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APA 7th

This Research Guide lists examples of how to cite sources according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 7th edition.

Book With Author(s) (Print or Library Database)

Dillon, M. (2014). Introduction to sociological theory: Theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.

Author(s) of Book. (year of publication). Complete title of book (edition if not 1st). Publisher(s).

If you find your book in a library database, you can click on the "Cite" button next to your book details and choose "APA." For this example, you would get the following citation in Ebook Central:

Dillon, M. (2019). Introduction to sociological theory : Theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

There are some errors in this database-supplied citation (highlighted in yellow). Here is how it should look:

Dillon, M. (2014). Introduction to sociological theory: Theorists, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.

Note that in APA 7th, you should not supply any database-related information unless your instructor requires it.

If you use the "Cite" feature, compare your citation carefully to the example shown and change as necessary. Look at the information provided with the book itself to verify anything that looks incorrect.

Make sure to:

Check the author names. In APA style, database-supplied citations will often confuse first names with last names, will  include the wrong part of compound names, or will add unneeded components (such as PhD). Look at the author information that appears with the book itself to help determine the correct way to cite an author's name.

Check title capitalization. Database-supplied citations will often give book titles in all capital letters, or will have other capitalization errors. In APA style, book titles should have only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms capitalized.

Check font, spacing, and punctuation. Citations may not paste with the font that matches the rest of your paper (APA accepts any standard easily readable font as long as you are consistent). Spacing between words and/or line spacing may not be correct. Punctuation (commas, periods) may be missing or may not be correct.

Check for missing or incorrect information in the actual book. In most databases, books will appear as an ebook or PDF version of a print book. Check this version of the book itself for any missing or incorrect publication details such as edition or publisher, and to verify title, author, and date information.

Author(s):

  • Standard form (use initials instead of first and middle names):
    • Rita Maxwell is Maxwell, R.
    • Graham B. Souder is Souder, G. B.
    • John Keith Sanford is Sanford, J. K.
    • Dara Haier-Thomas is Haier-Thomas, D.
    • Jo-Beth McNeil is McNeil, J.-B.
    • Seymour Bevins III is Bevins, S., III
    • Travis W. Tamblin Jr. is Tamblin, T. W., Jr.
    • Susanna Erstmiller, Ph.D. is Erstmiller, S.
    • Dr. Bakari is Bakari
    • Sophocles is Sophocles
    • Malcolm X is Malcolm X
  • Two authors (use "&" instead of writing out the word "and"):
    • Maxwell, R., & Souder, G. B.
  • Three to twenty authors (list all authors; use "&" before the last):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., & Tamblin, T. W., Jr. 
  • More than twenty authors (list the first nineteen and last author using an ellipsis [. . .] before the last with no "&"):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., Bevins, S., III, Tamblin, T. W., Jr., Peters, A. S., Widmark, E., Ross, G., Wu, J.-P., Albright, R. T., Garcia Ramirez, S. L., Ganyana, B. D., Heins, F., Rosach, K., Alborelli, L. H., Kohlkut, D. D., James, X., . . . Inabi, H. G.

Group Author:

  • If no individual author is listed in your book and the book has been produced by an organization, give author credit to the organization as it can be considered responsible for the book's content: 
    • American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.).

(Note that the organization does not appear again as the publisher since it is already listed as author.)

Publication Date:

  • Use the latest year of publication; this is usually found a page or two after the title page in your book, on the copyright page.
  • If there is no date of publication listed, use "n.d." instead of a year, in parentheses after the author(s): (n.d.).

Title of Book:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.
  • Use italics for your book title.
  • Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms:
    • Functional cerebral SPECT and PET imaging.
    • In the garden of beasts: Love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin.
  • If the official title of your book contains an ampersand (&), use the ampersand:
    • The end of bureaucracy & the rise of the intelligent organization.

Series Information:

  • If your book has an individual title, and is also part of a series, there is no need to include series information.

Edition Information:

  • If your book is an edition later than the first, include that information in parentheses after the book title.
  • Use standard abbreviations for edition information.
  • Do not put edition information in italics:
    • Thinking critically (11th ed.).
    • Management (Rev. ed.).

