How to Cite a Chapter Written by Someone Other Than the Book’s Authors

By David Becker

Dear APA Style Experts,

I want to cite a chapter from Theoretical Basis for Nursing, 4th Edition, which is an authored textbook. However, the author of this chapter is not one of the authors listed on the front cover. What should I do?

—Frustrated Nursing Student

Dear FNS,

When referring to a chapter in an authored book, usually you would not cite that chapter in the reference list. Instead, you would cite the whole book and, if necessary, cite the chapter in text. This rule applies whether the chapter is written by one of the book’s primary authors or by a separate contributor.

Even though it might seem sensible to cite that chapter as one would cite a chapter from an edited book, doing so could cause confusion. If you were to cite a chapter from an authored book in this manner, most of the information from the book reference templates at the bottom of page 202 in the Publication Manual would be maintained, with the names of the book's primary authors in the editor position. However, because you would be crediting them as authors and not as editors, you would need to delete the Eds. in parentheses. Authored books that contain chapters written by other contributors are relatively uncommon, and APA Style users are so accustomed to the format for citing a chapter in an edited book that this slight change might lead your readers to assume that you are incorrectly citing an edited book by accidentally leaving out the Eds. component. Although this may not seem like such a big deal, it could cost a student a few points for not following proper APA Style format. Or, if you're publishing your paper in a journal, you could find yourself battling with a prickly copyeditor.

To avoid all of this mess, the simplest solution is to just cite the entire book like you would do with any other authored volume:

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2014). Theoretical basis for nursing (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

In doing so, you are presenting readers with a reference format that they can immediately recognize as representing an authored book, which will help them retrieve your source. Then, you can clarify the unique nature of your source by simply crediting the chapter author in your narrative and identifying the chapter number as part of your in-text citation:

According to Melinda Oberleitner, "The hallmark of the transformational leader is vision and the ability to communicate that vision to others so that it becomes a shared vision" (McEwen & Wills, 2014, Chapter 16, p. 363).

This method also works when citing a foreword written by someone other than the book’s authors, which is a bit more common. However, foreword authors are sometimes given cover credit through a "with" statement—as in, "With a foreword by Charles Todd." In this case, it would be appropriate to cite the foreword author parenthetically in your reference, as described on page 184 in the Publication Manual. Here's an example of how such a reference would look:

Christie, A. (with Todd, C.). (2013). Hercule Poirot: The complete short stories. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Your in-text citation would only include the name of the book's primary author. The author of the foreword would simply be named in your narrative in the same way that you would credit the author of any other chapter not written by the book's main author:

In his foreword, Charles Todd described the characteristics of the famous detective Hercule Poirot (Christie, 2013).

If you come across any other complications when citing a book, feel free to leave a comment below or contact us.

How to Cite an Illustrated Book

By David Becker

Dear APA Style Experts,

I want to cite an illustrated book and give proper credit to the illustrator, but I can’t find an example of how to do that in the Publication Manual. Can you give me some guidance?

— Edward G.

Dear Edward,

Unfortunately, the Publication Manual doesn’t have the space to accommodate examples for every type of citation situation (cite-uation?). But, even though the manual doesn't specifically mention how to cite an illustrator, the basic book reference format described on pages 202–203 still applies to your cite-uation.

The first thing to keep in mind is that the goal of a reference is not necessarily to provide proper credit—it’s more about directing your readers to the right source. These two objectives generally go hand-in-hand, but not always. For instance, if you’re citing a book that includes illustrations that aren’t essential elements of the book, crediting the illustrator is probably not necessary—this information will likely not assist readers in finding the original source.

Take Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for example. The illustrations by Sir John Tenniel are very well-known, but the book can function perfectly fine without them, and your readers won’t need to know his name to find the source. With that in mind, here’s what the reference would look like:

Carroll, L. (2006). Alice’s adventures in Wonderland & through the looking-glass. New York, NY: Bantam Dell. (Original work published 1865)

Even if you were writing specifically about these illustrations, you would still use the same reference information, as well as the standard author–date format for parenthetical citations. You could simply refer to the illustrator and his work in your narrative: “Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations are excellent examples of surreal art from the 1800s (Carroll, 1865/2006).”

However, when citing a book where the illustrations are essential to understanding the content—a children’s picture book or a graphic novel, for example—it would be appropriate to cite both the author and the illustrator, especially if they are both given cover credit. But, you don't need to worry about their roles. Keep it simple and cite the book as you would cite a non-illustrated book with more than one author. Take Goodnight Moon for example:

Brown, M. W., & Hurd, C. (2007). Goodnight moon. New York, NY: HarperCollins. (Original work published 1947)

Although Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd are clearly identified on the book's front cover as the author and the illustrator, respectively, there's no need to indicate this in your reference entry.

