Biology and chemistry textbooks: what to buy and how to cite

Edinburgh's first-year Chemistry 1A sets Atkins' Physical Chemistry as the "10th Edition" and prints ISBN 978-0199543373 beside it. Paste that number into Cite a source, EdCitation's reference builder, and the record behind it is the ninth edition, dated 2010. The school's Chemistry 2 course sets the eleventh, and the twelfth has been out from Oxford University Press since 5 December 2022.

This guide is published by EdCitation. Its book lists come from Edinburgh's 2026/27 course descriptors, five Fall 2026 syllabi at Southern Utah University and York's library guides, each read on 23 September 2026, and it ends with every title in one catalogue, EdCitation's Library.

What do biology and chemistry students read?

Biology and chemistry students read a large textbook per subject or branch, then specialist texts, lab manuals, data books and, each year, more papers.

Edinburgh: one book for four biology courses, three for chemistry

Each first-year biology course at Edinburgh, from Biology 1A: Variation to 1D: Environment, sets the eleventh Global Edition of Campbell's Biology: A Global Approach as its core textbook (University of Edinburgh, 2026a, 2026b). Molecules, Genes and Cells 1 adds Essential Cell Biology, "4th or 5th edition" (University of Edinburgh, 2026g). Chemistry 1A shares three books with 1B, 2A and 2B: Weller's sixth edition, Atkins' tenth, and Clayden with no edition (University of Edinburgh, 2026d).

Southern Utah: a textbook, a code and a lab manual

Southern Utah's two Fall 2026 General Biology I sections set different books: Brooker's Biology with McGraw Hill's website (Southern Utah University, 2026a), or OpenStax's Biology 2e, free online as the syllabus says, with Carroll's The Story of Life (Southern Utah University, 2026b). Organic Chemistry I sets Klein and Starkey's fifth edition by ISBN (Southern Utah University, 2026e), and the chemistry lab its own manual from the bookstore, with safety goggles (Southern Utah University, 2026d).

Where papers take over

Lists shrink in the second year: Edinburgh's Biology 2A, 2B and 2C print "None" where the books would go (University of Edinburgh, 2026c). Southern Utah's General Biology Lab I sets no textbook but asks for one technical source, found without AI (Southern Utah University, 2026c).

Why does the edition matter in biology and chemistry?

The edition matters because chapters, problems and content move between editions, and one department can set two editions of a book at once.

Drawn from the course pages and the publishers' own sites (Oxford University Press, n.d.-a, n.d.-b, n.d.-c; Pearson, n.d.; W. W. Norton & Company, n.d.-a, n.d.-b).

Two editions in one department

Edinburgh's Chemistry 2 prints ISBNs for the seventh Weller and the eleventh Atkins (University of Edinburgh, 2026e); its first-year courses keep the sixth and tenth. The Dynamic Cell 2 names no edition for its list, only telling students to "make sure you get the latest edition" (University of Edinburgh, 2026f).

Data books change every year

The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is in its 107th edition online, © 2026, with Leah R. McEwen as editor-in-chief and sections of laboratory and safety data (McEwen, 2026). EdCitation's Library holds printed editions from the 93rd to the 100th, the earlier ones edited by William M. Haynes and the later by John Rumble. Cite a value from the edition you took it from.

How do I find a textbook by ISBN or edition?

Start from the ISBN on the course page and check the year and edition that come back against the course's, because one list's ISBN and edition can point at different books.

1. Copy the entry exactly, with its edition and ISBN.
2. Paste the number into Cite a source or the Library and read back the year and edition. Edinburgh's Atkins ISBN returned 2010 in both; the tenth edition's own, 9780199697403, returned 2014.
3. When the two disagree, ask the course organiser which is meant.
4. Search a title with its author. "Essential cell biology" alone returned 126 records, many of them other books of that name; with Alberts as author, 17.
5. Expect several ISBNs per edition: Pearson lists three for the 12th Global Edition's eTextbook, one per length of access.
6. Write down which edition you actually used: that is the one your reference gives.