Publisher:

  • Use the complete publisher's name as it appears on the copyright page of your book, but do not Include words that denote legal business structures such as "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," "Limited Liability Company (LLC)," etc.: Lonely Planet Global Limited is Lonely Planet Global; Nova Science Publishers, Inc. is Nova Science Publishers.
  • Abbreviations and symbols may be used only if they are part of the publisher's name as it appears in your book: Taylor & Francis Group; World Scientific Publishing Co.
  • If the publisher's name appears to be an imprint or division of a larger publishing company, use only the name of the imprint or division (e.g., your publisher appears as Bloomsbury on the title page, and on the copyright page you see "Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc." In this case, your publisher is Bloomsbury Academic.)
  • If two (or more) separate publishers appear on the copyright page, list all, separated by a semicolon: John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.
  •  If the (group) author and the publisher are the same, list the name in the author slot only:
    • American Medical Association. (2017). Principles of CPT coding (9th ed.).

Database Information:

  • If you found your book through a library database, do not include any database information (such as the name of the database or the URL assigned to the book in the database) unless your instructor directs you otherwise.

Book With Editor(s) Only (Print or Library Database)

Hanitzsch, T., Hanusch, F., Ramaprasad, J., & de Beer, A. S. (Eds.). (2019). Worlds of  journalism: Journalistic cultures around the globe. Columbia University Press.

Editor(s) of Book (Ed. or Eds.). (year of publication). Complete title of book (edition if not 1st). Publisher(s).

If you find your book in a library database, you can click on the "Cite" button next to your book details and choose "APA." For this example, you would get the following citation in eBook Collection:

Thomas Hanitzsch, Folker Hanusch, Jyotika Ramaprasad, & Arnold S. de Beer. (2019). Worlds of Journalism :  Journalistic Cultures Around the Globe. Columbia University Press.

There are a number of errors in this database-supplied citation (highlighted in yellow). Here is how it should look:

Hanitzsch, T., Hanusch, F., Ramaprasad, J., & de Beer, A. S. (Eds.). (2019). Worlds of journalism: Journalistic cultures around the globe. Columbia University Press.

Note that in APA 7th, you should not supply any database-related information unless your instructor requires it.

If you use the "Cite" feature, compare your citation carefully to the example shown and change as necessary. Look at the information provided with the book itself to verify anything that looks incorrect.

Make sure to:

Check the editor names. In APA style, database-supplied citations will often confuse first names with last names, will  include the wrong part of compound names, or will add unneeded components (such as PhD). Look at the author information that appears with the book itself to help determine the correct way to cite an editor's name.

Check title capitalization. Database-supplied citations will often give book titles in all capital letters, or will have other capitalization errors. In APA style, book titles should have only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms capitalized.

Check font, spacing, and punctuation. Citations may not paste with the font that matches the rest of your paper (APA accepts any standard easily readable font as long as you are consistent). Spacing between words and/or line spacing may not be correct. Punctuation (commas, periods) may be missing or may not be correct.

Check for missing or incorrect information in the actual book. In most databases, books will appear as an ebook or PDF version of a print book. Check this version of the book itself for any missing publication details such as edition or publisher, and to verify title, editor, and date information.

Editor(s):

