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APA (7th Edition) Referencing Guide

Guide to APA citation style using the 7th Edition of the APA Style Manual.

Are you sure it is a book chapter?

Are you sure you should be citing a chapter of this book, and not the whole book? Check the page on Books and book chapters.

Standard chapter pattern

Chapter from a book:

Format

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of chapter: Subtitle. In A. Editor, & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book: Subtitle (edition*, pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI or URL (if electronic)

If there are no named editors (but the chapters are still individually authored), exclude that part of the pattern:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of chapter: Subtitle. In Title of book: Subtitle (edition*, pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI or URL (if electronic)

*if not the first edition - do not include edition information for first editions.
Examples

Le Couteur, D., Kendig, H., Naganathan, V., & McLachlan, A. (2010). The ethics of prescribing medications to older people. In S. Koch, F. M. Gloth, & R. Nay (Eds.), Medication management in older adults (pp. 29-42). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-457-9_3

Martin, A. (2006). Literacies for the digital age. In A. Martin & D. Madigan (Eds.), Digital literacies for learning (pp. 3-25). Facet.

Pagliano, P. (2018). Inclusive practices. In A. Ashman (Ed.), Education for inclusion and diversity (6th ed., pp. 235-267). Pearson Australia.

Rolf, F., & Burston, A. (2020). Safety. In A. Berman, G. Frandsen, S. Snyder, T. Levett-Jones, A. Burston, T. Dwyer, M. Hales, N. Harvey, T. Langtree, L. Moxham, F. Rolf, K. Reid-Searl, & D. Stanley (Eds.), Kozier and Erb’s fundamentals of nursing (5th Australian ed., pp. 2695-2833). Pearson.

 

Note:

  • You only include an edition number if it is not the first edition. If you have a multi-volume work, the volume number goes in the same brackets as the edition number: (3rd ed., Vol. 4, pp. 12-13).
  • Include a DOI if available. Do not include a URL or database information for works from academic research databases - such as ProQuest or Medline - or books that are platform specific, such as Kindle or Kobo. Include a URL for eBooks from other websites. 
  • Are you trying to cite a section of a custom textbook? Custom textbooks are works that have been compiled for a particular course or cohort, and the chapters may have originally come from a variety of sources. Please see the section on Custom Textbooks under Class Handouts and Lectures.

Special examples

Here are some special examples of book chapters that have been a bit tricky:

Harding, M. R. (Writer), & Cashin, A. (Adaptor). (2015). The importance of nursing. In D. Brown, H. Edwards, L. Seaton, & T. Buckley (Eds.), Lewis's medical-surgical nursing: Assessment and management of clinical problems (4th ed., Australian and New Zealand ed., pp. 2-20). Elsevier Australia.

In text: (Harding & Cashin, 2015).

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