How do I cite a biology or chemistry textbook, chapter, manual or data book?

Cite it in the style your department names. York's library gives Biology as Harvard, which most taught modules require, or Vancouver, and Chemistry as the Royal Society of Chemistry's style (University of York Library, n.d.-b). EdCitation's Cite a source, free with no account, builds Harvard (Cite Them Right), APA 7 and four other styles from the publisher's record; it does not make RSC or ACS referencing. Harvard has no set manual, York's guide warns (University of York Library, n.d.-a): the department's handbook wins.

A textbook, from its ISBN

Chemistry 2's ISBN for the eleventh Atkins, 9780198769866, returned in Harvard:

Atkins, P., de Paula, J. and Keeler, J. (2018) Atkins’ physical chemistry. Oxford University Press.

Oxford prints the second author as Julio de Paula, and the entry keeps the particle with the surname, as does the in-text citation, (Atkins, de Paula and Keeler, 2018). Add the edition and, as EdCitation's own entry for the ninth edition did, the place:

Atkins, P., de Paula, J. and Keeler, J. (2018) Atkins’ physical chemistry. 11th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Edinburgh's Campbell ISBN, 9781292170435, came back as "Urry, & Campbell, C. (2017)", two of six authors: write that entry from the book itself. In APA, a chapter of a book its authors wrote throughout, like Atkins, gets no reference of its own (American Psychological Association, 2020b).

A methods chapter in an edited handbook, by DOI

The DOI of Kruger's chapter on the Bradford assay returned in APA 7:

Kruger, N. J. (2009). The Bradford method for protein quantitation. In J. M. Walker (Ed.), The protein protocols handbook (pp. 17–24). Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-198-7_4

Author, editor and pages are right, and both titles are in sentence case, as APA asks whatever the work used (American Psychological Association, 2022). APA also wants the edition inside the parentheses with the pages (American Psychological Association, 2020b); Springer's page gives the third edition. Corrected, and cited in the text as (Kruger, 2009):

Kruger, N. J. (2009). The Bradford method for protein quantitation. In J. M. Walker (Ed.), The protein protocols handbook (3rd ed., pp. 17–24). Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-198-7_4

Other chapter cases are covered in citing a textbook chapter.

A lab manual, a practical handbook or a data book

A department's own manual is usually in no publisher's record. Given the title of Southern Utah's CHEM 1215 manual, Cite a source offered five other works, from a conference paper to Robert Boyle, and made nothing up. Build it from the title page; where no person is named, York's Harvard guide puts the organisation first, as for reports. That gives the department, then the year, the manual's title in italics, and the university as publisher.

A data book is an edited book. The ISBN of the CRC Handbook's 106th edition returned "Rumble, J. (2025) CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. CRC Press.": the editor filed as author, no edition. APA marks an editor "(Ed.)" and follows the title with the edition (American Psychological Association, 2020a):

Rumble, J. R. (Ed.). (2025). CRC handbook of chemistry and physics (106th ed.). CRC Press.

A journal article, and RSC and ACS style

Articles cite best from the DOI. For Keithley et al. (2021), on a student-built fluorescence spectrometer, Cite a source returned all six authors, volume, issue and pages, with the title, deposited in title case, set in sentence case, as APA asks.

The RSC's own pattern puts initials before surnames, the abbreviated journal in italics, then the year, the volume in bold and the pages, with a superscript number in the text after the punctuation (Royal Society of Chemistry, n.d.). Written by hand, with the short title the publisher registered:

R. B. Keithley, D. T. Sullivan, J. M. Dodd II, K. V. Iyer, C. A. Sarisky and T. W. Johann, J. Chem. Educ., 2021, 98, 4054–4060.

RSC journals take abbreviations from CAS's Source Index (CASSI): check yours there. ACS style is in the ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication, revised in April 2025 to require DOI links; its quick guide is open access (Wang, 2025).