  • Standard form (use initials instead of first and middle names; put "Ed." in parentheses after the name):
    • Rita Maxwell is Maxwell, R. (Ed.).
    • Graham B. Souder is Souder, G. B., (Ed.).
    • John Keith Sanford is Sanford, J. K. (Ed.).
    • Dara Haier-Thomas is Haier-Thomas, D. (Ed.).
    • Jo-Beth McNeil is McNeil, J.-B. (Ed.).
    • Seymour Bevins III is Bevins, S., III (Ed.).
    • Travis W. Tamblin Jr. is Tamblin, T. W., Jr. (Ed.).
    • Susanna Erstmiller, Ph.D. is Erstmiller, S. (Ed.).
    • Dr. Bakari is Bakari (Ed.).
    • Sophocles is Sophocles (Ed.).
    • Malcolm X is Malcolm X (Ed.).
  • Two editors (use "&" instead of writing out the word "and"; put "Eds." in parentheses after the names):
    • Maxwell, R., & Souder, G. B. (Eds.).
  • Three to twenty editors (list all editors; use "&" before the last; put "Eds." in parentheses after the names):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., & Tamblin, T. W., Jr. (Eds.).
  • More than twenty editors (list the first nineteen and last editor using an ellipsis [. . .] before the last with no "&"; put "Eds." in parentheses after the names):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., Bevins, S., III, Tamblin, T. W., Jr., Peters, A. S., Widmark, E., Ross, G., Wu, J.-P., Albright, R. T., Garcia Ramirez, S. L., Ganyana, B. D., Heins, F., Rosach, K., Alborelli, L. H., Kohlkut, D. D., James, X., . . . Inabi, H. G. (Eds.).

Publication Date:

  • Use the latest year of publication; this is usually found a page or two after the title page in your book, on the copyright page.
  • If there is no date of publication listed, use "n.d." instead of a year, in parentheses after the editor(s): (n.d.).

Title of Book:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.
  • Use italics for your book title.
  • Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms:
    • Functional cerebral SPECT and PET imaging.
    • In the garden of beasts: Love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin.
  • If the official title of your book contains an ampersand (&), use the ampersand:
    • The end of bureaucracy & the rise of the intelligent organization.

Series Information:

  • If your book has an individual title, and is also part of a series, there is no need to include series information.

Edition Information:

  • If your book is an edition later than the first, include that information in parentheses after the book title.
  • Use standard abbreviations for edition information.
  • Do not put edition information in italics:
    • Thinking critically (11th ed.).
    • Management (Rev. ed.).

Publisher:

  • Use the complete publisher's name as it appears on the copyright page of your book, but do not Include words that denote legal business structures such as "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," "Limited Liability Company (LLC)," etc.: Lonely Planet Global Limited is Lonely Planet Global; Nova Science Publishers, Inc. is Nova Science Publishers.
  • Abbreviations and symbols may be used only if they are part of the publisher's name as it appears in your book: Taylor & Francis Group; World Scientific Publishing Co.
  • If the publisher's name appears to be an imprint or division of a larger publishing company, use only the name of the imprint or division (e.g., your publisher appears as Bloomsbury on the title page, and on the copyright page you see "Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc." In this case, your publisher is Bloomsbury Academic.)
  • If two (or more) separate publishers appear on the copyright page, list all, separated by a semicolon: John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.

Database Information:

  • If you found your book through a library database, do not include any database information (such as the name of the database or the URL assigned to the book in the database) unless your instructor directs you otherwise.

Single Chapter/Article From Edited Book

Ostberg, J. (2012). Masculinity and fashion. In C. C. Otnes & L. Tuncay Zayer (Eds.), Gender, culture, and consumer behavior (pp. 255-283). Routledge.

Author(s) of Chapter/Article. (year of publication). Complete title of chapter/article. In Editor(s) of Book (Ed. or Eds.), Complete title of book (edition if not 1st, pp. page range of chapter/article). Publisher(s).

When to Use This Format:

  • If you are citing a single chapter/article from an edited book that contains individual chapters or articles written by multiple other writers, use this format.
  • If your single chapter or article is from a book in which the author(s) wrote the content of the entire book, do not cite your chapter/article individually in your References list (and do not use this format). Cite the entire book according to the appropriate example for the type of book you have.

Writer(s) of Single Chapter/Article:

  • Standard form (use initials instead of first and middle names):
    • Rita Maxwell is Maxwell, R.
    • Graham B. Souder is Souder, G. B.
    • John Keith Sanford is Sanford, J. K.
    • Dara Haier-Thomas is Haier-Thomas, D.
    • Jo-Beth McNeil is McNeil, J.-B.
    • Seymour Bevins III is Bevins, S., III
    • Travis W. Tamblin Jr. is Tamblin, T. W., Jr.
    • Susanna Erstmiller, Ph.D. is Erstmiller, S.
    • Dr. Bakari is Bakari
    • Sophocles is Sophocles
    • Malcolm X is Malcolm X
  • Two authors (use "&" instead of writing out the word "and"):
    • Maxwell, R., & Souder, G. B.
  • Three to twenty authors (list all authors; use "&" before the last):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., & Tamblin, T. W., Jr. 
  • More than twenty authors (list the first nineteen and last author using an ellipsis [. . .] before the last with no "&"):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., Bevins, S., III, Tamblin, T. W., Jr., Peters, A. S., Widmark, E., Ross, G., Wu, J.-P., Albright, R. T., Garcia Ramirez, S. L., Ganyana, B. D., Heins, F., Rosach, K., Alborelli, L. H., Kohlkut, D. D., James, X., . . . Inabi, H. G.

Publication Date:

  • Use the latest year of publication; this is usually found a page or two after the title page in your book, on the copyright page.
  • If there is no date of publication listed, use "n.d." instead of a year (in parentheses after the writer[s] of your single chapter/article): (n.d.).

Title of Single Chapter/Article:

  • Use the complete title, including subtitle if any.
  • Do not use italics for your chapter/article title.
  • Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms:
    • The myth of the Latin woman: I just met a girl named Maria.
    • Is college worth the money? Answers from six new graduates.

Editor(s) Statement:

  • Look for the name(s) of the editor(s) on or near the title page at the beginning of the entire book.
  • In this format, you will use the standard form with initials for the editor(s), but will not reverse the order to have last name first.
  • Put "Ed." or "Eds." in parentheses after the name or names.
  • Statement for one editor:
    • In R. Maxwell (Ed.)
  • Statement for two editors (use "&" instead of writing out the word "and"):
    • In R. Maxwell & G. B. Souder (Eds.)
  • Statement for three to twenty editors (list all editors; use "&" before the last):
    • In R. Maxwell, G. B. Souder, J. K. Sanford, D. Haier-Thomas, J.-B. McNeil, & T. W. Tamblin Jr. (Eds.)
  • Statement for more than twenty editors (list the first nineteen and last editor using an ellipsis [. . .] before the last with no "&"):
    • In R. Maxwell, G. B. Souder, J. K. Sanford, D. Haier-Thomas, J.-B. McNeil, S. Bevins III, T. W. Tamblin Jr., A. S. Peters, E. Widmark, G. Ross, J.-P. Wu, R. T. Albright, S. L. Garcia Ramirez, B. D. Ganyana, F. Heins, K. Rosach, L. H. Alborelli, D. D. Kohlkut, X. James, . . . H. G. Inabi (Eds.)

Title of Book:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.
  • Use italics for your book title.
  • Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms:
    • Functional cerebral SPECT and PET imaging.
    • In the garden of beasts: Love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin.
  • If the official title of your book contains an ampersand (&), use the ampersand:
    • The end of bureaucracy & the rise of the intelligent organization.

Series Information:

  • If your book has an individual title, and is also part of a series, there is no need to include series information.

Edition Information:

  • If your book is an edition later than the first, include that information in parentheses after the book title. Do not put edition information in italics:
    • Thinking critically (11th ed.).
    • Management (Rev. ed.).
  • For this format, edition information goes before the single chapter/article page information in parentheses:
    • Everyone's an author with readings (2nd ed., pp. 1029-1032).

Publisher:

  • Use the complete publisher's name as it appears on the copyright page of your book, but do not Include words that denote legal business structures such as "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," "Limited Liability Company (LLC)," etc.: Lonely Planet Global Limited is Lonely Planet Global; Nova Science Publishers, Inc. is Nova Science Publishers.
  • Abbreviations and symbols may be used only if they are part of the publisher's name as it appears in your book: Taylor & Francis Group; World Scientific Publishing Co.
  • If the publisher's name appears to be an imprint or division of a larger publishing company, use only the name of the imprint or division (e.g., your publisher appears as Bloomsbury on the title page, and on the copyright page you see "Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc." In this case, your publisher is Bloomsbury Academic.)
  • If two (or more) separate publishers appear on the copyright page, list all, separated by a semicolon: John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.

