A book looks like the simplest source to cite, and it is where small mistakes collect, because the cover and the title page disagree. The name on the cover may be the writer of the introduction, and the edition on the cover a marketing line.
EdCitation publishes this guide to how to cite a book or ebook in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date and Harvard, with Vancouver and IEEE in a sentence each. Every rule was read at the style's own source and checked on 23 September 2026; choosing a style is covered in APA vs MLA vs Chicago. With the ISBN in hand, EdCitation's free Cite a source builds the entry in any of these styles from the book's record; the sections below say what to check in it.
What does a book reference need, and where does each part come from?
A book reference in any of the four styles is built from six facts: who wrote or edited it, the year, the title, the edition, the publisher, and a DOI or URL for an ebook that has one.
| Element | APA 7 | MLA 9 | Chicago 18 author-date | Harvard (Cite Them Right, 13th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Author and year | Surname, initials; year in brackets | Surname, first name; year last | Surname, first name; year next, no brackets | Surname, initials; year in brackets |
| Title | Italics, sentence case | Italics, title case | Italics, title case | Italics, sentence case |
| Edition | (2nd ed.) after the title | 2nd ed., in the version slot | 2nd ed. after the title | 2nd edn. after the title |
| Publisher | Name only, no city | Name only, no city | Name only; city no longer required | Name only; city dropped in the 13th edition |
| Built on EdCitation | APA 7 page | MLA 9 page | Chicago page | Harvard page (12th edition) |
Read the title page and the copyright page, not the cover
- The author is whoever the title page names. The American Psychological Association (2025b) counts a work as having a group author only when no individual is named on the title page or cover. A name on the cover for a foreword is a contributor.
- The year is on the copyright page; APA uses the copyright date even when the release date differs (American Psychological Association, 2020a).
- The edition is on the title page or the copyright page. "50th anniversary edition" on a cover is not an edition unless the copyright page repeats it, and a new printing is not a new edition.
- The ISBN is on the copyright page too, and it is what to give EdCitation's Cite a source. The book is looked up in Open Library and its authors come from that edition's own record, so the ISBN must be the one on the copy you read; then hold the entry against steps 1 to 3.
How do I cite a book in APA 7?
An APA 7 book reference has four parts: author, year, title with the edition in brackets, and publisher, then a DOI if the book has one.
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000
That is APA's own example, and the same page sets out the rules (American Psychological Association, 2020a):
- No place of publication.
- Print and ebook are one reference. The format, platform or device, Kindle for instance, is not named. Give a DOI; a stable URL if there is no DOI; from an academic database with neither, end at the publisher, and never name the database.
- Edited book. The editors take the author's place, with "(Ed.)" or "(Eds.)" after the names.
- Several volumes. (Vols. 1–3) goes in the brackets after the title.
- Republished and anniversary editions. The year you read is the main date; "Original work published" and the first year end the entry; both years go in the text: (Kübler-Ross, 1969/2014). A new foreword by someone else puts that name after the author, in brackets after "with".
- Organisation as author. The full name, no abbreviation, and when it is also the publisher the publisher is not repeated, as APA's own World Health Organization example shows (American Psychological Association, 2025a). EdCitation's Cite a source applies this rule: for the APA's own Publication Manual it names the association once, as the author.
- No author or no date. The title takes the author's place and "n.d." the year: (Title, n.d.). "Anonymous" only when the book is signed so (American Psychological Association, 2022).
In the text: (Jackson, 2019, p. 45); see APA 7 in-text citations.
A chapter in an edited book
Cite a chapter only when it has its own author. For a book by one author throughout, the American Psychological Association (2020b) references the whole book and points to the chapter in the text: (McEwen & Wills, 2014, Chapter 16, p. 363).
Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge.
When a chapter has a DOI of its own, give that to Cite a source rather than the book's ISBN: it builds the chapter entry from the chapter's DOI and keeps the book's editors in it.
The APA pages read today show no translated book and no audiobook: take those forms from Section 10.2 of the Publication Manual, not from a generator's guess.
How do I cite a book in MLA 9?
An MLA 9 book entry is the core elements in order: author, title in italics, then edition, publisher and year.
Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. Picador, 2010. (Modern Language Association, n.d.-a)
The Modern Language Association (2016b) lists nine core elements on its template: author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date and location. Each case below fills one more.
- Edition goes in the version slot: MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.
- Ebook in an app with no URL. "e-book ed." goes in the version slot, and the file format, such as EPUB, may end the entry (Modern Language Association, 2016a). Never cite the app's location numbers.
