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APA Style (7th Edition) Citation Guide: Books & Ebooks

• Introduction
• Journal Articles
• Magazine/Newspaper Articles
• Books & Ebooks
• Government & Legal Documents
• Biblical Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Films/Videos/TV Shows
• How to Cite: Other
• Additional Help

Table of Contents

Book in print with one author, book in print more than one author, chapters, short stories, essays, or articles from a book (anthology or collection), article in an online reference book (e.g. encyclopedias, dictionaries).

Note: All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

This Microsoft support page contains instructions about how to format a hanging indent in a paper.

Authors/Editors

An author won't necessarily be a person's name. It may be an organization or company, for example Health Canada. These are called group or corporate authors.

If a book has no author or editor, begin the citation with the book title, followed by the year of publication in round brackets.

If an author is also the publisher, omit the publisher from the reference. This happens most often with corporate or group authors.

When a book has one to 20 authors or editors, all authors' names are cited in the Reference List entry. When a book has 21 or more authors or editors, list the first 19 authors followed by three spaced ellipse points (. . .) , and then the last author's name. Rules are different for in-text citations; please see the examples provided.

Cite author names in the order in which they appear on the source, not in alphabetical order (the first author is usually the person who contributed the most work to the publication).

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title. If there is a colon (:) in the title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon.

Capitalize the first letter of proper names in titles, such as names of places or people. 

Italicize titles of journals, magazines, newspapers, and books. Do not italicize the titles of articles or book chapters.

Capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the article title. If there is a colon in the article title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon.

Place of Publication

Do not include the publisher location in the reference. Only for works associated with a specific location, like conference presentations, include the location. For cities in the US and Canada list the city name and the province or state code. For other countries, list the city name and the country. Examples: Toronto, ON ; Tokyo, Japan

Electronic Books

Don't include the format, platform, or device (e.g. Kindle) in the reference. Include the publisher name. For audiobooks, include the narrator and audiobook notation.

Ebooks from Websites (not from library databases)

If an ebook from a website was originally published in print, give the author, year, title, edition (if given) and the url. If it was never published in print, treat it like a multi-page website.

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication).  Title of book: Subtitle if given  (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name.

Mulholland, K. (2003). Class, gender and the family business . Palgrave McMillan. 

In-Text Paraphrase:

(Author's Last Name, Year)

Example: (Mulholland, 2003)

In-Text Quote:

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (Mulholland, 2003, p. 70)

Last Name of First Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given, & Last Name of Second Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication).  Title of book: Subtitle if given  (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name.

Note: Authors' names are separated by commas. Put a comma and an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author cited.

Note : For works with three or more authors, the first in-text citation is shortened to include the first author's surname followed by "et al."

Reference List Example:

Kaakinen, J., Coehlo, D., Steele, R., Tabacco, L., & Hanson, H. (2015). Family health care nursing: Theory, practice, and research (5th ed.). F.A. Davis Company.

In-text Citation

Two Authors/Editors

(Kaakinen & Coehlo, 2015)

Direct quote: (Kaakinen & Coehlo, 2015, p. 57)

Three or more Authors/Editors

(Kaakinen et al., 2015)

Direct quote: (Kaakinen et al., 2015, p. 57)

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication).  Title of book: Subtitle if given  (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name. URL

Example from Website:

Rhode, D. L. (2002). Divorce, American style . University of California Press. http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=kt9z09q84w;brand=ucpress

Example: (Rhode, 2002)

Example: (Rhode, 2002, p. 101)

If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title/name of the item you are citing instead. Follow the title/name of the item with the date of publication, and the continue with other citation details.

Remember: an author/creator may be an organization or corporation, for example Health Canada. If you don't have a person's name as the author, but do have the name of an organization or corporation, put that organization/corporation's name as the author.

If and only if an item is signed as being created by Anonymous, use "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name.

When you have no author, use a shortened version of the title where you'd normally put the author's name.

If you're citing something which is part of a bigger work, like an article from a magazine, newspaper, journal, encyclopedia, or chapter/short story from a book, put the shortened title in quotation marks in your in-text citation:

Example, paraphrase: ("A few words," 2014)

If you're citing an entire work, like a book, website, video, etc., italicize the shortened title in your in-text citation:

Example, paraphrase: ( A few words , 2014)

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of chapter, article, essay or short story. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if Given. Editor's Last Name (Ed.),  Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition, pp. first page number-last page number). Publisher Name.

Note:  If you have more than one editor list their name(s) after the first editor listed in the book, giving their initials and last name. Put an ampersand (&) before the last editor's name.

When you have one editor the short form (Ed.) is used after the editor's name. If you have more than one editor use (Eds.) instead.

O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: A metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation. In B. R. Wainrib (Ed.), Gender issues across the life cycle (pp. 107-123). Springer. 

Note: If there is no editor given you may leave out that part of the citation.

(Author's Last Name, Year) 

Example (2 authors): (O'Neil & Egan, 1992)

(Author's Last Name, Year, p. Page Number) 

Example (2 authors): (O'Neil & Egan, 1992, p. 998)

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of article. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if Given. Editor's Last Name (Ed.),  Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher Name. URL or DOI

Caviness, L. B. (2008). Brain-relevant education. In N. J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational psychology . Sage Publications. https://login.uportland.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageedpsyc/brain_relevant_education/0?institutionId=5407

Example (1 author): (Caviness, 2008)

Example (1 author): (Caviness, 2008, Focus on the brain section, para. 2)

Note: When there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from.

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APA Citation Guide

• APA Citations

Books - General Information

Books with an author, books with an editor.

• Encyclopedias
• Online Sources
• In-Text Citations
• Example Paper

FORMATTING BOOKS ON YOUR REFERENCES PAGE

Your entire paper, including your References page, should be  double-spaced.

Alphabetize your References list by the first word of the citation (usually the author's last name).

Indent the second & following lines of the citation 0.5 inches  (a hanging indent).

Multiple authors:

For 2-20 authors , your list of names will look like this: Wingert, P., Smith, J., & Brown, P.

More than 20 authors:  provide the first s1 9 authors, an ellipsis, and the final author. For example, see below

Only capitalize the first word of the document title. If there is a colon in the title, capitalize the first word after the colon.

Italicize the title of the book.

If you are citing an ebook,  do not include a period after the DOI number or URL.

Dates: Use n.d. (no date) when a publication date is not available.

Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year). Title of book.  Publisher.

Cabane, O. F. (2012).  The charisma myth: How anyone can master the art and science of personal magnetism . Portfolio/Penguin.

TWO TO TWENTY AUTHORS

Last Name, First Initial(s), Last Name, First Initial(s), & Last Name, First(s). (Year).  Title of book.  Publisher.

Jeandron, C., & Robinson, G. (2010). Creating a climate for service learning success . American Association of Community Colleges. 

TWENTY-ONE OR MORE AUTHORS

List the first nineteen authors, insert an ellipsis, and list the last author. There should be no more than twenty authors in the citation.

Last Name, A., Last Name, B., Last Name, C., Last Name, D., Last Name, E., Last Name, F., Last Name, G., Last Name, H., Last Name, I., Last Name, J., Last Name, K., Last Name, L., Last Name, M., Last Name, N., Last Name, O., Last Name, P., Last Name, Q., Last Name, R., Last Name, S., ... Last Name, Z. (Year).  Title of book.  Publisher.

You may cite an essay from a book with an editor and multiple authors, or the whole book. This will depend on what you have quoted within your paper. If there is more than one editor listed in the book's publication information, use the notation (Eds.)  rather than  (Ed.) .

ENTIRE EDITED BOOK

Last Name, First Initial(s). (Ed.). (Year). Title of book.  Publisher.

​Thompson, T. (Ed.). Poverty in America . Gale Cengage Learning, 2015.

ESSAY FROM AN EDITED BOOK

NOTE:  The first name in the citation is the author of the essay, and the second name is the editor of the book.

Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year). Title of essay. In First Initial(s) Last Name (Ed.),  Title of book (pp. pages of chapter) . Publisher.

Montarjemi, Y. (2016). Progress has been made toward reducing foodborne outbreaks. In A. Francis (Ed.),  Foodborne outbreaks (pp. 10-20). Greenhaven Press.

BOOK WITH AN AUTHOR AND AN EDITOR

Author, A. A. (Year).  Title of book. B. B. Editor (Ed.). Publisher.

Austen, J. (2012).  The annotated Emma . D. M. Shapard (Ed.). Anchor Books.

On your References page, alphabetize books with no author by the first word in the title.

Title of book . (Year). Publisher.

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association . (2010). American Psychological Association.

An ebook citation follows the same rules as a print book citation,  except that the publisher  information is replaced by a DOI ( digital object identifier  - a unique code for the book) or the URL of the library database where you retrieved the ebook. If you did not retrieve the ebook from a database, include the URL of the online bookstore or  publisher's home page instead. If you read the book on an  e-reader  (for example, a Kindle or Nook), identify the version you read in [brackets] (see below).

E-BOOK FROM LIBRARY DATABASE (NO DOI)

Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year). Title of book.  Publisher.

Anastos, M. V. (1979). Studies in Byzantine intellectual history . Variorum Reprints.

E-BOOK FROM LIBRARY DATABASE (HAS DOI)

Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year).  Title of book.  Publisher. http://doi.org/number

Gosling, J., Jones, S., & Sutherland, I. (2012).  Key concepts in leadership . SAGE Publications. http://doi.org/10.4135/9781473914759

E-BOOK NOT FROM A LIBRARY DATABASE ( NO DOI)

Last Name, First Initial(s). (Year).  Title of book. Publisher.   URL

Isenberg, N. (2016).  White trash: The 400-year untold history of class in America.  Penguin Books. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com

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APA 7th Edition Style Guide: Titles

• About In-text Citations
• In-Text Examples
• What to Include
• Volume/Issue
• Bracketed Descriptions
• URLs and DOIs
• Book with Editor(s)
• Book with No Author
• Book with Organization as Author
• Book with Personal Author(s)
• Chapters and Parts of Books
• Classical Works
• Course Materials
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Multi-Volume Works
• Newspaper Article
• Patents & Laws
• Personal Communication
• Physicians' Desk Reference
• Social Media
• Unpublished Manuscripts/Informal Publications (i.e. course packets and dissertations)
• Formatting Your Paper
• Formatting Your References
• Annotated Bibliography
• Headings in APA
• APA Quick Guide
• NEW!* Submit your Paper for APA Review

General Rules for Titles in References

In general, the title of a work is recorded just as the words appear in the publication.