Original Publication Information:

  • If your single chapter/article has been reprinted from another source, include original publication information in parentheses at the end of your citation as shown: 
    • Coates, T.-N. (2019). The case for reparations. In G. Colombo, R. Cullen, & B. Lisle (Eds.), Rereading America: Cultural contexts for critical thinking and writing (11th ed., pp. 604-631). Bedford/St. Martin's. (Reprinted from "The case for reparations," 2014, June, The Atlantic)

In certain cases, especially in the case of textbooks, your book may have authors listed instead of editors and may still include a section of readings by multiple other writers. This is the case with the current English text, Everyone's an Author. Cite an individual work from this type of book as follows:

Pinker, S. Mind over mass media. (2017). In A. Lunsford, M. Brody, L. Ede, B. J. Moss, C. C. Papper, & K. Walters, Everyone's an author with readings (2nd ed., pp. 1029-1032). W. W. Norton & Company. (Reprinted from "Mind over mass media [Editorial]," 2010, June 11, The New York Times, A31)

(Note that original publication information should be included if your article is a reprint from another source.)

Book With DOI

Mearns, R., & Norton, A. (Eds.). (2010). Social dimensions of climate change: Equity and vulnerability in a warming world. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7887-8

Author(s) or Editor(s) of Book (if editor[s], Ed. or Eds.). (year of publication). Complete title of book (edition if not 1st). Publisher(s). https://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxx

If you find your book in a library database, you can click on the "Cite" button next to your book details and choose "APA." For this example, you would get the following citation in Ebook Central:

World, B. (2009). Social dimensions of climate change : Equity and vulnerability in a warming world. World Bank Publications.

There are a number of errors in this database-supplied citation (highlighted in yellow). Here is how it should look:

Mearns, R., & Norton, A. (Eds.). (2010). Social dimensions of climate change: Equity and vulnerability in a warming world. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7887-8

Note that in APA 7th, you should not supply any database-related information unless your instructor requires it.

If you use the "Cite" feature, compare your citation carefully to the example shown and change as necessary. Look at the information provided with the book itself to verify anything that looks incorrect.

Make sure to:

Check the author names. In APA style, database-supplied citations will often confuse first names with last names, will  include the wrong part of compound names, or will add unneeded components (such as PhD). Look at the author information that appears with the book itself to help determine the correct way to cite an author's name.

Check title capitalization. Database-supplied citations will often give book titles in all capital letters, or will have other capitalization errors. In APA style, book titles should have only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms capitalized.

Check DOI format. There is only one acceptable way to write DOI numbers in APA 7th style; standardize your DOI number to match the format shown here (see the "Helpful Tips" tab). Database-supplied citations will sometimes include extra unneeded parts at the beginning of the DOI number.

Check font, spacing, and punctuation. Citations may not paste with the font that matches the rest of your paper (APA accepts any standard easily readable font as long as you are consistent). Spacing between words and/or line spacing may not be correct. Punctuation (commas, periods) may be missing or may not be correct.

Check for missing or incorrect information in the actual book. In most databases, books will appear as an ebook or PDF version of a print book. Check this version of the book itself for any missing publication details such as edition or publisher, and to verify title, author/editor, and date information.

Author(s):

  • Standard form (use initials instead of first and middle names):
    • Rita Maxwell is Maxwell, R.
    • Graham B. Souder is Souder, G. B.
    • John Keith Sanford is Sanford, J. K.
    • Dara Haier-Thomas is Haier-Thomas, D.
    • Jo-Beth McNeil is McNeil, J.-B.
    • Seymour Bevins III is Bevins, S., III
    • Travis W. Tamblin Jr. is Tamblin, T. W., Jr.
    • Susanna Erstmiller, Ph.D. is Erstmiller, S.
    • Dr. Bakari is Bakari
    • Sophocles is Sophocles
    • Malcolm X is Malcolm X
  • Two authors (use "&" instead of writing out the word "and"):
    • Maxwell, R., & Souder, G. B.
  • Three to twenty authors (list all authors; use "&" before the last):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., & Tamblin, T. W., Jr. 
  • More than twenty authors (list the first nineteen and last author using an ellipsis [. . .] before the last with no "&"):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., Bevins, S., III, Tamblin, T. W., Jr., Peters, A. S., Widmark, E., Ross, G., Wu, J.-P., Albright, R. T., Garcia Ramirez, S. L., Ganyana, B. D., Heins, F., Rosach, K., Alborelli, L. H., Kohlkut, D. D., James, X., . . . Inabi, H. G.