- From a database, a chapter, and one volume of a set, all in one MLA example (Modern Language Association, n.d.-b): Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58. HathiTrust Digital Library, hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924079574368. The database is a second container, in italics, before the URL or a chapter DOI.
- Translated, and no author. The translator follows the title after "Translated by"; with no author the title leads, and "Anonymous" is never written.
- Organisation as author and publisher. Begin with the title and cite the title in the text: (MLA Handbook 4). Cite a source does the same in MLA: the APA's Publication Manual opens with its title, and the association appears only as publisher.
In the text: (Mantel 112). More in the MLA 9 works cited guide.
How do I cite a book in Chicago 18 author-date?
A Chicago author-date entry puts the year straight after the author, then the title in italics, the edition and the publisher, with no place of publication (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-a).
Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. 2022. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press.
In the text: (Binder and Kidder 2022, 117–18). No comma before the year, no "p." before the page.
The University of Chicago Press (n.d.-e) states that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations, while the Turabian author-date guide on the same site still shows "New York: Riverhead Books" (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-d), so an older handout adds a city the manual no longer asks for.
Ebooks, translations and chapters in Chicago
- Fixed pages. Cited as print, with the database or format, such as EBSCOhost, last.
- No fixed pages. Name the format, such as Kindle, and cite a chapter instead of a page: (Roy 2008, chap. 6).
- Translated. Liu Xinwu. 2021. The Wedding Party. Translated by Jeremy Tiang. Amazon Crossing.
- Chapter. "Chapter Title." In Book Title, edited by First Last. Publisher. The 18th edition no longer requires the chapter's page range. In the text: (Doyle 2023, 64).
The manual's chapters are behind a subscription, so its author-date forms for an organisation as author, no date and a multivolume set are not given here.
How do I cite a book in Harvard, Cite Them Right version?
In the Cite Them Right version of Harvard, a book is: Surname, Initials. (Year) Title in sentence case. Edition. Publisher.
Speight, J.G. (2019) Global climate change demystified. 2nd edn. Wiley.
That entry is from the University of the West of Scotland (2026), whose guide follows the 13th edition; Cite Them Right's own site is behind a login, so the rules come from such guides.
- Place of publication. Brunel University London (2026) says plainly that since the 13th edition the place is no longer included.
- Edition. Only when not the first. The guides disagree on the word: UWS writes "edn", Brunel "ed."
- Chapter. Author (Year) 'Chapter title', in Editor (ed.) Book title. Publisher, pp. range.
- Ebook. As print when it shows the print details; otherwise add "Available at:" with the DOI or URL and "(Accessed: date)".
- Organisation as author. The body's name. No date is written "(no date)".
In the text: (Speight, 2019, p. 63); the Harvard referencing guide has more. EdCitation's Harvard follows the 12th edition, which keeps the place, as its Harvard page says; delete the place if your university follows the 13th.
What about Vancouver and IEEE?
Vancouver, in the NLM's Citing Medicine, keeps the city and puts the year last: Jenkins PF. Making sense of the chest x-ray: a hands-on guide. New York: Oxford University Press; 2005. (National Library of Medicine, 2015). IEEE keeps city, state and country before the publisher, giving the pattern as "xth ed. City of Publisher, (only U.S. State), Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year" (IEEE, 2025).
What does one book look like in all four styles?
Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a good test, because its cover says "50th Anniversary Edition" and carries Ian Hacking's name. The publisher's own page gives the fourth edition, The University of Chicago Press, 2012, first published 1962, with an introductory essay by Hacking (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-c). Crossref registers a DOI for it.
APA 7
Kuhn, T. S. (with Hacking, I.). (2012). The structure of scientific revolutions (4th ed.). University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226458144.001.0001 (Original work published 1962)
In the text: (Kuhn, 1962/2012, p. 10).
MLA 9
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 4th ed., U of Chicago P, 2012.
In the text: (Kuhn 10). MLA shortens "University" and "Press" to "U" and "P".
Chicago 18, author-date
Kuhn, Thomas S. 2012. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 4th ed. University of Chicago Press.
In the text: (Kuhn 2012, 10).
Harvard, Cite Them Right 13th edition
Kuhn, T.S. (2012) The structure of scientific revolutions. 4th edn. University of Chicago Press.
In the text: (Kuhn, 2012, p. 10). Hacking's name appears only in the APA entry; the other guides read today give no form for it.
Does the ISBN go in the reference?