• Capitalize only the first word of a book or article title.
• Capitalize proper nouns, initials, and acronyms in a title.
• Separate a subtitle with a colon and a space. Capitalize the first letter of the subtitle.
• End the title with a period.
• Capitalize every major word in a journal or newspaper title, do not capitalize articles (i.e. a, and, the) unless they are the first word of the title.
• Italicize periodical and book titles.

Book titles

A book normally has one title. But, books may contain chapters or sections with individual titles. Or, a book may be part of a series or a single volume in a set. When citing a chapter out of a book include the chapter title (not italicized) and the page numbers.

Kovacs, D. K. (2002). How to locate international, African American, and Native American ancestors; Heraldry and lineage societies. Genealogical research on the web (pp. 117-154)...

Journal, magazine, and newspaper titles

Articles may appear in print or electronic journals, magazines, or newspapers. The reference will contain the title of the article and the title of publication in which it appears. The words of the article title should be capitalized the same way you capitalize a book title. The periodical title should proper title case formatting (i.e. a, and, the) and be italicized.

Davies, S. (2011, Spring). Income, gender, and consumption: A study of Malawian households. Journal of Developing Areas ...

Gardiner, A. (2011, January 5). Stanford could lose QB, coach. USA Today ...

Teproff, C. (2020, April 28). Are you struggling to feed your pets? Miami-Dade animal services wants to help.  The Miami Herald ...

Untitled Works

Works without a title should be designated with a description of the work in square brackets where the title is normally placed in the reference, include the description in the brackets. For untitled social media posts or comments use the first 20 words of the post or comment as the title and place a description of the title in brackets.

Example:  

Adams, P. (2020). [Table showing data from the 2010 U.S. census].

TCPalm. (2020, April 28). The near collapse of the airline industry because of the coronavirus is affecting — but so far not devastating — Treasure Coast businesses [TCPalm Facebook post].

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APA Citation Guide (7th Edition): Books and eBooks

• Audiovisual Media

Books and eBooks

• Dictionaries, Thesauruses and Encyclopedias
• Figures and Tables
• Government Documents
• Journal, Magazine and Newspaper Articles
• Personal Communications
• Presentations and Class Notes
• Social Media
• Websites and Webpages
• Generative AI
• In-Text Citation
• Reference List and Sample Papers
• Annotated Bibliography
• Citation Software

It is not necessary to indicate that you have used an eBook when the content is the same as a physical book. However, you should distinguish between the eBook and the print version if the content is different or abridged.

Authors/Editors

An author won't necessarily be a person's name. it may be an organization or company, for example, Health Canada. These are called group or corporate authors.

If a book has no author or editor, begin the citation with the book title, followed by the year of publication enclosed in parentheses.

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title. If there is a colon (:) or question mark in the title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon or question mark.

Capitalize the first letter of proper names in titles, such as names of places or people. Example: Nevada.

Authored Book with a DOI

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year).  Title of book . Publisher. DOI or URL

Sheingate, A. D. (2016). Building a business of politics: The rise of political consulting and the transformation of American democracy . Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592718003882 

Authored Book Without a DOI, from Most Academic Research Databases

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year). Title of book . Publisher.

Schildt, H. (2011). Java: The complete reference (8th ed.). O'Reilly Safari Books.

Edited Book

Editor, A. A. & Editor, B. B. (Eds.). (Copyright Year).  Title of book . Publisher. DOI or URL [if available]

Goodin, R. E. & Hans-Dieter, K. (Eds.). (1996). A new handbook of political science . Oxford University Press.

Chapter in an Edited Book

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year). Title of book chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. #-#). Publisher. 

Christians, C. G. (2011). Ethics and politics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 61-80). Sage Publications.

Book with a Group or Corporate Author

Corporate Author. (Copyright Year).  Title of book . DOI [if available]

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

Work in an Anthology

Author, A. A. & Author, B. B. (Copyright Year). Title of chapter, article, essay or short story. In Editor's A. A. Editor, B. B. Editor, C. C. Editor, & D. D. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. #-#). Publisher.

​ Stockert, P. A. & Taylor, C. (2014). Sleep. In P. A. Potter, A. G. Perry, J. C. Ross-Kerr, & M.J. Wood (Eds.),  Canadian fundamentals of nursing  (pp. 993-1016). Elsevier.

Note:  When you have one editor, the short form (Ed.) is used after the editor's name. If you have more than one editor, use (Eds.) instead. If there is no editor given, you may leave out that part of the citation.

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year). Title of book . Publisher. URL

Author, A. A. (Copyright Year). Title of book . [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

Gordon Betts, J., DeSaix, P., & Johnson, E. (2013). Anatomy and physiology. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/anatomy-and-physiology

Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone . [Kindle]. Pottermore Publishing.

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• How to cite a book in APA Style

How to Cite a Book in APA Style | Format & Examples

Published on November 14, 2019 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 17, 2024.

A book citation in APA Style always includes the author’s name, the publication year, the book title, and the publisher. Use the interactive tool to see examples, or try the free APA Citation Generator to create your citations automatically.

Cite a book in APA Style now:

Table of contents, basic book citation format, ebooks and online books, citing a chapter from an edited book, multivolume books, where to find the information for an apa book citation, frequently asked questions about apa style citations.

The in-text citation for a book includes the author’s last name, the year, and (if relevant) a page number.