How do I find and check papers for a biology or chemistry assignment?

Look for papers in EdCitation's Find sources, which searches some 300 million published works and filters by type of source, publication years and open access, and check the completed list in Verify references.

A search, and the filters it could not apply

On 23 September 2026, a search for "enzyme kinetics undergraduate laboratory" in titles, limited to articles since 2015 and sorted by most cited, was answered from Crossref's index: 269,743 results, with a 2021 Science paper and teaching experiments from Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education and the Journal of Chemical Education near the top. A broader search set to the field Chemistry and to open access also came from Crossref, and the response named both filters as not applied: a physics experiment on the speed of light came through. Then narrow with words, or search again another day.

The finished list, verified

Six entries went into Verify references: five came back verified and one "check this", the trap among them, "Atkins, P. and de Paula, J. (2010) Atkins' physical chemistry. 10th edn.", the ninth edition's year on the tenth. Its reason: "The catalogue dates the 9th edition 2010, not the 10th. Check the edition and year." The eleventh edition, dated 2018, came back "Title, author, edition and year match a library catalogue record". When the reason leaves out the word edition, the edition was not compared, so check it yourself. A seventh-edition Weller dated 2014 came back "check this": "The publisher's record dates the 7th edition 2018, not 2014." Nothing came back "could not check"; that means a slow catalogue, never a missing book, so run the entry again a minute later.

Where can I find biology and chemistry books in one place?

The best place to keep a biology or chemistry reading list together is EdCitation's Library, and the reason is the spread: checking the editions above meant reading course pages at two universities and five publishers' websites. The Library holds them in a single catalogue. Type a title, an author, a subject or an ISBN, then filter by discipline, type of book, language, page count and year.

Biology, chemistry and the set texts, by the numbers

Biology and Chemistry are among the 31 disciplines it files books under. Searched on 23 September 2026, Biology held 86,735 books, 2,786 of them once narrowed to textbooks; Chemistry held 73,174, including 2,952 textbooks and 3,504 handbooks or manuals. Atkins' Physical Chemistry, newest first, gave 161 records, the twelfth edition's two volumes of 2022 near the top and the eleventh, with Edinburgh's ISBN, below. Edinburgh's ISBN for Weller's seventh edition led to a book to borrow with Max.

What each card offers, and what needs Max

Every result carries its cover, authors, publisher and year, and says whether you can open it in the Library or need to buy it. The same card links to a shop for a paid title, lists nearby libraries that stock it, saves it to My Books, and builds its reference in one click, all with a free EdCitation account. Max ($24 a month, $216 a year) opens the rest: over 5 million books you can read or borrow, which EdCitation brought together for students and readers, plus Theoretics QA. Cite a source and Verify references work without signing up, and Pricing lists what each plan includes. Sister guides cover engineering textbooks and medicine books.

Quick questions

Which edition of Atkins' Physical Chemistry should I buy?

Whichever edition your course lists. Edinburgh's Chemistry 2 sets the eleventh; its first-year courses name the tenth but print the ninth's ISBN. The twelfth came out in December 2022.

Is there a free biology textbook?

Yes. OpenStax's Biology 2e is free to read online, and one of Southern Utah's General Biology I sections sets it.

Does EdCitation make RSC or ACS references?

No. EdCitation's Cite a source covers Harvard, APA 7, Vancouver, IEEE, MLA 9 and Chicago 18 author-date. Write RSC and ACS entries from each society's own guide.

Where can I find biology and chemistry textbooks in one place?

Use EdCitation's Library: look a book up by its title, author or ISBN, or browse Biology or Chemistry by type of book. Save titles to My Books, and with Max open any of over 5 million books to read or borrow.

