The APA style (7th edition) contains guidelines offered by the American Psychological Association for works in the field of psychology, social sciences, health and medicine, nursing, and others. This article will help you find how to use the APA style for books when developing References and including in-text citations in your essay or research paper. For more information how to format in APA, go here.
These are presented using examples of different sources, their format in references and in in-text citations.
1. Book with a Single Author
Jackson, M. (2002). Systems approaches to management. Kluwer.
While citing in the text, you can either refer to the author in a sentence or include the name in brackets:
- According to the findings by Jackson (2002),….
- The research states that …. (Jackson, 2002).
For a book with No Date available, use the following format:
Author, A. A. (n.d.). Title of the book. Publisher.
2. Book with Two Authors
Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2010). Principles of marketing (13th ed.). Pearson Education.
In the text, change & into “and” while referring to the authors and use & in brackets:
- Kotler and Armstrong (2010) point out that…
- Other authors also support these findings (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010).
3. Translated Book
Bresson, A. (2016). The making of the Ancient Greek economy (S. Rendall, Trans.). Princeton University Press.
If the year of translation and the year of book’s first publication are different, the format is as follows:
Author, A. (Publication year of the translated version). Book title (A. Surname, Trans.). Publisher (Original work published 1954)
4. Book Chapter
When use use a book chapter from a book compiled by editors, the following format is applied:
Author, A. A. (2025). Title of chapter or article in the book. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Editors), Title of the book (pp. 3-15). Publisher.
5. Book Having Several Editions
Grossman, S. (2013). Mentoring in nursing: A dynamic and collaborative process (2nd ed.). Springer.
If you see phrases like “Springer Publishing Company,” you can omit “publishing company” or “publisher” and leave the name only.
The first edition of the book should not have this part (1st ed.) since it is not correct and used only for all other subsequent publications.
In case of citing an edition from several volumes, add Vol. no after edition:
Author, A. A. (Date). Title (7th ed., Vol. 2). Publisher.
6. eBook
When citing an e-book found on the website, add [eBook edition]:
Autor, A. A. (2025). Title of the book [eBook edition]. Publisher (if available). Active link
7. Bible Citation
King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ (Original work published 1769)
When citing in the text, refer to the full Bible name first with abbreviation in brackets. In subsequent citations, you can use abbreviation:
- (King James Bible [KJB], 1769/2017, verse)
- Further in the text (KJB, 1769/2017, verse)
8. Template for References
In References, arrange sources in alphabetical order. Using sources of the same author and with the same data, add a, b, c:
- Author, A. A. (n.d.)
- Author, A. A. (2025a)…
- Author, A. A. (2025b)…
You can find a reference list template below.
Updated on March 1, 2025
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