In the reference list , start with the author’s last name and initials, followed by the year. The book title is written in sentence case (only capitalize the first word and any proper nouns ). Include any other contributors (e.g. editors and translators) and the edition if specified (e.g. “2nd ed.”).

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A citation of an ebook (i.e. a book accessed on an e-reader) or a book viewed online (e.g. on Google Books or in PDF form ) includes the DOI where available. If there is no DOI, link to the page where you viewed the book, or where the ebook can be purchased or accessed.

Since ebooks sometimes do not include page numbers, APA recommends using other methods of identifying a specific passage in your in-text citations—for example, a chapter or section title, or a paragraph number.

When citing a particular chapter from a book containing texts by various authors (e.g. a collection of essays), begin the citation with the author of the chapter and mention the book’s editor(s) later in the reference. A page range identifies the chapter’s location in the book.

Some books come in multiple volumes. You may want to cite the entire book if you’ve used multiple volumes, or just a single volume if that was all you used.

Citing a single volume

When citing from one volume of a multivolume book, the format varies slightly depending on whether each volume has a title or just a number.

If the volume has a specific title, this should be written as part of the title in your reference list entry.

Eliot, T. S. (2015). The poems of T. S. Eliot: Vol. 1. Collected and uncollected poems (C. Ricks & J. McCue, Eds.). Faber & Faber.

If the volume is only numbered, not titled, the volume number is not italicized and appears in parentheses after the title.

Dylan, B. (2005). Chronicles (Vol. 1) . Simon & Schuster.

Citing a multivolume book as a whole

When citing the whole book, mention the volumes in parentheses after the title. Individual volume titles are not included even if they do exist.

Eliot, T. S. (2015). The poems of T. S. Eliot (Vols. 1–2) (C. Ricks & J. McCue, Eds.). Faber & Faber.

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All the information you need to cite a book can usually be found on the title and copyright pages.

The APA reference list entry for the book above would look like this:

Butler, C. (2002). Postmodernism: A very short introduction . Oxford University Press.

When a book’s chapters are written by different authors, you should cite the specific chapter you are referring to.

When all the chapters are written by the same author (or group of authors), you should usually cite the entire book, but some styles include exceptions to this.

• In APA Style , single-author books should always be cited as a whole, even if you only quote or paraphrase from one chapter.
• In MLA Style , if a single-author book is a collection of stand-alone works (e.g. short stories ), you should cite the individual work.
• In Chicago Style , you may choose to cite a single chapter of a single-author book if you feel it is more appropriate than citing the whole book.

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (meaning “and others”) is used to shorten APA in-text citations with three or more authors . Here’s how it works:

Only include the first author’s last name, followed by “et al.”, a comma and the year of publication, for example (Taylor et al., 2018).

In the 7th edition of the APA manual, no location information is required for publishers. The 6th edition previously required you to include the city and state where the publisher was located, but this is no longer the case.

If you’re citing from an edition other than the first (e.g. a 2nd edition or revised edition), the edition appears in the reference, abbreviated in parentheses after the book’s title (e.g. 2nd ed. or Rev. ed.).

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2024, January 17). How to Cite a Book in APA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/book/

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Book Title in APA, MLA or Chicago

How to Cite a Book Title in APA, MLA or Chicago

When writing a book title in the text, not the references, most academic style manuals require title-style capitalization and italics. For example, they would all format the book title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the same way. However, each style manual follows slightly different rules for handling hyphenated terms and subtitles. For details, read the guide below.

Below are the guidelines on how to style a book title following MLA , APA , or Chicago.

• Use title-style capitalization when writing book titles in the text: capitalize the first and last words in the title and any other major words.
• Italicize book titles.
• For example, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary styles the word “rewrite” without a hyphen. So, in the book title  Live Free: Re-write Your Story , lowercase “write” after the prefix “re.”
• Though you don’t typically capitalize articles in titles, do capitalize an article that starts a subtitle. In the above example, capitalize “The” since it starts the subtitle.
• The first word of the title
• The first word of a subtitle
• The first word after a colon, em dash, or other end punctuation in a heading
• Major words
• Any words of four letters or more
• Capitalize the second word in a compound hyphenated term in a title: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince .
• For subtitles, capitalize the first word of a subtitle, even if it is a short, minor word. For example, Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart .
• The first and last words in titles and subtitles
• Prepositions, even if they are four letters or more
• to (even as part of an infinitive verb)
• Coordinating conjunctions
• For example, in the book title Live Free: Re-write Your Story , lowercase “write” after the prefix “re.”
• If the title includes a hyphenated spelled-out number or fraction, capitalize the second element (e.g., Catch Twenty-Two ).

If a book title appears in an article title, you style it the same way as described above. So for example, if the article you are citing is called: “Why Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the best book in the Harry Potter series,” you would instead style this as: “Why Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets  is the best book in the Harry Potter series.”

