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Citing Sources: Citing books and e-books

A guide to citing sources in MLA, APA, and Chicago format.

General Tips

General rules

If your source lacks one of the ingredients in the reference, you can ignore that ingredient and continue. For instance, if your book doesn‟t list an author, you can skip it and go on to the title.

Pay close attention to capitalization and italicized text.

For correct information, such as the book title, place of publication, and publisher, consult the title page of the book (not the book‟s cover). The copyright date is found on the page after the title page, next to the © symbol. For example, © 2009.

  • Book titles – Capitalize the first word of the title and the first word of the subtitle that comes after a colon. Capitalize proper nouns. Italicize entire title. 
    • Example: Making learning whole: How seven principles of teaching can transform education.
  • Article titles – capitalize first word of the title and subtitle only. No italics. No quotation marks. No underlining.
    • Example: Appraising, researching and conceptualizing criminal thinking: A personal view.
  • Journal titles – capitalize and italicize all significant words of the title.
    • Example: Journal of Psychology
  • Author names - When listing the author(s) of a source, a number of general rules should be followed across all publication formats. List an author‟s last name and use initials for the first and middle names. Include a space between the first and middle initial.

One Author                      
Lopez, M. T.

Two Authors                     
Lopez, M. T., & Fox, J.

Three or more Authors         
List each name for up to 19 authors. For 20 or more authors, after the 19th name use an ellipsis (three dots) … then put the final name after the ellipsis.

Organization as Author      
Pima Community College.

No Author                        
Skip the author and begin with title.

Common Abbreviations

Abbreviation Term
ed. edition
Rev. ed. Revised edition
2nd ed. second edition
Ed. (Eds.) Editor (Editors)
Trans. Translator
n.d. no date
Vols. Volumes (as in Vols. 1-4)
No. Number
Pt. Part

Books, Anthologies, and e-Books

General format for books

     Author Surname, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of book: Subtitle of book. Publisher.

Note: Links can be either active or inactive (ask your instructor if they have a preference)

 

Book with One Author

Dixon, W. E. (2003). Twenty studies that revolutionized child psychologyPrentice Hall.

 

Book with Two Authors

Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (1999). Abnormal child psychologyCole-Wadsworth.

Book with Three or More Authors (or Editors)

Knight, C.J., Harwood, C.G., & Gould, D. (Eds.). (2018). Sport psychology for young athletes. Routledge.

List every name for up to 19 authors. For 20 or more authors, after the 19th name use an ellipsis (three dots)  … then put the final name after the ellipsis.

Book with Corporate Author

American Psychological Association. (1999). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association
       (6th ed.). 
If the publisher and corporate author are the same, leave out the publisher.

Electronic Book (E-Book)

Hersen, M., & Ammerman, R. T. (Eds.). (2000). Advanced abnormal child psychology (2nd ed.).

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410605320

OER (Open Educational Resource) book

DeLancy, C. (2017). A concise introduction to logic. Open Textbook Library. Retrieved July 7, 2020, from https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/452

Graphic novel / comic book

Sutherland, T. T. (2018). Wings of fire: No. 1. The Dragonet prophecy (M. Holmes, Illus.). Graphix.

Book published in 2nd or subsequent edition

Helfer, M. E., Kempe, R. S., & Krugman, R. D. (1997). The battered child (5th ed.). University of Chicago Press.

Insert edition of book after the title of the book, abbreviating edition with ed.

Book with editor(s) instead of authors.

Torr, J. D. (Ed.). (2004). Crime and criminals. Greenhaven Press.

  • An edited book is a collection of articles or chapters, often written by various authors. If it has an editor instead of an author, indicate by using (Ed.) or (Eds.) after the names of the editor(s).
  • Use the example above if you are citing the book as a whole. To cite one of the chapters/sections in the book, see section below on Articles or Chapters within a Book

Translated Book

Berko, A. (2007). The path to paradise: The inner world of suicide bombers and their

dispatchers (E. Yuval, Trans.). Praeger Security International. (Original work published 2004)

Add translator in parentheses after title of book, abbreviating translator with Trans.


ARTICLES OR CHAPTERS WITHIN A BOOK

Work in an anthology or edited book

Brown, G. W. (2000). Emotion and clinical depression: An environmental view. In M.

Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (2nd ed., pp. 75-90).

Guilford Press.

Electronic Article from an Online Dictionary or Encyclopedia

Baran, A., & Lifton, B. (2004). Adoption. In S. G. Post (Ed.), Encyclopedia of bioethics, (Vol. 1, pp. 68-74).

      https://0-link-gale-com.library2.pima.edu/apps/doc/CX3402500027/GVRL?u=pima_main&sid=

       GVRL&xid=22c05cc7R

Dictionary or encyclopedia with no author for entry and no date

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved July 2, 2020, from 
        https://dictionary.apa.org/

Only use a Retrieved date for sources which are regularly being updated and therefore do not have a publication date.