Skip to Main Content

APA

ACU Library guide to referencing in APA7 style

Is it a book or a book chapter?

When to cite the whole book

If the entire book has been written by the same author(s), then you reference the book, not its individual chapters (see books & ebooks). If you use three different chapters from the same book, it still counts as the one source in your reference list, the book.

When to cite individual chapters

If the book has been edited or compiled, and each chapter has its own author(s), then you need to cite each chapter you use from the edited book as a separate source in your reference list, using the format below.

Basic elements

Click on the elements below to learn about the basic requirements for referencing books and ebooks in APA 7 style.

The basic elements and formatting of book chapters are:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the book chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book: Subtitle (Xxx ed.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx

Authors
  • Provide the surname and initials of the chapter authors as listed, with a full stop after their initials. Leave a space between the author initials.
  • Commas appear after each author, except the last one.
Year
  • Enter the copyright year in brackets. End with a full stop.
Title of the book chapter
  • Capitalise the first letter of the first word in the book title and any proper nouns (e.g. Australia) that appear.
  • Do not format using italics.
  • End with a full stop
Editors
  • Write the word 'In' and the initials and last name of each of the book editors.
  • Use (Ed.) for one editor and (Eds.) for multiple.
  • End with a comma.
Title of the book: Subtitle
  • Provide the title of the book in which the chapter appears.
  • Capitalise only the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns (e.g. Australia).
  • Format using italics.
(Xxx ed., pp. #-#)
  • In brackets, include the chapter page range E.g (pp. 45-54).
  • If the book has an edition or volume number, include these before the page numbers.
  • Have a full stop after the brackets.
Publisher
  • Include the name of the publisher, followed by a full stop.
  • Do not include publisher location.
DOI
  • Include a DOI (as a live link) if available.
  • If no DOI is available, do not include a web link if the book was accessed via a library databases (such as Ebook Central, EbscoHost, Informit, ClinicalKey or Springer).
  • No full stop goes after the DOI or URL.

Edited book chapter

Reference list

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (Xxx ed., pp. xxx–xxx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx

Examples:

Allen-Craig, S., & Carpenter, C. (2018). Outdoor education: Threaded pathways to belonging. In T. Gray, & D. Mitten (Eds.), The Palgrave international handbook of women and outdoor learning (pp. 55–74). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53550-0_4

Poed, S. (2015). The Australian educational landscape. In A. F. Ashman (Ed.), Education for inclusion and diversity (5th ed., pp. 35–64). Pearson.

In-text citation examples

(Poed, 2015) or (Poed, 2015, pp. 36-38) or Poed (2015) states that …

Notes

  • Use the chapter author/s in-text and as the first author/s in the reference list.
  • The chapter title is not italicised.
  • Enter editor’s names with the initial first.
  • Use (Ed.) for a single editor or (Eds.). for multiple editors.
  • Use p. for a single page and pp. for a page range in-text.
  • Cite the author/s of the chapter in the in-text citation.
  • Include page numbers within in-text citations for direct quotes. When paraphrasing, page numbers are recommended but not required.
  • For ebook chapters without pagination or paragraph numbers, omit the page range from the book chapter reference.
  • If a DOI is available, include the DOI in URL format (https://doi.org/xxxxxx) at the end of the reference.
  • If the work has no DOI, the URL is not needed if you read the work in print or accessed it via an academic database (such as Ebook Central, ClinicalKey, Informit, Springer).
  • If the ebook is published freely on the web, does not have a DOI, and is not available via a library database, include the URL.
  • Functioning, shortened links can be used for long URLs or DOIs.
  • For multiple chapter authors, consult the guidance provided by APA for reference lists and in-text citations.