For more info on formatting rules for citation styles, visit our guides listed below:

Chicago guide

Citation Guides

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• Citation Examples
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Page Numbers
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide
• Bibliography
• Works Cited
• MLA 8 Updates
• View MLA Guide

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APA Citation Guide (7th Edition): Books, eBooks & Pamphlets

• Journal Articles
• Books, eBooks & Pamphlets
• Class Notes, Lectures, and Presentations
• Government Documents
• Codes of Ethics (Online)
• Images, Charts, Graphs, Maps & Tables
• Newspaper Articles
• Magazine Articles
• Personal Communication (Interviews, Emails)
• Social Media
• Videos & DVDs
• Encyclopedias & Dictionaries (Reference Works)
• When Information Is Missing
• When Creating Digital Assignments
• Works Quoted in Another Source
• Paraphrasing
• Informal Citations
• Citation Tools
• Conscious Language
• Reference List & Paper Formatting
• Annotated Bibliography

Information you need for a citation

Authors/editors.

An author won't necessarily be a person's name. It may be an organization or company, for example Health Canada. These are called group or corporate authors.

If a book has no author or editor, begin the citation with the book title, followed by the year of publication in round brackets.

If an author is also the publisher, put the word "Author" where you'd normally put the publisher name. This happens most often with corporate or group authors.

When a book has one to seven authors or editors, all authors' names are cited in the Reference List entry. When a book has eight or more authors or editors, list the first six authors followed by three spaced ellipse points (. . .) , and then the last author's name. Rules are different for in-text citations; please see the examples provided.

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title. If there is a colon (:) in the title, also capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon.

Capitalize the first letter of proper names in titles, such as names of places or people. Example: Canada

Place of Publication

For cities in the US and Canada list the city name and the province or state code. For other countries, list the city name and the country. Examples: Toronto, ON ; Tokyo, Japan

Note : All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title/name of the item you are citing instead. Follow the title/name of the item with the date of publication, and the continue with other citation details.

Remember : an author/creator may be an organization or corporation, for example Health Canada. If you don't have a person's name as the author, but do have the name of an organization or corporation, put that organization/corporation's name as the author.

If and only if an item is signed as being created by Anonymous, use "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name.

When you have no author, use a shortened version of the title where you'd normally put the author's name.

If you're citing something which is part of a bigger work, like an article from a magazine, newspaper, journal, encyclopedia, or chapter/short story from a book, put the shortened title in quotation marks in your in-text citation:

Example, paraphrase: ("A few words", 2014)

If you're citing an entire work, like a book, website, video, etc., italicize the shortened title in your in-text citation:

Example, paraphrase: ( A few words , 2014)

FAQ - Works by the Same Author with the Same Year

When you are citing two different sources that share the same author and year of publication, assign lowercase letters after the year of publication (a, b, c, etc.). Assign these letters according to which title comes first alphabetically. Use these letters in both in-text citations and the Reference list.

Example In-Text :

Paraphrasing content from first source by this author (Daristotle, 2015a). "Now I am quoting from the second source by the same author" (Daristotle, 2015b, p. 50).

Example Reference List entries:

Daristotle, J. (2015a). Name of book used as first source . Toronto, ON: Fancy Publisher.

Daristotle, J. (2015b). Title of book used as second source . Toronto, ON: Very Fancy Publisher.

Book With One Author

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publication City, Province, State or Country: Publisher Name often shortened.

Note : For cities in the US and Canada list the city name and the province or state code. For other countries, list the city name and the country.

Book with Two to Seven Authors

Last Name of First Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given, & Last Name of Second Author, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publication City, Province, State or Country: Publisher Name often shortened.

Note : Authors' names are separated by commas. Put a comma and an ampersand (&) before the name of the last author cited.

For cities in the US and Canada list the city name and the province or state code. For other countries, list the city name and the country.

Book With Group or Corporate Author

Name of Corporate Author. (Year of Publication). Title of book: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publication City, Province, State or Country: Publisher Name often shortened.

Short Stories, Essays, Chapters or Articles From a Book (Anthology or Collection)

Note : All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a References List.

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of chapter, article, essay or short story. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if Given. Editor's Last Name (Ed.), Title of book (pp. first page number-last page number). Publication City, Province, State or Country: Publisher Name often shortened.

If you have more than one editor list their name(s) after the first editor listed in the book, giving their initials and last name. Put an ampersand (&) before the last editor's name.

When you have one editor the short form (Ed.) is used after the editor's name. If you have more than one editor use (Eds.) instead.

In-Text Citation For Two or More Authors/Editors

Pamphlet in print with a group or corporate author.

Name of Corporate/Group Author. (Year of Publication). Title of pamphlet or brochure: Subtitle if given [Brochure]. Publication City, Province, State or Country: Publisher Name often shortened.

Use the term [Brochure] for a pamphlet or brochure.

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Citation Guide

• What is a Citation?
• Citation Generator

Overview: APA Citation Style

Apa article (academic journal & magazine) citation, apa book citation, apa newspaper citation, website citation, apa video citation, apa in-text citation & quotations, apa format for student papers, other apa resources.

• Chicago/Turabian Style
• Paraphrasing and Quoting
• Examples of Plagiarism
• What is a Bibliography?
• Writing Center
• Writer's Reference Center
• Helpful Tutorials

Seventh Edition

Disciplines within the Social Sciences typically use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) as the preferred style of citation.

