Citation guides

How to Cite a Book: APA, MLA and Harvard with Examples

Complete guide to citing a book in APA 7, MLA 9 and Harvard style — including edited books, chapters, ebooks, multiple authors and no-author cases.

Ihsan Hossain23 June 2026Updated 25 July 2026 7 min read

Books are the backbone of most reference lists, and every citation style handles them slightly differently. The good news is that once you understand the logic of one style, adapting to the others is mostly a matter of punctuation. This guide covers standard books, multiple authors, edited books, individual chapters, ebooks, and the edge cases that trip students up most often.

What information do you need?

Author(s) — surname and initials (APA/Harvard) or full name (MLA).
Year of publication — from the copyright page, not the reprint date.
Title and subtitle — full title as printed on the title page.
Edition — only if it is not the first edition.
Publisher — the company that published it, not the printer.
Place of publication — required in Harvard; not needed in APA 7 or MLA 9.
DOI or URL — for ebooks, when available.

APA 7th edition

APA uses the author-date system. In the reference list, the year comes directly after the author. Book titles are in italics and use sentence case — only the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon get a capital letter. See more formats in the APA citation generator.

APA: book with one author

APA reference list

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

APA in-text citation

(Kahneman, 2011)  or:  Kahneman (2011) argues that …

APA: book with two authors

APA reference list

Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (2000). The elements of style (4th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.

APA in-text

(Strunk & White, 2000)

APA: book with three or more authors

List all authors in the reference entry (up to 20; for 21 or more, list the first 19 then an ellipsis and the final author). In the in-text citation, use the first author's name followed by "et al." from the first citation onwards.

APA reference list (three authors)

Seidenberg, M., Cooper Borkenhagen, M., & Kearns, D. M. (2020). Lost in translation? Challenges in connecting reading science and educational practice. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 21(1), 26–55.

APA in-text (three or more authors)

(Seidenberg et al., 2020)

APA: edited book

When you refer to the whole edited book rather than one chapter, the editor goes in the author position, followed by "(Ed.)" for one editor or "(Eds.)" for multiple.

APA reference list — edited book

Kashdan, T. B., & Ciarrochi, J. (Eds.). (2013). Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology. Context Press.

APA in-text

(Kashdan & Ciarrochi, 2013)

APA: chapter in an edited book

When you used one specific chapter, cite the chapter author first. The editors and book title come later, in a "In … (Ed.)" construction. Include the page range of the chapter.

APA reference list — chapter in edited book

Aron, L., & Aron, E. N. (2013). A meeting of minds: Mutuality in psychoanalysis. In T. B. Kashdan & J. Ciarrochi (Eds.), Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology (pp. 23–47). Context Press.

APA in-text

(Aron & Aron, 2013)

APA: ebook with a DOI

APA reference list — ebook

Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the twenty-first century. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674369542

APA: later edition

APA reference list — second edition

Field, A. (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.

MLA 9th edition

MLA uses the author-page system for in-text citations. Book titles are italicised and use title case — every main word capitalised. The MLA citation generator handles the inverted-name format automatically.

MLA: book with one author

MLA works cited

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.

MLA in-text

(Kahneman 42)  or:  Kahneman argues that … (42).

MLA: book with two authors

MLA works cited

Strunk, William, and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed., Allyn & Bacon, 2000.

MLA in-text

(Strunk and White 10)

MLA: book with three or more authors

In the Works Cited list, name only the first author followed by "et al." for three or more authors. In-text, do the same.

MLA works cited

Seidenberg, Mark, et al. Connecting Reading Science and Educational Practice. MIT Press, 2020.

MLA in-text

(Seidenberg et al. 95)

MLA: edited book

MLA works cited — edited book

Kashdan, Todd B., and Joseph Ciarrochi, editors. Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive Psychology. Context Press, 2013.

MLA: chapter in an edited book

MLA works cited — chapter

Aron, Lewis, and Elaine N. Aron. "A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis." Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive Psychology, edited by Todd B. Kashdan and Joseph Ciarrochi, Context Press, 2013, pp. 23–47.

MLA: ebook

Add the platform or format as a second container at the end of the entry.

MLA works cited — ebook

Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press, 2014. Google Books.

Harvard style

Harvard is an author-date family of styles. Unlike APA and MLA, most university variants still require the place of publication. Check your institution's guide for small differences, or use the Harvard reference generator.