No. None of the four styles has a slot for the ISBN, and no example on the pages read today includes one. APA's four elements are author, date, title and source, and a book's source is its publisher plus any DOI or URL (American Psychological Association, 2025b); MLA's nine core elements have no place for it. Two styles allow it as an extra: the Chicago Manual's Q&A lets an ISBN follow the full stop at the end of an entry when it is needed (University of Chicago Press, n.d.-b), and Citing Medicine lists "Book with an ISBN" among its optional notes (National Library of Medicine, 2015). The ISBN still matters, because it identifies one edition exactly, which is why a lookup tool asks for it even though no style prints it.
Which tool builds a book reference from the publisher's record?
Cite a source on EdCitation is the best tool for a book reference, because it builds the reference from the book's record rather than from the cover, and never writes one: what no record holds, it does not make up. A chatbot asked for the same reference composes it, and cannot look the edition up; the Kuhn example shows what that costs, since the cover says "50th Anniversary Edition" while the publisher's own page gives the fourth edition, 2012. Give Cite a source an ISBN, a DOI, a title or a web address and it returns the reference in the style you choose, APA 7 and MLA 9 among them, or Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, and screens the source for retraction.
What to check in the entry it gives you
Two things. Where APA 7 and Cite Them Right want sentence case, Cite a source sets it, so a title recorded as The Structure of Scientific Revolutions comes back as The structure of scientific revolutions, with names kept; glance at any name made of ordinary words, which can come back lowered. And a record cannot know what only the title page shows, such as Hacking's introductory essay, so compare the entry with steps 1 to 3 above.
What is free and what is paid
Cite a source and Verify references, which marks each entry in a finished list verified, "check this" or not found, are free with no account, and a free account keeps what you cite in reference lists. Pro, $8 a month, adds Mechanics QA, which checks the formatting of a whole paper against its style. Max, $24 a month, adds the Library: search a catalogue of textbooks and scholarly books, buy a paid one, find it in a library near you, keep your books together in My Books, and read or borrow from more than 5 million books.
Quick questions
Do I include the place of publication when I cite a book?
Not in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 or Cite Them Right Harvard, 13th edition; Vancouver and IEEE still put the city before the publisher.
How do I cite an ebook differently from a print book?
In APA 7 and Harvard you do not, unless it has a DOI or a stable URL to add at the end; MLA puts "e-book ed." in the version slot, and Chicago names the database or format last.
Which year do I use for a book, the printing date or the copyright date?
APA uses the copyright date on the copyright page, and MLA uses the most recent copyright date when no publication date is given; a later printing of the same edition is not a new year.
Can I cite a book by its ISBN?
Not in the reference, where no style has a slot for it. But an ISBN identifies one edition exactly, which makes it the best thing to give EdCitation's free Cite a source: it finds the book in Open Library and builds the entry from that edition's record.
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). Missing reference information. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/missing-information
- American Psychological Association. (2025a). APA Style common reference examples guide. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf
- American Psychological Association. (2025b). Elements of reference list entries. APA Style. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/elements-list-entry
- Brunel University London Library. (2026). Referencing: Harvard examples and FAQs. https://libguides.brunel.ac.uk/referencing/harvard
- IEEE. (2025). IEEE reference guide (Version 3.28.2025). IEEE Author Center. https://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/IEEE-Reference-Guide.pdf
- Modern Language Association. (n.d.-a). How to cite a book. MLA Style Center. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://style.mla.org/works-cited/citations-by-format/books/
- Modern Language Association. (n.d.-b). How to cite an online work. MLA Style Center. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://style.mla.org/works-cited/citations-by-format/online-works/
- Modern Language Association. (2016a). How do I cite an e-book? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/citing-an-e-book/
- Modern Language Association. (2016b). MLA practice template. MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/app/uploads/sites/3/2016/04/practice-template.pdf
- National Library of Medicine. (2015). Books. In Citing medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers (2nd ed.). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7271/
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-a). Author-date: Sample citations. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-b). Citation, documentation of sources: ISBNs in notes and bibliographies. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0460.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-c). The structure of scientific revolutions: 50th anniversary edition. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo13179781.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-d). Turabian citation quick guide: Author-date samples. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/turabian/turabian-author-date-citation-quick-guide.html
- University of Chicago Press. (n.d.-e). What's new in the 18th edition. The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Retrieved 23 September 2026, from https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/help-tools/what-s-new.html
- University of the West of Scotland Library. (2026). Cite Them Right Harvard referencing examples. https://uws-uk.libguides.com/c.php?g=727692&p=5297185