• APA Manual Concise Manual - 7th Edition This link opens in a new window Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition is the official APA Style resource for students. Designed specifically for undergraduate writing, this easy-to-use pocket guide is adapted from the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

I. Journal Article Basic Format:

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. (Year). Title of article.  Title of Journal ,  Volume (Issue), Pages. DOI

• Italicize the   Journal Title, and  Volume .
• Article Title Capitalization: Capitalize only the first word of the article's title, the first word of the subtitle, proper nouns, and acronyms. 
• DOI: Always include the DOI (Digital Object Identifier), when available. Not all articles have a DOI. Use this formula: https://doi.org/
• Do not include a URL 1) when an article is from a database (including Limestone's library databases) or 2) if the article includes a DOI (even if it is from a non-database source). 

Examples of Journal Articles from a database:

Crosby, O., & Moncarz, R. (2006). The 2004-14 job outlook for college graduates. Occupational Outlook Quarterly , 50 (3), 42-57. 

Geller, J. D. (2018). Introduction: The transformative powers of aesthetic experiences in psychotherapy. Journal Of Clinical Psychology, 74 (2), 200–207. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22582

Johnson, D. R. (2018). Playing off the beat: Applying the jazz paradigm to psychotherapy. Journal Of Clinical Psychology , 74 (2), 249–260. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22579

Morici, G. Gruttad'Auria, C., Baiamonte, P., Mazzuca, E., Castrogiovanni, A., & Bonsignore, M. (2016). Endurance training: Is it bad for you?. Breathe, 12 (2), 141-148. https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.007016 

Multiple Authors

Two authors.

For two authors, include both last names and initials with an ampersand (&) between them:

Crone, D. L. & Levy, N. L. (2019). Are Free Will Believers Nicer People? (Four Studies Suggest Not).  Social Psychological & Personality Science ,  10 (5), 612–619. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618780732

Three to Twenty Authors

For works with three to twenty authors, include all the author's names (last name and initials), with an ampersand before the final author's name:

Kruglanski, A. W., Jasko, K., Milyavsky, M., Chernikova, M., Webber, D., Pierro, A., & di Santo, D. (2018). Cognitive Consistency Theory in Social Psychology: A Paradigm Reconsidered.  Psychological Inquiry ,  29 (2), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2018.1480619

More than Twenty-one Authors

For works with more than twenty authors, APA requires the use of an ellipsis (. . .) between the nineteenth author's name and the final author's name:

Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole, R., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H., Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R., . . .  Kim, H. (2019). The subseasonal experiment (SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment.  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ,  100 (10), 2043-2061. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1

II. Magazine Article Basic Format:

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. (Year, Month Day). Title of article.  Title of Magazine ,  Volume (Issue), Pages. DOI

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. (Year, Month Day). Title of article.  Title of Magazine , URL

• A published magazine article follows a similar format as an academic journal.
• Include the month and day with the year, when available (see below examples). 
• If you are citing a magazine article that you read on the magazine's website, include the URL. Sometimes, online-only editions will not include an volume and issue number.
• When you are citing a magazine with a volume and issue number that you accessed from a database or in print, do not include a URL.
• Do not include an access date for published sources, such as magazines.

Fry, E. (2020, March). The grim business of containing an epidemic.  Fortune,  181(3), 17–19. 

Harrary, K. (n.d.). The truth about Jonestown.  Psychology Today, 25 (2), 62.

Har'el, Alma (2020, March 5). Why women's history should be everyone's history.  Time.  https://time.com/5795675/documenting-100-women-of-the-year/ 

Book Citation Basic Format:

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. SecondInitial. (PublicationYear).  Book title . Publisher. DOI.

• Note on Capitalization of the Title: only the first word of the title is capitalized. However, proper nouns and the first letter of the subtitle (if included) are also capitalized. Capitalize acronyms as well (e.g., FDA).
• Every line after the first line should be indented, called a hanging indent. (Found under paragraph > indent in Word.)

Example of a Book Citation:

Feist. (2006). The psychology of science and the origins of the scientific mind. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300133486

* Omit the DOI when not available.

Example with a Subtitle:

• The subtitle always follows a colon.

Levitin, D. J. (2016).  A field guide to lies: Critical thinking in the information age.  Dutton.

Example of a Book in Translation:

Mathiez, A. (1964).  The French revolution  (C. Phillips, Trans.). Grosset & Dunlap. (Original work published 1928)

Example of a Book in an Edition Other than the First: 

Jones, R. (2008).  A handbook of photography  (5th ed.). Rogers.

Newspaper Article Basic Format:

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. (Year, Month Day). Title of article.  Title of Newspaper , p(p). 

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. (Year, Month Day). Title of article.  Title of Newspaper,  URL

Associated Press. (2020, March 26).  What you need to know today about the virus outbreak.  Associated Press,  https://apnews.com/e07207490753628beb18c21031a406e7

Burkholder, S., Eldred, S., Belz, K. H., Keppler, N., Kreidler, M., Majchrowicz, M., Martin, B., Wang, S., Eilperin, J., Santamarina, D., & Fischer-Baum, R. (2020, March 25). What is an essential business in 10 U.S. cities.  The Washington Post,  https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-esssential-businesses/?itid=hp_hp-visual-stories-desktop_vs2%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

Levitz, J. (2017, September 11). Seeking: Part-time workers in bad jobs. The Wall Street Journal.  pp. A1, A10.

Casselman, B.,   Cohen, P., &   Hsu, T. (2020). ‘It’s a wreck’: 3.3 million file unemployment claims as economy comes apart. The New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/business/economy/coronavirus-unemployment-claims.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

I. Websites with an Author or Group Author (or Organization) and a Date:

When a website includes a publication date or last date of revision, use this citation template. Only include an access date if the website does not give a date of creation. Note: sometimes the date may be at the bottom of the page. If no individual name(s) are listed as authoring the content, the name of the group or organization that manages or owns the website.

