Formatting Book Reference Citations Using APA (6th ed.) Overview Formatting Book Reference Citations Using APA (6th ed.) This module discusses: The elements of a book citation Group author New rules about location information Publisher information Duration: 3 min 55 sec Welcome to this module about how to format a book reference citation using the sixth edition of the APA manual. You will learn about how to format the elements of the book citation including group authors, change in the rules for location information and how to format the publisher information.

Group author field American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Hanging indentations Reference citations need to be formatted using a hanging indentation. See APA (6th ed.), p. 37

Microsoft Word’s formatting for hanging indentations Go to Format. Select Paragraph. In Indents and Spacing Go to the Special section. Select Hanging. Microsoft Word has a special format for hanging indentations that can save you a lot of formatting problems..

Group author field Group author American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Period after the group author In this particular example, there is not an individual author. Instead, the book has a corporate or group author so the American Psychological Association is listed in the author field. Notice that there is a period after the name of the association. See APA (6th ed.), p. 184

Year of publication field American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. The year of publication is enclosed in parentheses and followed by a period. Even though the book came out in 2009, notice that the year of publication is listed as 2010. Use the date listed in the book as the official date of publication! See APA manual, p. 185

Book title field Book title American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Only the first word in the book title and subtitle should be capitalized as well as any proper names. Only the first word in the book title and subtitle (if any) as well as any proper names are capitalized. The word “publication” is capitalized because it is the first word in the book title, but the word “manual” should not be capitalized. There is no subtitle in this example, but the American Psychological Association is a proper name that does need to be capitalized. See APA manual, p. 185

Formatting book title Book title American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Only the first word in the book title and subtitle should be capitalized as well as any proper names. Notice that the edition number is included in parentheses. The edition number is not italicized, and APA says to not use superscript so the “th” in 6th should have a normal font size. The period after the book title goes after the parentheses for the edition number. Use (6th ed.), not (6th ed.) and do not italicize. Period goes after the edition number and page numbers, if any

Publication info American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. Place and publisher Book citations include the location and publisher information. The city is listed, followed by the state abbreviation. Use the U.S. postal abbreviation format so there should be no periods used for DC. The location is followed by a colon and then the publisher. Because APA wrote the book and published it, the American Psychological Association is already listed in the author field so you should use the word “Author” in the publisher field End the book citation with a period. Use DC, not D.C. (U.S. postal abbreviation for states) Use Author if the name of the publisher is the same as the author

Location and Publisher Info Use state abbreviations: FL, TX, NY, CA, DC All cities now include state abbreviation: Baltimore, MD Boston, MA Chicago, IL Los Angeles, CA New York, NY Philadelphia, PA San Francisco, CA Leave off superfluous terms: Publishers Co. or Company Inc. Retain the words: Books Press For example: Erlbaum, John Wiley, University of Toronto Press, Penguin Books The rule for state abbreviations changed in the 6th edition. Now the U.S. Postal abbreviations for states are always included with all cities. For example, you now include the state abbreviations with New York, Chicago, Boston, and so on. APA also has a couple rules about what to include in the name of the publisher. You should not include superfluous terms such as Publishers, Company, or Inc., but you do need to include the words Books and Press. As a result, you would just use Erlbaum and John Wiley for the publisher names, but you would have University of Toronto Press and Penguin Books. The rule for state abbreviations changed in the 6th ed. Now the U.S. postal abbreviations for states are always included with all cities. For example, you now include the state abbreviations with New York, Chicago, Boston, and so on. APA also has a couple rules about what to include in the name of the publisher. You should not include superfluous terms such as Publishers, Co., or Inc., but you do need to include the words Books and Press. As a result, you would just use Erlbaum and John Wiley for the publisher names, but you would use the University of Toronto Press and Penguin Books. See APA (6th ed.), p. 187

DOI number for books American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. doi:10.234/567-8910 DOI Some books now have assigned Digital Object Identifier numbers or DOIs. If available, include the number. Spell doi using the lower case. There is no space before or after the colon, and no period at the end of the DOI number. Some books now have assigned Digtial Object Identifier numbers or DOIs. If a DOI number is available, include it in the retrieval information. Use lower case when spelling doi in the citation. Also, there is no space before or after the colon, and do not include a period at the end of the DOI number.

The end Well, that finishes the basics on how to format a book citation that is going to be used in a reference list. However, there are lots of special formatting situations for book chapters, edited books, a book from a series, and so on. When in doubt, use the APA publication manual (6th edition) to find out more about APA formatting rules.