How to Cite Books in APA Style

Citing books with one author

When citing a book or source with a single author, students are required to invert author names (last name provided first) and write the first name as an initial.

For example, the reference list entry for a source written by David Ricardo would begin with “Ricardo, D.” and one for a piece written by Karl Marx would begin with “Marx, K.”

After proving the author’s name, students are required to display the following:

1. Year of publication (in brackets)
2. Title (in italics)
3. Edition (in brackets)
4. City and/or state/country
5. Publisher

Overall, a reference entry should appear as follows:

For example:

• Kuhn, T. (2012). The Structure of Scientific Revolution (4th ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Saunders, G. (2017) Lincoln in the Bardo (1st ed.). New York: Random House.
• Wootton, G. (1970) Interest-groups (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Remember: Reference lists should be ordered alphabetically on the basis of the last name of the authors of each work. Should an author appear multiple times, students are required to list entries in chronological order, from earliest to the most recent.

Citing books with two or more authors

When citing a book or source with two or more authors, students are required to follow the same formatting as when citing a book from a single author; namely, inverting author names (last name provided first) and writing the first name as an initial, before displaying the following:

1. Year of publication (in brackets)
2. Title (in italics)
3. Edition (in brackets)
4. City and/or state/country
5. Publisher

For in-text citations, when referring to a source with more than three authors, students can use the Latin term “et alia” (which means “and others” and is abbreviated to “et al.”). This abbreviation cannot be used for reference lists however, as students are required to name all the authors, even if there are a dozen of them.

A book with two or more authors will appear as follows:

For example:

• Arciero, G. & Bondolfi, G. (2009) Selfhood, Identity and Personality Styles (1st ed.). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Gravelle, H. & Rees, R. (1981) Microeconomics (1st ed.). London: Longman.
• Berger, P. & Luckmann, T. (1967) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (1st ed.). New York: Anchor.

Citing chapters in edited books

Citing chapters in edited books and anthologies is more complicated than citing books written by one or even multiple authors, as you are required to reference both the chapter’s authors and the anthology’s editors.

Notice however that the chapter title is not italicized to distinguish it from the book’s title:

For example:

• Forester, J. (2008). Policy Analysis as Critical Listening. In Moran, M. et al. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Lyons, T. & Jolley, D. (2018). Post-independence Africa. In Binns, T. et al. (eds) The Routledge Handbook of African Development (1st ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.
• Rosenfeld, J. & Laird, J. (2016). Unions and Poverty. In Brady, D & Burton, L. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.