Basic Format:

AuthorLastName, FirstInitial. (Year, Month Day). Title of work,  Site Name. URL

Name of Group. (Year, Month Day).  Title of work,  Site Name. URL

Harmeet, K. (2020, April 15).  A zoo is struggling so much that it may have to feed some animals to other animals.  CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/15/europe/german-zoo-crisis-slaughter-animals-pandemic-trnd/index.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020, April 10).  COVID-19 guidance for older adults. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov

II. Websites without a Date:

If a website does not give a creation date, include an "retrieval date" before the URL of the day you accessed the website if the website is likely to change over time. If you expect that the website will be archived or not altered, you can instead include as the date (n.d.), meaning "no date." The first example below is to a source likely to change, and includes a retrieval date. The second source is unlikely to be updated and/or is likely to exist in archived format. N.d. is the appropriate "date marker" for that website.

American Veterinary Medicine Association. COVID-19: What vetrinarians need to know.  AVMA. Retrieved April 15, 2020. https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/animal-health-and-welfare/covid-19

National Nurses United. (n.d.) What employers should do to protect nurses from Zika. https://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/what-employers-should-do-to-protect-nurses-from-zika

APA Citation for Online Streaming Video:

• Including, YouTube, non-commercial videos, and videos only available trough streaming)

Author, A. A. [User name]. (year, month day).  Title of video  [Video file]. Retrieved from http://xxxxx

Sample APA Online Video Citation:

Carmelina Films (Producer). (2011).  Open source revolution  [Video file]. Retrieved January 12, 2018, from https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96757&xtid=47367

APA Citation for a Feature film:

Producer, A. A. (Producer), & Director, B. B. (Director). (year). Title of motion picture [Medium: DVD, video file, etc.]. Retrieved from http://xxxxx

APA uses an author-date citation style. To correctly use APA, a short in-text citation is used consisting of the author's last name and the year of publication. A full citation is included on the References list.

Basic Format

(AuthorLastName, Year). When a page number is included: (AuthorLastName, Year, p. #).

• APA style prefers that the name of the author who is being cited should be included in the text of the sentence itself.
• If both the author and year of publication are stated in the sentence, no additional parenthetical citation is required (unless a page reference is included).
• When to include a page number:  If a direct quotation is included, a page reference (when available) must also be included in the in-text citation. Although not explicitly required, APA encourages the inclusion of page numbers for paraphrased passages or other direct references. 

Preferred APA in-text citation style (where no page number is required/included): 

Parker (2018) argues that colleges should require students to carry computers to class.

Preferred APA in-text citation including a direct quotation (in which case a page reference is required):

According to Parker (2018), "students who own laptops perform better on average in their courses than those who do not own their own computers" (p. 198). 

Notice that page references follow the close parenthesis, even when the sentence does not end:

According to Parker (2018) "students have a responsibility to care for their equipment" (p. 121), which she also notes is not always a top priority for every student.

An in-text citation where the author's name is not mentioned:

Additionally, she stated, "most students are perfectly responsible" (Jones, 2018, p. 121).

Works by Multiple Authors

Two authors: .

For works by two authors, include both names in alphabetical order, using "and" between them (notice the use of the ampersand, &, in the parenthetical citation):

Parenthetical: (Jones & Smith, 2011). 

In a sentence: According to Jones and Smith (2011), . . . 

A Work by Three or More Authors

For works by three or more authors, list only the first author (last name and initials) and include "et al."

For example, a work by (Dexter, Hardwick, Jones, McMillan, & Smith, 2018) would be cited in this way:

Parenthetical: (Dexter et al., 2018)

In a sentence: According to Dexter et al. (2018), . . . 

et al. ( et alia)  is Latin for "and others," and is used to avoid printing all the names of the authors of a source. A period does  not   follow "et," only "al."

Long Quotations

Although it is best to avoid long quotations in an APA paper, if you include a quotation of more than 40 words, it must be included in a separate block of text. Indent the entire block quotation by one-half inch (the same as the standard tab indent), maintain double-spacing, and place the citation at the end in parentheses after the period or punctuation from the quotation. Do  not  include quotation marks. In good APA style, the quoted author should be introduced before the quotation begins.

According to Kim et al. (2017): 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In laoreet orci sit amet facilisis aliquet. Morbi tristique porttitor diam, pellentesque rhoncus tortor sagittis commodo. Vestibulum tempus vehicula varius. Cras nibh neque, elementum ac luctus eget, semper quis est. Etiam sit amet sapien porta, pretium dui sed, sagittis nibh. Suspendisse non pellentesque diam, et accumsan mauris. Aliquam volutpat vel risus pharetra mattis. Aenean in justo imperdiet, rutrum ligula in, pellentesque tellus. Praesent a turpis at sem fringilla accumsan. Cras pellentesque ut massa at laoreet. Ut vestibulum id metus quis tincidunt. Sed sollicitudin elit nec quam volutpat faucibus a eu purus. Curabitur vulputate sit amet nibh a mollis. Suspendisse blandit libero quis eros mattis blandit. Morbi maximus elit eget sapien feugiat, non luctus magna rutrum. In suscipit, quam vel efficitur placerat, metus dolor sollicitudin odio, a dignissim justo libero eu velit. (p. 110)

The remainder of the paper continues as normal. . . . 