References

• American Psychological Association. (2020a). Book/ebook references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references
• American Psychological Association. (2020b). Chapter in an edited book/ebook references. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/edited-book-chapter-references
• American Psychological Association. (2022). Sentence case capitalization. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/capitalization/sentence-case
• Keithley, R. B., Sullivan, D. T., Dodd, J. M., II, Iyer, K. V., Sarisky, C. A., & Johann, T. W. (2021). Learning about fluorescence in undergraduate biochemistry: Enzyme kinetics using a low-cost, student-built fluorescence spectrometer. Journal of Chemical Education, 98(12), 4054–4060. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00912
• Kruger, N. J. (2009). The Bradford method for protein quantitation. In J. M. Walker (Ed.), The protein protocols handbook (3rd ed., pp. 17–24). Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-198-7_4
• McEwen, L. R. (Ed.). (2026). CRC handbook of chemistry and physics (107th ed.) [Online edition]. CRC Press. https://hbcp.chemnetbase.com/
• Oxford University Press. (n.d.-a). Atkins' physical chemistry (12th ed.). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/atkins-physical-chemistry-9780198847816
• Oxford University Press. (n.d.-b). Inorganic chemistry (8th ed.). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/inorganic-chemistry-9780198866916
• Oxford University Press. (n.d.-c). Organic chemistry (2nd ed.). https://global.oup.com/academic/product/organic-chemistry-9780199270293
• Pearson. (n.d.). Biology: A global approach, global edition (12th ed.). https://www.pearson.com/en-gb/subject-catalog/p/biology-a-global-approach-global-edition/P200000005281/9781292477947
• Royal Society of Chemistry. (n.d.). Author guidelines for Chemical Science. https://www.rsc.org/publishing/publish-with-us/publish-a-journal-article/chemical-science
• Southern Utah University. (2026a). BIOL 1610-01: General biology I [Syllabus, Fall 2026]. https://my.suu.edu/syllabus/202630/BIOL-1610-01/
• Southern Utah University. (2026b). BIOL 1610-02: General biology I: The story of the cell [Syllabus, Fall 2026]. https://my.suu.edu/syllabus/202630/BIOL-1610-02/
• Southern Utah University. (2026c). BIOL 1615-01: General biology lab I [Syllabus, Fall 2026]. https://my.suu.edu/syllabus/202630/BIOL-1615-01/
• Southern Utah University. (2026d). CHEM 1215-01: Principles of chemistry I lab [Syllabus, Fall 2026]. https://my.suu.edu/syllabus/202630/CHEM-1215-01/
• Southern Utah University. (2026e). CHEM 2310-01: Organic chemistry I [Syllabus, Fall 2026]. https://my.suu.edu/syllabus/202630/CHEM-2310-01/
• University of Edinburgh. (2026a). Biology 1A: Variation (BILG08020) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxbilg08020.htm
• University of Edinburgh. (2026b). Biology 1D: Environment (BILG08023) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxbilg08023.htm
• University of Edinburgh. (2026c). Biology 2B: Genetics and evolution (BILG08025) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxbilg08025.htm
• University of Edinburgh. (2026d). Chemistry 1A (CHEM08016) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxchem08016.htm
• University of Edinburgh. (2026e). Chemistry 2 (CHEM08019) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxchem08019.htm
• University of Edinburgh. (2026f). The dynamic cell 2 (BILG08009) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxbilg08009.htm
• University of Edinburgh. (2026g). Molecules, genes and cells 1 (BILG08015) [Course descriptor, 2026/27]. https://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/26-27/dpt/cxbilg08015.htm
• University of York Library. (n.d.-a). Harvard. Referencing styles. https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/referencing-style-guides/harvard
• University of York Library. (n.d.-b). Referencing styles. https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/referencing-style-guides/home
• Wang, C. (2025, May 9). The ACS guide to scholarly communication: The latest updates for effective communication. ACS Axial. https://axial.acs.org/publishing/the-acs-guide-to-scholarly-communication-read-the-latest-updates-for-effective-communication
• W. W. Norton & Company. (n.d.-a). Essential cell biology (6th ed.). https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324033356
• W. W. Norton & Company. (n.d.-b). Essential cell biology (7th ed.). https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324126829