APA (7th edition) · Book
How to cite a book in APA (7th edition)
A book citation covers a whole authored book. If you only used one chapter of an edited collection, cite the chapter instead, since credit belongs to the chapter author. Watch the edition: page numbers move between editions, so cite the one you actually read.
Worked example · APA (7th edition)
Lovelace, A., & Babbage, C. (2022). Foundations of Research Methods (3rd ed.). Example University Press.
Rendered with the official APA (7th edition) style file from a placeholder source (reserved example DOI and domain), so the format is exactly what the style produces. In text: Author-date in-text citations, for example (Author, 2021), with a References list.
What to collect before you cite a book
- Author or authors, in the order printed
- Full title and subtitle
- Edition, if not the first
- Publisher
- Year of publication
- Place of publication (some styles still want it)
Have a DOI? Generate the reference instantly
Journal articles, many books and reports carry a DOI. Paste it and get the APA (7th edition) entry from the same engine that produced the example above.
Citing a whole thesis, not one source?
CiteDash keeps your bibliography in APA (7th edition) automatically, verifies every citation against a real paper, and compiles to DOCX, PDF or LaTeX.
Citing a book in APA (7th edition): FAQ
The book has an editor, not an author. Which slot do they take?
For a book that is a curated collection, the editor takes the author position with an editor marker. If you used a single chapter by a named author, cite the chapter instead.
Which edition do I cite?
The one you read. Page numbers and sometimes content differ between editions, so citing the right one is part of being checkable.
Do e-books cite differently?
Mostly no: same fields, and add a DOI or stable URL if the book lives online. Avoid device-specific locations like Kindle positions when real page numbers exist.
What does the in-text citation look like in APA (7th edition)?
Author-date in-text citations, for example (Author, 2021), with a References list.
Is the example on this page hand-written?
No. It is rendered by the same citation engine and official CSL style file CiteDash uses for full thesis bibliographies, from a clearly-marked placeholder source, and a test re-renders it on every release so the page can never drift from the engine.