APA Style Citations for Books (Including PDF Versions)

This post is based on the The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition. The other posts in this series are: APA Style Citations for Websites APA Style Citations for YouTube Videos

In the earlier post, Citations: The Way to Avoid Plagiarism, I had discussed the role of citations in avoiding charges of plagiarism. In this post, I will discuss the American Psychological Association (APA) style for citing printed books (including PDF versions of the book).

The APA style for citations has two parts:

1. A brief in-text citation within the main text where the content is referenced. This in-text citation can take one of two forms:
   
   • Narrative citation. If the author’s name appears in the text, then include the year of publication in brackets immediately after the author (s) name.
     
     For example:
     
     According to Dick, Carey and Carey (2015), “Conditions refers to the exact set of circumstances and resources that will be available to the learner when the objective is performed” (p.122).
     
     
   • Parenthetical citation. If you are quoting, paraphrasing, summarising or in anyway referencing content from the source without mentioning the author name, the author nameand year of publication are included in parentheses at the end of the content.
     
     For example:
     
     Conditions refers to the exact set of circumstances and resources that will be available to the learner when the objective is performed (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2015).
     
     
2. Full details of the source in the References list that appears as a separate section at the end of the document.

Every source cited in the text must have a corresponding entry in the References list and every entry in the References list must have been cited in the text.

Other sources that you have referred but not cited should not be included in the References list. All such sources are included in a separate list called Bibliography.

Citing a Book Using the APA Style

Format for In-text Citations

Narrative Citation	Parenthetical Citation
Last name of author(s) (Year of publication) (p. page number) or (pp. page range) at the end of the quoted content.	(Last name of authors, year of publication, p. page number or pp. pange range)
Example
According to Dick, Carey and Carey (2015), “Conditions refers to the exact set of circumstances and resources that will be available to the learner when the objective is performed” (p. 122).	Conditions refers to the exact set of circumstances and resources that will be available to the learner when the objective is performed (Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2015, p. 122).

Format for Full Citations Appearing in the References List

The general format for the full citation as mentioned in the References list is:

Authors list written as last name, initials. (Year). Book Title. Publisher name.

1. Begin the citation with the list of author names in the order that names appear on the book cover.
   • Each author’s name is written as Last Name, First Name Initial. Middle Name Initial. Each initial should be followed by a period (.).
   • Comma is used to separate individual author names.
2. Next is the year of publication within parenthesis.
3. The third element is the book title—including subtitle, if any—in italics.
4. The final element is the publisher’s name.
   • Include all publishers listed on the copyright page of the book; use a semicolon after each publisher.

Examples

Citing a Book with One Author

Narrative Citation	According to Balzotti (2018), novice writers focus on the end results of effective writing, whereas experienced writers start by asking questions (p. 7).
Parenthetical Citation	Novice writers focus on the end results of effective writing, but experienced writers start with asking questions (Balzotti, 2018, p.7).
References Entry	Balzotti, J. (2018). Technical writing essentials (2nd ed.). Brigham Young University.

Citing a Book with Two Authors

Narrative Citation	Pringle and O’Keefe (2009) say that to create a content outline, we must start by creating a list of tasks that the user will perform (p.110). Note: Use and to separate author names.
Parenthetical Citation	When you create an outline for content, you usually start by putting together a list of tasks that the user will perform (Pringle & O’Keefe, 2009, p.110). Note: Use & to separate author names.
References Entry	Pringle, A. S., & O’Keefe, S. S. (2009). Technical writing 101: A real-world guide to planning and writing technical content (3rd ed.). Scriptorium Publishing.

Citing a Book with Three or More Authors

Narrative Citation	According to Dick et al. (2015), psychomotor skill is a combination of intellectual and motor skills (p. 77). Note: Use the format last name of the first author et al.
Parenthetical Citation	Psychomotor skills usually require a combination of intellectual and motor skills (Dick et al., 2015, p. 77). Note: Use the format last name of the first author et al.
References Entry	Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (2015). The systematic design of instruction (8th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. Note: Use & before the last author’s name.

Citing a PDF Version of a Printed Book

If you referenced the PDF version of a printed book, then you must indicate that in the References list by adding [PDF file] to the title.

Example:

Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (2015). The systematic design of instruction (8th ed.) [PDF file]. Pearson Education, Inc.