Book with one author
Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. Crown Publishers.
Books with multiple authors (up to 20)
Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2015). Media & culture: Mass communication in a digital age. Bedford/St. Martin’s.
An edition of a book
Santos, R. (2013). Crime analysis with crime mapping (3rd ed.). Sage.
Book compiled by an editor
Pinsky, R. (Ed.). (2013). The best of the best American poetry. Scribner Poetry.
A work in an anthology or reference work, with author
Eggers, D. (2104). The man at the river. In R. Atwan (Ed.), The best American essays 2014 (pp. 31-33). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Entry from a reference work, no author attributed to the entry
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (2004). In J. K. Muir (Ed.), The encyclopedia of superheroes on film and television (pp. 153-190). McFarland
eBook from a library database
Ying, L. (2010). The a to z of modern Chinese literature. Scarecrow Press.
Multi-volume book
Myers, J. (2007). Surveillance cameras. In W. G. Staples (Ed.). Encyclopedia of privacy (Vol. 2, pp. 84-86). Greenwood.
Author - The author is the person who has written the content of the book.
Title - This is the title of the work that you are referencing in your research paper. In the case of books, this can be either the title of the whole book, or, if it is an anthology or reference book, the title refers to an individual entry within the book.
Editor - An editor is the person who prepared a book written by others for publication. One example of a book prepared by an editor would be a later edition of a classic novel in which the editor includes notes and an introduction from another well-known person. Also, many anthologies or reference works are written by many authors and compiled by an editor.
Publisher - The publisher is the company or person who published the book. You will find this information on the title page of a book.
Date of Publication - For books, you will include the year that the book is published. Do not include months and days.
Anthology - An anthology is a collection of works, such as a book of poems or essays.
Reference Work - A reference work, or reference book, is a collection of facts and useful information that easily accessible. For example, dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and almanacs are all reference works. This term is easily (and understandably!) confused with "references," as in the citations for information referenced in a research paper.
DOI stands for Digital Object Identifier. Some academics books that are published electronically are assigned a DOI. The DOI is a unique string of alphanumeric characters that are assigned to to an article or ebook and helps researchers identify publications. APA style dictates that if an ebook is assigned a DOI, then the DOI is included in the citation
©2025 Houston City College Libraries