References Page and Citing Books

At the end of your paper, you must provide a References page that lists all the sources you cited in your paper. Do not include sources that you did not cite in your paper. The APA format requires that you provide information about the source so that somebody could find it. You must provide this information in a specific format based on the type text annotation indicator and medium of the source.

Exception: cite personal communication such as letters and e-mails only in the text and not in the list of references.

Format of the References Page

If you need a reminder of the general APA format, refer to the Publisher Manual of the American Psychological Association or "Social Sciences: Documenting Sources."

Begin "References" on a new sheet of paper
Title it References in the center of the first line
Arrange entries in alphabetical order by the authors last name
Align each entry at the left margin and indent all additional lines of the entry by a half (1/2) inch. This is called Hanging Indentation.

How To Cite Books

Elements you will need about the book:

Author's name: last name, first initial and middle initial, if shown (Ex: Jones, B. B.)
Year of publication
Title of the part of the book
Name of the editor, translator, or compiler
Title of the book
Edition
Number(s) of volume(s) used
Series name, if any is given
City of publication, name of publisher
Page numbers of the selection from the book
Additional information about the source

If a source doesn't provide one of these fields, skip it and continue to the next field.

Book Examples:

Article from a Typical Reference Book

Jensen, A. C. (1997). Animal rights. In J. K. Roth (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Social Issues: Vol. 1

(pp. 90-99). New York: Marshall.

Typical Book

Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar.

More Examples

You may visit Valencia Community College East Campus Library for more examples.

Activity

Click on the activity below to put citation fields in the correct order.

Ordering Activity indicator

Self Check

Click on the Self Check below to test your knowledge.

Which citation is in the correct format?

a. Ford, Madeline. In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship. "Learning to Be: An African American Experience in Academic Libraianship." Eds. Teresa Y. Neely and Khafre K. Abif. Lanham: Scarecrow, 1996. 104-24.

b. Ford, M. (1996). Learning to Be: An African American Experience in Academic Librarianship. In T. Y. Neely & K. K. Abdif (Eds.). In our own voices: The changing face of librarianship (pp. 104-124). Lanham: Scarecrow.

c. Madeline Ford. In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship. "Learning to Be: An African American Experience in Academic Libraianship." Eds. Teresa Y. Neely and Khafre K. Abif. Lanham: Scarecrow, 1996. 104-24.

d. Madeline Ford. Learning to Be: An African American Experience in Academic Libraianship. In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship. Eds. Teresa Y. Neely and Khafre K. Abif. Lanham: Scarecrow, 1996. 104-24.

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APA: Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources