How to Cite a Book: APA, MLA, Chicago & More

Before you format a book citation, gather the essential information from the title page and copyright page. You will need the author name(s), publication year, book title (and subtitle if there is one), edition (if it is not the first), publisher name, and DOI or URL if applicable. For ebooks, you may also need the platform or database name.

Always use the title page as your source of information, not the cover. The cover may have a simplified title or omit the subtitle. The copyright page (usually on the back of the title page) gives you the publisher name, year of publication, and edition number.

• Author name(s) — as printed on the title page
• Year of publication — from the copyright page
• Title and subtitle — italicised in most styles
• Edition — only if it is not the first edition (e.g., 2nd ed., 3rd ed.)
• Publisher — the publishing company name
• DOI or URL — if the book was accessed online

APA 7th edition uses the format: Last, F. M. (Year). Title of book: Subtitle in sentence case (Edition). Publisher. DOI or URL

Walker, M. (2017). Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. Scribner.

Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (2000). Choices, values, and frames. Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, R. T. (Ed.). (2019). Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 60). Academic Press.

Key APA rules for books: use sentence case for the title (only capitalise the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon), italicise the title, use initials for first and middle names, and do not include the publisher location (the city requirement was removed in APA 7).

MLA 9th edition uses the format: Last, First. Title of Book: Subtitle in Title Case. Publisher, Year.

Walker, Matthew. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner, 2017.

Kahneman, Daniel, and Amos Tversky. Choices, Values, and Frames. Cambridge UP, 2000.

Smith, John, et al. Research Methods in Psychology. Oxford UP, 2022.

MLA uses the full first name (not initials), title case for the book title, and abbreviates "University Press" to "UP." The year appears at the end of the entry, not after the author name.

Chicago style offers two systems. Notes-Bibliography uses a footnote for the in-text citation and a bibliography entry. Author-Date uses a parenthetical in-text citation and a reference list entry. The formatting differs slightly between the two.

1. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (New York: Scribner, 2017), 45.

Walker, Matthew. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. New York: Scribner, 2017.

Walker, Matthew. 2017. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. New York: Scribner.

Ebooks, translated works, and books beyond the first edition require additional information in your citation. Here are the key rules that apply across most citation styles:

• Ebooks — if an ebook has a DOI, include it. If you accessed it through a database (e.g., Kindle, Google Books), include the platform name or URL
• Editions — include the edition number after the title: (2nd ed.) in APA, or 2nd ed., in MLA and Chicago
• Translated books — include the translator's name after the title: (J. Smith, Trans.) in APA, or Translated by Jane Smith in MLA
• Books with no author — start with the title in place of the author name
• Chapters in edited books — cite the chapter author, chapter title, then "In" followed by the editor name and book title

Walker, M. (2017). Why we sleep: Unlocking the power of sleep and dreams. Scribner. https://doi.org/10.1234/example

Smith, J. A. (2020). Memory and sleep. In R. T. Johnson (Ed.), Advances in psychology (pp. 45–78). Academic Press.

• Using the wrong capitalisation — APA uses sentence case for titles, MLA and Chicago use title case
• Including the publisher location in APA 7 — APA dropped this requirement; do not include the city
• Forgetting the edition number — if you used a specific edition, it must appear in the citation
• Using the cover title instead of the title page — covers may simplify or alter the title
• Omitting the DOI for ebooks — if a DOI exists, it should always be included regardless of format
• Mixing up editor and author — edited books use (Ed.) or (Eds.) after the editor name

A citation generator that uses ISBN or DOI lookup can eliminate many of these errors by pulling verified metadata directly from publisher databases. This ensures the title, author names, edition, and year are all accurate.