(Put Ed. or Eds. in parentheses at the end of your name list if your book has editors instead of authors.)

Group Author:

  • If no individual author is listed in your book and the book has been produced by an organization, give author credit to the organization as it can be considered responsible for the book's content: 
    • American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.).

(Note that the organization does not appear again as the publisher since it is already listed as author.)

Publication Date:

  • Use the latest year of publication; this is usually found a page or two after the title page in your book, on the copyright page.
  • If there is no date of publication listed, use "n.d." instead of a year, in parentheses after the author(s): (n.d.).

Title of Book:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.
  • Use italics for your book title.
  • Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms:
    • Functional cerebral SPECT and PET imaging.
    • In the garden of beasts: Love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin.
  • If the official title of your book contains an ampersand (&), use the ampersand:
    • The end of bureaucracy & the rise of the intelligent organization.

Series Information:

  • If your book has an individual title, and is also part of a series, there is no need to include series information.

Edition Information:

  • If your book is an edition later than the first, include that information in parentheses after the book title.
  • Use standard abbreviations for edition information.
  • Do not put edition information in italics:
    • Thinking critically (11th ed.).
    • Management (Rev. ed.).

Publisher:

  • Use the complete publisher's name as it appears on the copyright page of your book, but do not Include words that denote legal business structures such as "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," "Limited Liability Company (LLC)," etc.: Lonely Planet Global Limited is Lonely Planet Global; Nova Science Publishers, Inc. is Nova Science Publishers.
  • Abbreviations and symbols may be used only if they are part of the publisher's name as it appears in your book: Taylor & Francis Group; World Scientific Publishing Co.
  • If the publisher's name appears to be an imprint or division of a larger publishing company, use only the name of the imprint or division (e.g., your publisher appears as Bloomsbury on the title page, and on the copyright page you see "Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc." In this case, your publisher is Bloomsbury Academic.)
  • If two (or more) separate publishers appear on the copyright page, list all, separated by a semicolon: John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.
  •  If the (group) author and the publisher are the same, list the name in the author slot only:
    • American Medical Association. (2017). Principles of CPT coding (9th ed.).

Database Information:

  • If you found your book through a library database, do not include any database information (such as the name of the database or the URL assigned to the book in the database) unless your instructor directs you otherwise.

DOI Number:

  • In APA style, the DOI number should always be included if it is available. There is only one acceptable format for the DOI number: https://doi.org/10.xxxxxxxx
  • If the format for the DOI listed with your article is different, standardize it to match the acceptable format.
  • Make sure you are not including anything extra at the beginning of your DOI, especially if you are copying and pasting a citation from a database.
  • Do not put a period at the end of your DOI.
  • It is acceptable in your References list for your DOIs to look either like hyperlinks (blue and underlined) or like regular text. Check with your instructor if you are unsure of which style to use.

Ebook Without DOI (Online, Not Library Database)

Aellah, G., Chantler, T., & Geissler, P. W. (2016). Global health research in an unequal world: Ethics case studies from Africa. CAB International. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK458764/pdf

Author(s) or Editor(s) of Ebook (if editor[s], Ed. or Eds.). (year of publication). Complete title of ebook (edition if not 1st). Publisher(s). Direct URL for ebook

When to Use This Format:

  • Use this format for those ebooks you find online (not through a library database) that appear to be available in an online version only.
  • Use this format If you are citing an ebook that is available in multiple versions (ebook, print, etc.) but includes some content that is found only in your ebook version.
  • If you are citing a book that is widely available in multiple versions with content that is exactly the same, it does not need a URL. In this case, use the appropriate format example for the book you have.

