Archive: APA 6th Edition: Print Books

Single Author:

Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Duhigg, C. (2016). Smarter faster better: The transformative power of real productivity. New York: Random House.

Two Authors:

Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. & Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Weber, J. R. & Kelley, J. H. (2014). Health assessment in nursing (5th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

Three to Seven Authors:

All the authors must be listed up to seven in the format of Author Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial., all separated by commas, with an ampersand before the last author. The rest of the citation is the same as single or two authors.

Example:

London, M. L., Wieland Ladewig, P. A., Davidson, M. R., Ball, J. W., McGillis Bindler, R. C., & Cowen, K. J. (2017). Maternal and child nursing care (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

NOTE: If more than seven authors, put down the first six, then an ellipsis (..), ampersand and last author.

Books will usually have one or several authors. They can also be written by organization or government entity as authors, or an anthology of multiple authors, with an editor or multiple editors. Below are some examples of citing books without authors. 

Unknown Author

Book title: Subtitle. (Year). Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Merriam-Webster's medical dictionary. (2016). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

Organization as Author

Name of Organization. (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Note: Organization names are considered proper nouns, make sure they are capitalized in the title.

Edited Book, No Author

When a book has a single or multiple editors but no author, the editors get listed in the authors' spot.

Editor Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial. (Eds.). (Year). Book Title: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example:

Catapano, P. & Critchley, S. (Eds.). (2016). The stone reader: Modern philosophy in 133 arguments. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation.