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Reference elements

Place of publication

The city where a book was published — once standard everywhere, now dropped by APA 7 and, for modern books, by MLA 9 and Chicago's 18th edition.

APA 6 wanted “New York, NY: Academic Press”; APA 7 wants just “Academic Press”. The change reflects reality — for a modern book the city tells a reader nothing they need. MLA 9 also omits it except for pre-1900 works.

Chicago's 18th edition no longer requires it (§14.30), but it genuinely matters for older books, where the same title from different cities can be a different setting of the text — which is why Chicago still gives the city for books published before 1900 (§14.31). Add the state, province, or country only where the city is ambiguous.

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