Author(s):

  • Standard form (use initials instead of first and middle names):
    • Rita Maxwell is Maxwell, R.
    • Graham B. Souder is Souder, G. B.
    • John Keith Sanford is Sanford, J. K.
    • Dara Haier-Thomas is Haier-Thomas, D.
    • Jo-Beth McNeil is McNeil, J.-B.
    • Seymour Bevins III is Bevins, S., III
    • Travis W. Tamblin Jr. is Tamblin, T. W., Jr.
    • Susanna Erstmiller, Ph.D. is Erstmiller, S.
    • Dr. Bakari is Bakari
    • Sophocles is Sophocles
    • Malcolm X is Malcolm X
  • Two authors (use "&" instead of writing out the word "and"):
    • Maxwell, R., & Souder, G. B.
  • Three to twenty authors (list all authors; use "&" before the last):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., & Tamblin, T. W., Jr. 
  • More than twenty authors (list the first nineteen and last author using an ellipsis [. . .] before the last with no "&"):
    • Maxwell, R., Souder, G. B., Sanford, J. K., Haier-Thomas, D., McNeil, J.-B., Bevins, S., III, Tamblin, T. W., Jr., Peters, A. S., Widmark, E., Ross, G., Wu, J.-P., Albright, R. T., Garcia Ramirez, S. L., Ganyana, B. D., Heins, F., Rosach, K., Alborelli, L. H., Kohlkut, D. D., James, X., . . . Inabi, H. G.

(Put Ed. or Eds. in parentheses at the end of your name list if your book has editors instead of authors.)

Group Author:

  • If no individual author is listed in your book and the book has been produced by an organization, give author credit to the organization as it can be considered responsible for the book's content: 
    • American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: The official guide to APA style (7th ed.).

(Note that the organization does not appear again as the publisher since it is already listed as author.)

Publication Date:

  • Use the latest year of publication; this is usually found a page or two after the title page in your book, on the copyright page.
  • If there is no date of publication listed, use "n.d." instead of a year, in parentheses after the author(s): (n.d.).

Title of Book:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.
  • Use italics for your book title.
  • Capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon or long dash, proper nouns, and acronyms:
    • Functional cerebral SPECT and PET imaging.
    • In the garden of beasts: Love, terror, and an American family in Hitler's Berlin.
  • If the official title of your book contains an ampersand (&), use the ampersand:
    • The end of bureaucracy & the rise of the intelligent organization.

Series Information:

  • If your book has an individual title, and is also part of a series, there is no need to include series information.

Edition Information:

  • If your book is an edition later than the first, include that information in parentheses after the book title.
  • Use standard abbreviations for edition information.
  • Do not put edition information in italics:
    • Thinking critically (11th ed.).
    • Management (Rev. ed.).

Publisher:

  • Use the complete publisher's name as it appears on the copyright page of your book, but do not Include words that denote legal business structures such as "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," "Limited Liability Company (LLC)," etc.: Lonely Planet Global Limited is Lonely Planet Global; Nova Science Publishers, Inc. is Nova Science Publishers.
  • Abbreviations and symbols may be used only if they are part of the publisher's name as it appears in your book: Taylor & Francis Group; World Scientific Publishing Co.
  • If the publisher's name appears to be an imprint or division of a larger publishing company, use only the name of the imprint or division (e.g., your publisher appears as Bloomsbury on the title page, and on the copyright page you see "Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc." In this case, your publisher is Bloomsbury Academic.)
  • If two (or more) separate publishers appear on the copyright page, list all, separated by a semicolon: John Wiley & Sons; Blackwell Publishing.
  •  If the (group) author and the publisher are the same, list the name in the author slot only:
    • American Medical Association. (2017). Principles of CPT coding (9th ed.).

URL:

  • Carefully copy the exact URL that will lead directly to your article.
  • Look to see if there is a "permalink" you can use (sometimes found under a "link" symbol to the side or at the top of the article). If no permalink is supplied, use the URL that appears in your browser address bar.
  • Do not put a period at the end of your URL.
  • It is acceptable in your References list for your URLs to look either like hyperlinks (blue and underlined) or like regular text. Check with your instructor if you are unsure of which style to use.