I. Paper Format:

• Use double spacing throughout the document.
• Include the page number in the upper left-hand corner. Do not include the author's last name beside the page number.
• Include a title page and reference list, when applicable.

What not to include:

• Unlike in previous editions of the APA manual, student papers do not usually include a running head (header) or abstract.

II. Title Page:

Most student papers include a separate title page, although some instructors allow students to include the title page information on the same page as the first paragraph of the paper.

• The title should be descriptive of the content of the paper. Avoid titles like "Essay 1."
• Include the subtitle after a colon, when applicable. 
• Example title: The Psychology of Pandemic Fatigue: A Study of College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• On a new line, include the author's name (centered, normal font).
• On a new line, include the name of the author's school (centered, normal font).
• Example: PS 101
• On a new line, include the instructor's name (centered, normal font).
• Use the "American" format for the date: Example: March 17, 2021

III. Reference List:

On a new page, include your reference list, which is your bibliography. 

• Label the list References  (bold font and centered).
• In Microsoft Word, go to Paragraph>Special>Hanging.
• APA Template

Purdue OWL  is an excellent website for locating in-depth APA information and finding APA examples. 

• Scribbr - How to Cite Sources in APA Format (6th & 7th ed) The Scribbr APA Citation Generator automatically generates accurate references and in-text citations for free. This citation guide outlines the most important citation guidelines from the 7th edition APA Publication Manual (2020). Scribbr also offers free guides for the older APA 6th edition, MLA Style, and Chicago Style. more... less... Free web source.
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• Reference List

How to use Titles in the APA Style

Hannah berry (ph.d.).

• Published on 12/10/2023
• Updated on 01/13/2024

This article aims to provide an understanding of APA style capitalization rules, particularly focusing on the usage of sentence case and title case.

APA Style employs two capitalization types for titles of works. These types are title case, where the first and major words are capitalized, and sentence case, where only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized.

• Apply sentence case formatting to book, webpage, and journal article titles.
• Exceptions where the first word is always capitalized and after colons or other punctuation marks in sentence case.
• Use title case formatting for journal titles, website titles, and titles within in-text citations.

UNDERSTANDING SENTENCE CASE

In APA format , a sentence case approach is used for general word formatting. This means that most words are in lowercase, except for proper nouns, the first word of the title or subtitle, colons, em dashes, and punctuation marks. Adopting this approach ensures a uniform and standardized appearance when creating an APA reference list .

WHERE TO USE SENTENCE CASE 

Sentence case is applied to titles of various works in reference list entries. This includes articles, books, reports, webpages, and other types of works, irrespective of whether the original work used title case.

Generate effortless citations with the APA citation generator,   cite APA books , cite APA webpages , and APA journals . Use the MLA citation generator to generate accurate citations for MLA books , cite MLA webpages , and create citations for MLA journals .

EXCEPTIONS AND SPECIAL CASES IN SENTENCE CASE 

While most words are in lowercase, exceptions apply. Capitalize only the first word of the title, the first word of a subtitle, the first word after a colon, em dash, or end punctuation in a heading, nouns followed by numerals or letters, and proper nouns.

TITLE CASE IN APA

In title case, capitalize nouns, verbs (including linking verbs), adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and all words containing four letters or more. Minor words, including short conjunctions (three letters or fewer), prepositions, and articles, should be rendered in lowercase. Apply this rule to journal titles, website titles, and in-text citations.

See our guide to title case usage and our comparison to sentence and title case grid examples .

GIVE YOUR CITATIONS A BOOST TODAY

Start your TypeCite Boost 3 day free trial today. Then just $4.99 per month to save your citations, organize in projects, and much more.

Hannah Berry has lectured at several colleges and teaches at the WEA. Besides publishing extensively, she has taught citation skills and written multiple style guides.

Learn how to cite in APA

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APA 7th Edition Citation Examples

Capitalization, article title, journal title.

• Volume and Issue Numbers
• Page Numbers
• Undated Sources
• Citing a Source Within a Source
• In-Text Citations
• Academic Journals
• Encyclopedia Articles
• Book, Film, and Product Reviews
• Online Classroom Materials
• Conference Papers
• Technical + Research Reports
• Court Decisions
• Treaties and Other International Agreements
• Federal Regulations: I. The Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Regulations: II. The Federal Register
• Executive Orders
• Charter of the United Nations
• Federal Statutes
• Dissertations and Theses
• Interviews, E-mail Messages + Other Personal Communications
• Social Media
• Business Sources
• PowerPoints
• AI: ChatGPT, etc.

Capitalization: For all sources other than periodical titles (that is, newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals), capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only. Do not capitalize the rest (see examples below).

All major words in periodical titles should be capitalized (for example, Psychology Today , Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. )

Italics: Titles are italicized for the following items:

• Books and ebooks
• Periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers)
• Websites and web pages
• Dissertations/theses
• Reports/technical papers
• Works of art

Capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only.

Toughing it out at Harvard: The making of a woman MBA

Use italics and capitalize all major words. 

American Journal of Distance Education

Use italics and capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns only.

Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call

See  Publication Manual , pp. 291-293.

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