One benefit of sticking with this basic citation format is that you can easily apply it to books where the author and illustrator roles are not clearly designated on the cover, which is the case with the graphic novel Watchmen:

Moore, A., & Gibbons, D. (1986). Watchmen. New York, NY: DC Comics.

Note that although John Higgins is credited as the colorist inside the book, he's not named on the front cover. Therefore, it's not necessary to cite him for retrievability purposes—just cite what you see on the front cover.

This simple citation format also works for wordless picture books where there is no author, only an illustrator:

Becker, A. (2013). Journey. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

If you’re trying to cite an illustrated book, I hope this information will help you resolve your cite-uation. If not, please leave a comment below or contact us.

Comparing MLA and APA: The Reference List

By David Becker

Today, we continue with our series of posts highlighting some differences between APA and MLA reference styles. Last week, I outlined how the two styles handle in-text citations. Today’s post focuses on the reference list (or the “Works Cited” list as it is called in MLA Style). Below are examples of how each style would handle two common sources—a print book and a journal article from a research database. I have color coded the text to help you better visualize the differences in the basic elements of a generic reference. The who is in red, the when is in blue, the what is in yellow, and the where is in purple, all of which can be mixed and matched to form the Frankenreference.

Let’s begin with a print book, one of the simplest sources to cite:

MLA Gordin, Michael D. The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe. Chicago: U Chicago P, 2012. Print. APA Gordin, M. D. (2012). The pseudoscience wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the birth of the modern fringe. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

The two styles vary in a number of ways, including punctuation, capitalization, and placement of the date. Also, unlike APA Style, MLA Style includes the format of the source—either “Print” or “Web”—as an extra piece of “where” information, and it often requires writers to abbreviate publisher names.

Now let’s take a look at something a bit more complicated, a journal article from a research database:

MLA Shafron, Gavin Ryan, and Mitchell P. Karno. “Heavy Metal Music and Emotional Dysphoria Among Listeners.” Psychology of Popular Media Culture 2.2 (2013): 74-85. PsycNET. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. APA Shafron, G. R., & Karno, M. P. (2013). Heavy metal music and emotional dysphoria among listeners. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2, 74–85. doi:10.1037/a0031722

The most substantive difference is that MLA Style requires the name of the database from which you retrieved the article and the date of retrieval as well; it does not use the DOI. In contrast, APA Style requires a DOI (when there is one), but doesn’t require the date of access (see p. 198 of the Publication Manual for more detail). In most cases, the name of the database is not used in an APA Style reference, although a few exceptions are outlined in Chapter 7.

I hope this comparison of MLA and APA styles is helpful to those of you who find yourself transitioning from one to the other. If you are a student switching from MLA to APA, your most important resources will be the Publication Manual and this blog. I also recommend that you try our free tutorial on the basics of APA Style and visit our FAQ page, in addition to our pages on quick answers for citing sources and formatting your research paper. If you have any questions after checking those resources, you can contact APA Style directly or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

How to Cite Works From the Spirit World

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

Dear Style Experts,
I need to cite a book that was dictated by a spirit to a medium. Who’s the author here? I was thinking it would be the spirit, but now that I’ve put it into my reference list, it looks kind of weird.
                                                           —Spooked in Spokane

 

Dear Spooked,

Noncorporeal beings have dictated a number of bestsellers, yet they never seem to cash their own royalty checks. For bibliographic purposes, the author is the person through whom the work entered the corporeal realm.

Take, for example, the work of Jane Roberts. In the 1960s, she began to publish communications she received in a trance state from an “energy personality essence no longer focused in physical matter” named Seth. Over the next few decades, dozens of volumes were published, some of which were edited by her husband after her death.

Roberts, J. (1972). Seth speaks: The eternal validity of the soul. San Rafael, CA: Amber Allen. Roberts, J., & Roberts, R. (Ed.). (1993). A Seth reader. San Anselmo, CA: Vernal Equinox Press.

Though they have been embraced by the New Age movement, works from the Great Beyond are not limited to the disco era. The revival of the Spiritualist movement in the early 20th century produced its own star authors, such as Patience Worth. Claiming to be an English girl who came to America in the 17th century, she began speaking through a housewife named Pearl Curran in 1916. Initially she used a Ouija board, but eventually Curran was able to dictate her conversations while pacing about the room or even smoking a cigarette. A number of novels and poems were published under the name of Patience Worth, but virtually all are out of print.

Curran, P. (1917). The sorry tale: A story of the time of Christ. New York, NY: Holt. Retrieved from http://books.google.com

But trance-dictated works are not limited to the literary world. A British woman named Rosemary Brown claimed that the spirits of Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin and other composers were presenting new music through her that they had composed in the spirit world.

Brown, R. (1974). The Rosemary Brown piano album: 7 pieces inspired by Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms & Liszt. London, England: Paxton.

The phenomenon of spirit dictation has naturally attracted the attention of psychological researchers over the years. If you’re interested in learning more, a few sources are presented below.


Cunningham, P. (2012). The content–source problem in modern mediumship research. Journal of Parapsychology, 76, 295–319.

Diliberto, G. (2010, September). Patience Worth: Author from the great beyond. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Patience-Worth-Author-From-the-Great-Beyond.html

LePort, A. K. R., Mattfeld, A. T., Dickinson-Anson, H., Fallon, J. H., Stark, C. E. L., Kruggel, F. . . . McGaugh, J. L. (2012). Behavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 98, 78–92.

Peres, J. F., Moreira-Almeida, A., Caixeta, L., Leao, F., & Newberg, A. (2012). Neuroimaging during trance state: A contribution to the study of dissociation. PLoS ONE, 7(11), e49360. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049360

How to Cite an Anthology or Collected Works

by Chelsea Lee

An anthology is a collection of works,  organized around a central theme, that has been assembled by an editor or publisher. One type of anthology is often called a collected works or complete works, in which all the writings of a particular author are published in one volume (or set of volumes) for easy reference. Other anthologies contain works by many different authors all of which share a theme (e.g., American literature of the 19th century).

Anthologies, and especially collected or complete works, may seem tricky to cite when both the author(s) and the editor(s) are responsible for the entire book. Therefore some readers assume that both should appear in the citation. However, this is not the case. The proper method of citation for anthologies is explored below.

Whole Anthology Citation

Whole edited anthologies should be cited like any other whole edited book would be cited. Only the editor appears in the author part of the reference.

Strachey, J. (Ed. & Trans.). (1953). The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 4). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books

• In text: (Strachey, 1953)

Gold, M. (Ed.). (1999). A Kurt Lewin reader: The complete social scientist. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

• In text: (Gold, 1999)

If desired, the name of the author of the collected works can be incorporated into the narrative. 

Kurt Lewin was one of the most influential social scientists of the 20th century (for a collection of his works, see Gold, 1999).

Multivolume Anthology Citation

To cite multiple volumes in an anthology, include the range of years over which the volumes were published (unless all were published in the same year) and the volume numbers in parentheses after the title.

Koch, S. (Ed.). (1959–1963). Psychology: A study of science (Vols. 1–3). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

•  In text: (Koch, 1959–1963)

Work in an Anthology Citation

Likewise, a work in an anthology should be cited like a chapter in an edited book, in which the chapter author and chapter title appear at the beginning of the reference, followed by information about the edited book.

The only additional consideration for works in anthologies is that the individual work has been republished, which means that both the publication date of the anthology and the original publication date of the work in question are included in the reference entry and in-text citation. The publication date of the anthology goes in the main date slot of the reference and the original publication date goes at the end.

Freud, S. (1953). The method of interpreting dreams: An analysis of a specimen dream. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 4). Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books (Original work published 1900)

• In text: (Freud, 1900/1953)

Lewin, K. (1999). Personal adjustment and group belongingness. In M. Gold (Ed.), A Kurt Lewin reader: The complete social scientist (pp. 327–332). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (Original work published 1941)

• In text: (Lewin, 1941/1999)

We hope these examples help you understand how to cite anthologies and the works within them. For more example citations of edited books and book chapters, see Publication Manual § 7.02.

How to Cite the DSM–5 in APA Style (UPDATED)

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5) has finally arrived! Here’s how the reference list entry should look:

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Text citation: (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

Individual chapters and other parts of the DSM–5 have been assigned DOIs. If you used the online edition of the DSM, give the DOI in the publisher position.

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Cautionary statement for     forensic use of DSM-5. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.     http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596     .CautionaryStatement Text citation: (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)

Here’s how it would look when used in your narrative:

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) is the most widely accepted nomenclature used by clinicians and researchers for the classification of mental disorders.

Once introduced, the acronym DSM–5 can be used instead of the title and edition:

The DSM–5’s classification involves a shift from the traditional categorical approach to a dimensional approach. The changes involving the removal of the legal problems criterion and the addition of a craving criterion were retained in the final revision of the diagnostic criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

If you decide to use an acronym for the author, introduce it at first reference:

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) is the most widely accepted nomenclature used by clinicians and researchers for the classification of mental disorders. . . . The changes involving the removal of the legal problems criterion and the addition of a craving criterion were retained in the final revision of the diagnostic criteria (APA, 2013).

UPDATE: The post has been revised to reflect the fact that there is no DOI for the entire DSM–5; each chapter has its own DOI (9/4/2013). The place of publication has also been updated (9/22/2014).

