How to Cite a Book Chapter in APA

Co-authored by Cara Barker, MA

Last Updated: May 19, 2023 References

If you want to cite a book chapter in APA format, you need to include the chapter author’s name either in the introductory phrase before the quote or in the parenthetical citation after it, along with the publication date and page number. For the Reference page, make sure you include the author, chapter title, editor, book title, page range, and publication information.

Part 1

Part 1 of 2:

Creating In-Text Citations

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1
Write the author’s name in the quote introduction instead of the in-text citation. In APA format, you may choose to include the author’s name in the introduction to the quote. This is the part of the sentence that is comprised of your own words and leads into the words of the quotation. In its most basic form, a quote introduction looks like this: “According to (author’s name)…” Use the author’s last name and first initial, followed by a period.
- For example: “According to J. O’Neil and J. Egan, “The gender-role journey metaphor provides a context for individuals to analyze their gender-role socialization and sexism in their lives” (1992, p. 111).”
- If you include the author’s name in the quote intro, you don’t need to include it in the parenthetical in-text citation.
2
Put the author’s last name in the parenthetical citation if you omit it in the quote intro. If you don’t refer to the name of the book chapter’s author in the quote introduction, you need to include the last name in the parenthetical in-text citation that follows the quote.^{[1]
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- For example: “(O’Neil, 1992, p. 111).”
- If you have 2 authors, include an ampersand sign (&) between the two last names, as seen here: “Recent research on gender role metaphors “provides a context for individuals to analyze their gender-role socialization and sexism in their lives” (O’Neil & Egan, 1992, p. 111).”
- If you have 3-5 authors, use commas to separate each name and include an ampersand before the final name.
- If you have more than 5 authors, just write the first listed author’s last name, followed by a comma, then “et al.” and a comma. Then add the publication date and page number, as necessary: “(Harris et al., 2001).”
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3
Include the publication date and page number in parenthesis. In your parenthetical in-text citation, write the author’s last name (if you didn’t include it in the quote intro), followed by a comma, then the publication date, followed by another comma, and end with the page number (p. X). Close the parenthesis and add a period to complete the sentence.^{[2]
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- For example: “According to J. O’Neil and J. Egan, “The gender-role journey metaphor provides a context for individuals to analyze their gender-role socialization and sexism in their lives” (1992, p. 111).”
- Sometimes, you may want to include the publication date in parentheses in the quote introduction (to indicate recent research, etc.). In this case, you don’t need to list the publication date in the parenthetical citation.
  - For example: “According to J. O’Neil and J. Egan (1992), “The gender-role journey metaphor provides a context for individuals to analyze their gender-role socialization and sexism in their lives” (p. 111).”

Part 2

Part 2 of 2:

Making a Reference Page Citation

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1
List the author(s)'s name(s) first, followed by the publication date. For book chapters with just 1 author, write it in "Last name, First initial. Middle initial." format. For 2 authors, use a comma and an ampersand sign (&) to separate the names. For 3 to 7 authors, separate each name with a comma and put an ampersand before the last author's name. For more than 7 authors, place an ellipsis (...) between the sixth and last authors' names.^{[3]
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- Larabee, T. A. (2007).
- O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992).
- Maggard, T. L., Jovani, H., Wicks, C. E., Matthews, S. & Kinsella, M. G. (1978).
- Kane, B. K., Null, M. T., McCarthy, P. A., Martinez, G., Stein, S. D., Alanka, A. ... Roberts, N. O. (2018).
2
Write the book chapter title with only the first letter of the first word capitalized. After the author’s name and publication date, you should include the title of the book chapter. The title will be capitalized in sentence style, meaning that only the first letter of the first word (and any words appearing after colons or semicolons) should be capitalized. The book chapter title should not be italicized. Include a period after the title. For example:^{[4]
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- “O'Neil, J. M., & Egan, J. (1992). Men's and women's gender role journeys: A metaphor for healing, transition, and transformation.”
3
List the book editor if applicable. After the book chapter title, you need to include the book editor’s name, if there is one. You should write the word “In” followed by the first initials and last name of the editor(s) – this is the reverse of how the author’s names are listed. Then, in parenthesis, write Ed. (Ed.), followed by a comma.
- “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.),
4
Include the title of the book. The book title appears next, also in sentence capitalization style, but presented in italics. No period follows the book title.
- “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
5
Include the page range. In APA format, after you’ve included the book title, you need to include the page range of the book chapter. In parentheses, write pp. and then the complete page range of the chapter. Follow this with a period. For example:^{[5]
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- “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)."
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Add the publication information. The final information to appear in your book chapter citation will be the publication information. After the period that follows the page range, include the city of publication, followed by a period, then the 2-letter abbreviation for the state of publication, followed by a colon. Then add the name of the publisher and a period at the end. For example:
- “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). New York, NY: Springer."
7
Alphabetize the book chapter in your References list. List the citation in alphabetical order among the other sources on your References list. You should alphabetize based on the first thing that appears in the citation, excluding the words “a,” “an,” and “the.”^{[6]
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- In this case, your citation will be alphabetized by the book chapter’s author, or by the book chapter title (if there is no author).

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What if you have multiple chapters to cite on the reference page?

Cara Barker, MA
Research & Instruction Librarian
Cara Barker is an Assistant Professor and Research and Instruction Librarian at Hunter Library at Western Carolina University. She received her Masters in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Washington in 2014. She has over 16 years of experience working with libraries across the United States.

Cara Barker, MA

Research & Instruction Librarian

Expert Answer

If each chapter has different authors (as in most edited books), you'd want to cite them individually. If it is not an edited book with multiple authors, you would simply cite the entire book if you are using multiple chapters.

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What if I have multiple editors with multiple chapter authors? I understand how to do the multiple authors, but do the same rules apply for the editors? My textbook has six editors.

Community Answer

You do not mention the editor while using APA. You will only cite the author of the chapter you are using within your paper.

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Should I include the book title in in-text citations?

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Usually, no. Only include the title in in-text citations if you are citing multiple different works published by the same author(s) in the same year. Otherwise, just include the name, date and page number.

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Note that you should cite a single chapter from a book, rather than the entire book, if that is all you are referencing.

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