Harvard: book with one author

Harvard reference list

Kahneman, D. (2011) Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Harvard in-text

(Kahneman, 2011)  or:  Kahneman (2011) argues that …

Harvard: book with two authors

Harvard reference list

Strunk, W. and White, E.B. (2000) The elements of style. 4th edn. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Harvard: book with three or more authors

List all authors in the reference entry. In the in-text citation, use the first author's name followed by "et al." from three or more authors onwards.

Harvard reference list (three authors)

Seidenberg, M., Cooper Borkenhagen, M. and Kearns, D.M. (2020) Connecting reading science and educational practice. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Harvard in-text

(Seidenberg et al., 2020)

Harvard: edited book

Harvard reference list — edited book

Kashdan, T.B. and Ciarrochi, J. (eds.) (2013) Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology. Oakland: Context Press.

Harvard: chapter in an edited book

Harvard reference list — chapter

Aron, L. and Aron, E.N. (2013) 'A meeting of minds: Mutuality in psychoanalysis', in T.B. Kashdan and J. Ciarrochi (eds.) Mindfulness, acceptance, and positive psychology. Oakland: Context Press, pp. 23–47.

Harvard: ebook with a DOI

Harvard reference list — ebook

Piketty, T. (2014) Capital in the twenty-first century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674369542.

Common mistakes when citing books

Using the reprint year instead of the original publication year. The copyright page shows the year you want. A 1984 novel reprinted in 2020 is still cited as 1984.
Forgetting sentence case in APA. "The Elements of Style" becomes "The elements of style" — only the first word and proper nouns are capitalised.
Skipping the edition number. If the book you used is not the first edition, the edition number must appear in the reference so readers find the same version.
Citing a chapter as if it were a whole book. If you read chapter 3 of an edited book, cite the chapter author — not just the editor — and include the page range.
Missing the place of publication in Harvard. APA and MLA dropped it; Harvard kept it. Leaving it out is an incomplete reference in most university Harvard guides.
Copying the cover title instead of the title page. Subtitles and punctuation on the cover sometimes differ from the title page. The title page is always authoritative.

Quick-reference table

Element	APA 7	MLA 9	Harvard
Author format	Surname, I.	Surname, First	Surname, I.
Year position	After author	End of entry	After author
Title case	Sentence case	Title Case	Sentence case
Place of publication	Not required	Not required	Required
Edition	(2nd ed.)	2nd ed.	(2nd edn)
Editor abbreviation	(Ed.) / (Eds.)	editor / editors	(ed.) / (eds.)
Chapter pages	pp. 23–47	pp. 23–47	pp. 23–47
In-text format	(Author, Year)	(Author Page)	(Author, Year)

For any source type not covered here — journal articles, reports, theses, government documents — paste the URL or DOI into the free citation generator and CitApp fetches the metadata and formats the reference for you automatically.

Written by Ihsan Hossain

Founder of CitApp, a citation tool built to make source formatting effortless for students. Guides on this blog are checked against the current official style guides (APA 7, MLA 9, and university Harvard variants).

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to include the place of publication when citing a book?

It depends on the style. APA 7 dropped the place of publication entirely — you only need the publisher name. MLA 9 also dropped it. Harvard still requires it in most university variants, written before the publisher name (e.g. "London: Penguin").

How do I cite a book with no author?

Move the title of the book into the author position and alphabetise the reference by title. In APA and Harvard you shorten a long title to the first few words for in-text citations. In MLA your in-text citation uses the title in quotation marks (or italics if it is a long work).

What is the difference between citing an edited book and a chapter in an edited book?

An edited book is cited when you refer to the book as a whole — the editor goes in the author position, followed by "(Ed.)" or "(Eds.)". A chapter in an edited book is cited when you used one specific chapter — the chapter author goes first, then the editors, then the book title. The page range of the chapter is included.

How do I cite a second or later edition of a book?

Add the edition number after the title in parentheses. APA writes "(2nd ed.)", Harvard writes "(2nd edn)" and MLA writes "2nd ed." after the title. Do not add edition information for first editions.

Do I need a URL or DOI when citing an ebook?

For APA, include a DOI if one is available. If not, include the URL only if the book is freely available online (not behind a library login). For MLA, add the name of the database or platform (e.g. "Kindle", "Google Books", "JSTOR") as a container at the end. Harvard follows a similar pattern to APA.