The Writing Dead: How to Cite a Deceased (Yet Strangely Prolific) Author

by Jeff Hume-Pratuch

Who is the author of Fowler’s Modern English Usage? (Go ahead and Google it; I’ll just wait here and hum the “Jeopardy” theme until you get back. . . .)

I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a trick question. The classic style guide was written by Henry W. Fowler and published in 1926 as A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It quickly dwarfed most of the competition due to its pithy, antipedantic, and somewhat idiosyncratic advice.*

The name of Fowler became so closely tied to the notion of clear and correct writing that the second edition (1965) was published as Fowler’s Modern English Usage, even though its eponymous author had died in 1933. His presence continues to hover over the work as it approaches the century mark (Fowler’s Modern English Usage, 2004). The content has been almost completely rewritten, but it has never gone out of print.

Similarly, H. M. Robert’s Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies was first published in 1876 and is now in its 11th (highly revised) edition. When a work is in its third, fourth, or (in the case of Robert’s Rules of Order) 11th edition, there may not be much left that was actually written by the person who penned the first edition. How should these works be cited? Should we credit the dead hand of the original author or those who carry on the franchise?

The answer follows from one of our basic principles of citation: “Cite what you see.” Whose name is on the cover and/or title page? Unless another role is specified (e.g., editor, compiler), that person—dead or alive—is the author.  Fowler and Robert can rest in peace while their successors carry on.

References

Burchfield, R. W. (2004). Fowler’s modern English usage (3rd ed. rev.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Fowler, H. W. (1926). A dictionary of modern English usage. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Fowler, H. W., & Gowers, E. (Ed.). (1965). Fowler’s modern English usage (2nd ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Robert, H. M. (1876). Pocket manual of rules of order for deliberative assemblies. Chicago, IL: Griggs.

Robert, H. M., III, Honemann, D. H., & Balch, T. J. (2011). Robert’s rules of order newly revised (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Perseus Books.


*E.g., “To shrink with horror from ending [a sentence] with a preposition is no more than foolish superstition; but there are often particular reasons for not choosing that alternative” (Fowler, 1926, p. 635).

Citing an Edition of a Book in APA Style

by Timothy McAdoo

Question

When a book has multiple editions, which edition should I include in my reference list?

Answer

Your reference list should include the edition of the book that you read and are relying on for your information.

You need to include references to more than one edition only if you read two or more editions of the same book and are using information from each one in your paper.

Example

So where does the edition information go? Here’s an example:

Smith, P. (2012). Cut to the chase: Online video editing and the     Wadsworth constant (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: E & K Publishing.

Note that because the edition information is not part of the title, it is not italicized.

Other Resources

Don’t miss our other book-related posts that you might find useful:

• Books and Book Chapters: What to Cite
  
• How Do You Cite an E-Book (e.g., Kindle Book)?
  
• How Do I Cite a Kindle?
• Finding (and Using) Page Numbers for Kindle Books

Books and Book Chapters: What to Cite

 by Chelsea Lee

After slogging through a 500-page tome, you may find but one or two shiny little facts relevant to your research. It might seem like going overboard to cite the entire book when you used just a paragraph or a chapter . . . so what to cite, then, the chapter or the book? 

The type of reference needed depends on who wrote what. Essentially, you should cite the largest entity that the author in question is responsible for.

Book References

If the author wrote the entire book, then provide a reference for the whole book. Here are templates for print books, electronic books, and books with DOIs (print or electronic), respectively:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher.

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work [E-reader version, if applicable]. Retrieved from http://xxxxx

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work [E-reader version, if applicable]. doi:xxxxx

Book Chapter References

On the other hand, if the chapter comes from a book where each chapter is written by different authors (and the whole thing is put together by an editor), then provide a separate reference for each chapter that you used. The templates for chapters in edited books are shown below, for print books, electronic books, and books with DOIs (either print or electronic), respectively:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xxx–xxx). Location: Publisher.

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Title of book [E-reader version, if applicable] (pp. xxx–xxx). Retrieved from http://xxxxx

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Title of book [E-reader version, if applicable] (pp. xxx–xxx). doi:xxxxx

Here information on both the whole book and the chapter is provided. This allows the reader to retrieve the book and to know who is responsible for both the whole book and the chapter in question. If there are no page numbers in the electronic book, omit that portion of the reference. 

Other Notes

If you read an e-book on an e-reader, such as a Kindle, Sony Reader, or Nook, provide the version that you read (e.g., Kindle DX version) in square brackets following the title, not italicized, as shown in the examples above. 

To help your reader find the cited material, you can provide additional detail (page numbers, chapter numbers, etc.) in the text reference. Always give specific location information (generally, page numbers; here's what to do when there are no page numbers) for direct quotations; it is optional for paraphrasing and other mentions. 

More information and real-life examples are provided in the sixth edition APA Publication Manual, section 7.02 (pp. 202–205).