apply regarding DOI or no DOI as listed above, depending on where the book was retrieved.

Note that this template should be used only for books that have different authors for each chapter. If the author(s) is/are the same for an entire book, create a reference list entry for the entire book, even if you only quoted from one chapter of the book. (Your in-text citation will direct your reader to the specific part of the book that you quoted.)

Edited book (books with editors)

Miller, J., & Smith, T. (Eds.). (1996). Cape Cod stories: Tales from Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. Chronicle Books.

For a single editor, use "(Ed.)".

Books where the author and the publisher are the same

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

Numbered edition other than the first

Arking, R. (2006). The biology of aging: Observations and principles (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Revised edition

Culliney, J. L. (2006). Islands in a far sea: The fate of nature in Hawai'i (Rev. ed.). University of Hawai'i Press.

Multi-volume set

Green, C. M. (1962-1963). Washington (Vols. 1-2). Princeton University Press.

If volumes in a work or set are published in different years, give the range of years separated by a dash as above.

Chapter in an article or in an anthology

Eliot, T. S. (2001). Tradition and the individual talent. In V. B. Leitch (Ed.), The Norton anthology of theory and criticism (pp. 1092-1097). W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1920)

Note that the page numbers of an article or chapter are preceded by "pp." in the reference list entry (for example, "pp. 1092-1097"). In cases where an article/chapter occupies a single page, the page number is preceded by "p." (e.g, "p. 4").

Include the book's DOI after the publisher's name if a DOI is available.

If an article has been reprinted from a source that was published earlier, give the original date of publication in the "original work" element of the citation, as shown above. When using this element, do not put a period after it.

Note that this template should be used only for books that have different authors for each chapter. If the author(s) is/are the same for an entire book, create a reference list entry for the entire book, even if you only quoted from one chapter of the book. (Your in-text citation will direct your reader to the specific part of the book that you quoted.)

More info

See Publication Manual, 10.2 and 10.3.