APA Reference List: Books (Template + Examples)

What are APA style reference list rules for textbooks and other book sources? The references below use the APA Publication Manual 7 (released on October 2019). Learn how to properly cite a source or reference in APA style format in this full APA format citation guide. Read the other guides to learn how to cite other source types according to research papers, professional papers, scholarly journal’s, and student essays.

Understanding an APA reference list format for articles in periodicals: what is APA style?

APA is a writing format for academic documents. These documents typically include scholarly journals, books, student essays, and other educational material. For example, in the field of behavioral and social sciences (including sociology, education, health science, criminal justice, and psychology) APA style is used as a standard format for research.

APA stands for the American Psychological Association. The APA became involved in journal publishing in 1923. And in 1929, an APA committee had created a seven-page writer’s guide published in the Psychological Bulletin. Editions of the APA manual have since evolved. With major releases in 1974, 1983, 1994, 2001, 2009, and 2019. Each with their edition titles.

For example, the 2019 edition is referred to as “APA 6” style. Revisions of the APA style guide tend to follow developments of the English language and linguistics as a whole.

APA Style 7th Edition font suggestions

APA Publication Manual 7 requires that chosen fonts be accessible to readers and consistent throughout essays and research papers. The APA Manual does not specify a certain typeface or font for papers. They do recommend the following typefaces with their point sizes as follows:

Font	Point size
Calibri	11-point
Arial	11-point
Lucida Sans Unicode	10-point
Times New Roman	12-point
Georgia	11-point
Computer Modern	10-point

APA Style font recommendations

What are the APA reference list rules for a textbook?

Here are the APA style rules that govern APA citations for textbooks.

Here is the basic formatting for APA citations when referencing book material:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI (if available)

APA citation for a chapter book, book, or textbook

This list does not include eBooks, which is included in other resources mentioned below. Here are the rules and examples that govern the APA style recommendations for basic format books, edited books with no authors, translations, and more.

Rule	Template
Basic format for books	Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher Name. DOI (if available)
Edited book with no author	Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Publisher. DOI (if available)
Edited book with an author or multiple authors	Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (E. Editor, Ed.). Publisher. DOI (if available)
Translation	Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (T. Translator, Trans.). Publisher. (Original work published YEAR) DOI (if available)
Not first edition books	Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (# edition). Publisher. DOI (if available)
An article or chapter in an edited book	Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (pp. pages of chapter). Publisher. DOI (if available)
Multi-volume work	Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle (Vol. #). Publisher. DOI (if available)

What is the DOI?

Note that a DOI references (typically APA PsychNet sources). Their links look like the following url: https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/pspp0000096

When should I cite a chapter instead of a whole book?

When a book has chapters that are written by multiple authors, you should cite the specific chapter or paragraph that you are referring to.

What should it look like when I want to cite a multivolume book as a whole?

Smith, T. S. (2014). The poems of Elliot Underson (Vols. 1–2) (C. Hicks & J. Governy, Eds.). Johnson & Rodney.

When should I use “et al.” in APA in-text citations?

You can use the abbreviation “et. al.” when there are multiple authors that you are not choosing to list. This is best for in-text citations and not in the reference list itself. For example, if a book has more than three authors, you can say (Taylor, Smith, et al., 2019).

It should only get used when referencing the same book, published in the same year, and when more than two authors are part of the published piece.

Do I need to include the publisher’s location in an APA book citation?

In the 7th Edition of the APA manual, no location information is required for publishers.

What does an eBook citation look like?

APA format	Last name, Initials. (Year). Book title. Publisher. URL or DOI
APA reference entry	Smith, A. (2019). Yonder. Smith & Smith. https://amazon.com/book
APA in-text citation	(Smith, 2019, para. 14)

APA 7th Edition Formatting and Style Guides:

Here are more resources on APA style:

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About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.