APA Style bibliography for Books

APA Style or the American Psychological Association Style is frequently used in the social sciences and the physical sciences. It is different in small ways from the other style guides. Your teacher or professor can tell you what style to use, but this style is frequently used with subjects such as psychology, sociology, history, geography, anthropology, archeology, geography, history, political science, international studies, cultural studies such as Native American studies, African American studies, Latin American studies, Asian studies, earth sciences, natural sciences, environmental science and others. Check out More APA Style Guide samples here.

APA Style Guide steps and examples for books

Scroll down for detailed explanations and tips.

When you are getting your sources, collect these pieces of information:

- Authors' names

- Date of publication

- Title

- Place of publication

- Name of publishing company

This information should be included on the first page of the book where the title is written and on the next page which has the book's credits.

Samples

Example: Basic Format

      Author's last name, first initial of first name. (year published). Title of book, volume number if applicable, page numbers used. City where it was published: Name of publisher.

Example: One author

      Galvez, A. (2005). The dust bowl of Africa: Agriculture in the Sahel, 22-35, 38, 55-58, 92. Johannesburg: Sommerset Press.

Example: Multiple editors

      Brown, P., Eddings, J. & Matting, F. (Eds.). (2008). Chronology of British Elizabethan poetry. New York: Schafter and Helmand, Inc.

Example: Essay or book chapter

      Bradford, N. (1997). The salt wars. History of the Southwest, 2, 259-287. Pittsburgh: Fastington Press

Detailed steps for adding books to bibliography

1. Author - Write the author's last name, a comma, then the first initital in their first name (and initial of their middle name if available). Put a period after their initial or inititals. Use a normal font with no special emphasis.

2. If there is more than one author, put them in alphabetical order. Separate each name with a comma. Before the last author, omit the comma and use an ampersand which looks like & instead of the word "and".

3. If the book was edited, put Ed. or Eds. in parentheses. If it does not say Edited by followed by a list of editors, just skip this step.

4. Write the year the book was published in parentheses. Put a period.

5. If you are citing a certain chapter or essay in the book, write the name of the essay or chapter followed by a period. If you are not citing a chapter or section, skip this step.

6. Write the title of the book and underline it. Put a period after. Only the first word of the book's title and any proper nouns should be capitalized. Proper nouns include people's names, business names, countries and specific places. The title may start with a few words, followed by a colon and then the rest of the title. In that case, capitalize the first word after the colon.

7. If the book is from a book collection, use a period instead of a comma after the title and write the volume number. Put a period.

8. If citing certain pages, put a comma instead of a period after the title or volume number, and write the pages. If there is more than one set of page numbers, separate each section with a comma.

9. Write the city where the book was published. Follow it with a colon, which looks like this :

10. Write the name of the publishing company. Follow it with a period.

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