Learning how to cite a book is one of the first skills you need for any research paper, and the rules change depending on whether your instructor wants APA, MLA, or Chicago style. This guide shows you the exact format for each style, with correct examples you can copy and adapt to your own sources.
The information you need before you start
A book citation is built from a small set of facts. Find them on the title page and the copyright page (the back of the title page), not from the cover or an online store listing. You will need:
- Author or editor name(s)
- Year of publication
- Full title and subtitle
- Edition (only if it is not the first)
- Publisher name
- Page numbers (for the specific passage you cite in the text)
Once you have these, the only thing that changes between styles is the order, the punctuation, and a few small conventions. If you want a refresher on the underlying logic, see what a citation is and how to cite sources in general.
How to cite a book in APA (7th edition)
APA uses author-date format. The reference list entry puts the author last name first, then the year in parentheses, then the title in sentence case and italics, then the publisher. APA 7 no longer includes the publisher location.
Book with one author
Smith, J. A. (2020). Understanding modern research methods. Oxford University Press.
In-text: (Smith, 2020, p. 45)
Note the sentence case title (only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalized) and the use of p. for a single page or pp. for a range.
Book with two authors
List both authors and join them with an ampersand. In a narrative sentence, use the word “and” instead.
Smith, J. A., & Jones, M. B. (2019). Writing for the social sciences (2nd ed.). Sage.
In-text: (Smith & Jones, 2019)
Three or more authors
In the reference list, name up to 20 authors. In the text, give the first author followed by “et al.” from the very first citation.
Smith, J. A., Jones, M. B., & Lee, K. (2021). Foundations of qualitative inquiry. Routledge.
In-text: (Smith et al., 2021)
For a deeper look at handling many names and edited collections, read our guide on citing multiple authors. If you have the book’s ISBN, the ISBN to APA citation generator can retrieve the matching edition for review; otherwise, build the entry manually with the APA citation generator.
How to cite a book in MLA (9th edition)
MLA organizes sources into a Works Cited list and uses author-page in-text citations with no comma between the name and the page number. The title appears in title case and italics, and the year comes at the end.
Book with one author
Smith, John A. Understanding Modern Research Methods. Oxford University Press, 2020.
In-text: (Smith 45)
MLA spells out the author’s first name in full and uses title case capitalization for the book title.
Book with two authors
Only the first author is inverted (last name first). Join the two with “and.”
Smith, John A., and Mary B. Jones. Writing for the Social Sciences. 2nd ed., Sage, 2019.
In-text: (Smith and Jones 112)
Three or more authors
Give the first author followed by “et al.” in both the Works Cited entry and the in-text citation.
Smith, John A., et al. Foundations of Qualitative Inquiry. Routledge, 2021.
In-text: (Smith et al. 78)
If you are deciding between these two systems, our APA vs MLA comparison explains the key differences, and the MLA citation generator formats the entries for you.
How to cite a book in Chicago style (17th edition)
Chicago offers two systems. Notes and Bibliography is common in history and the humanities and uses footnotes plus a bibliography. Author-Date is common in the sciences and social sciences and works much like APA. Choose the one your discipline or instructor requires.
Notes and Bibliography
You provide a footnote the first time you cite a source and a matching bibliography entry. The footnote and the bibliography entry differ in punctuation and in name order.
Bibliography: Smith, John A. Understanding Modern Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Footnote: 1. John A. Smith, Understanding Modern Research Methods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 45.
The full first note includes the page number for the passage you used. A shortened note for later references would read: Smith, Understanding Modern Research Methods, 45.
Author-Date
This version places the year right after the author and uses in-text parentheses similar to APA, but without a comma before the page number.
Reference list: Smith, John A. 2020. Understanding Modern Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
In-text: (Smith 2020, 45)
For more detail on footnotes, shortened notes, and bibliography rules, see our Chicago style guide or generate entries with the Chicago citation generator. Students using Turabian, the student-focused version of Chicago, can use the Turabian citation generator.
Common situations and how to handle them
Citing a chapter in an edited book
When you use one chapter from a book that has different authors for each chapter, cite the chapter author, then the chapter title, then the editor and book. In APA the editor’s name is not inverted in this position: the structure is Chapter author surname, Initials. (Year). Chapter title. In F. M. Editor (Ed.), Book title (pp. 25–40). Publisher. The chapter title stays in sentence case and is not italicized, while the book title is italicized.
Citing an e-book
For most e-books read on a standard reader, you cite them exactly like a print book. Do not add the format or the device. If the e-book has no fixed page numbers, cite a chapter or section heading instead of a page when you quote directly.
Citing a textbook or a republished classic
A textbook follows the normal book rules; see our note on citing a textbook. For a reprinted classic work, APA ends the reference with the note “(Original work published 1899)” and, in the text, gives both years separated by a slash, for example (Author, 1899/2020).
Quick comparison of the three styles
- Author names: APA uses initials, MLA and Chicago spell out first names.
- Title capitalization: APA uses sentence case, MLA and Chicago use title case.
- In-text form: APA (Smith, 2020, p. 45), MLA (Smith 45), Chicago Author-Date (Smith 2020, 45), Chicago Notes uses footnotes.
- Joining authors: APA uses an ampersand in parentheses, MLA and Chicago use “and.”
To choose the right system for an assignment, our overview of citation styles explained is a good starting point, and the free citation generator handles all three. If you are unsure how parenthetical and narrative forms differ, see in-text citations.
Frequently asked questions
Do I italicize the title of a book in all three styles?
Yes. APA, MLA, and Chicago all italicize book titles. The difference is capitalization: APA uses sentence case (capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns), while MLA and Chicago use title case (capitalize the major words).
Where do I find the year and publisher for a book?
Look at the title page and the copyright page, which is usually the back of the title page. Use the most recent copyright year and the publisher named there. Do not take the date from the cover or from an online store, since those can be wrong.
How do I cite a book with no author?
Move the title into the author position and order the entry alphabetically by the first significant word of the title. In the text, use a shortened version of the title in place of the author name, for example (Understanding Modern Research Methods 45) in MLA or the title in place of the author name in APA.
Do I need page numbers when I cite a book?
You always need page numbers for direct quotations and for paraphrasing a specific passage. For a general reference to the whole book, APA and MLA do not require a page number in the text, but Chicago notes still cite the relevant pages. When in doubt, include the page to help your reader find the source.