Academic Referencing Guide
How to Reference a Book
Building accurate book references in major academic styles, including single-author, multi-author, edited-volume and edition-specific conventions.
1Three Book Formats
Books come in three main citation formats:
- Authored book — a single author or co-author team wrote the entire work.
- Edited book — a editor (or editors) compiled chapters by different authors. You reference the specific chapter, not the whole book.
- E-book with DOI — a digital-only or digital-equivalent version with a DOI, which replaces the publisher location in APA 7.
2APA 7 Examples
Single-authored print book:
Bailey, S. (2018). Academic writing: A handbook for international students (5th ed.). Routledge.
Edited book chapter:
Smith, J. (2021). Developing research questions. In A. Brown (Ed.), Research methods for postgraduates (2nd ed., pp. 45–62). Wiley.
E-book with DOI:
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2023). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (6th ed.). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781544332857
3Harvard CTR Examples
Single-authored print book:
Bailey, S. (2018) Academic writing: a handbook for international students. 5th edn. London: Routledge.
Edited book chapter:
Smith, J. (2021) 'Developing research questions.' In Brown, A. (ed.) Research methods for postgraduates. 2nd edn. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 45–62.
E-book (no DOI):
Creswell, J.W. and Creswell, J.D. (2023) Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 6th edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
4Edition Statements
Both styles handle editions as follows:
| Edition | APA 7 | Harvard CTR |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd edition | (2nd ed.) | 2nd edn. |
| 3rd edition | (3rd ed.) | 3rd edn. |
| Revised edition | (Rev. ed.) | Rev. edn. |