How do I cite a textbook edition in APA?

Put the edition in parentheses directly after the italic title, in roman type: Foundations of environmental engineering (4th ed.). Follow it with a period, the publisher, and a DOI if there is one. First editions are not labelled.

Where does the edition go in an MLA works-cited entry?

After the title and any editors, as the version element: Title. 4th ed., Publisher, Year. Use a numeral and lowercase ed., and follow it with a comma because the publisher and year that come next belong to the same container.

Do I cite the editor or the chapter author of a textbook?

The chapter author, whenever the chapter has one. The editors appear later in the entry: after In (Eds.) in APA, after edited by in MLA, and after ed. or edited by in Chicago. Cite the editors as authors only when you are citing the book as a whole or the chapters carry no separate authors.

How do I cite one chapter of a textbook written by a single author?

Cite the whole textbook. APA does not create references for chapters of authored books and instead lets you add the chapter to the in-text citation: (Okafor, 2022, Chapter 7, p. 214). MLA and Chicago likewise cite the book and put the page in the text, although Chicago permits a chapter-level entry when it genuinely helps the reader.

How do I cite an e-textbook with no page numbers?

Cite the book as usual, adding a DOI or URL if it has one, and never cite the page counter a reading app generates. In the text, use a chapter and paragraph or a section heading in APA, a chapter such as (Okafor, ch. 3) in MLA, and chap. 3 in Chicago. MLA adds e-book ed. to the entry when the copy has no URL, and Chicago names the format, such as Kindle, at the end.

Should I include the publisher's city for a textbook?

No. APA 7 removed the location, MLA has omitted it since the 8th edition, and Chicago 18 no longer requires it. The publisher's name, minus business words such as Inc. and Ltd., is enough.

Which year do I use when the copyright page lists several?

The year of the edition you read, which is usually the latest copyright year on that page. Earlier years belong to earlier editions. Do not use a printing or reprint date, and do not use the first edition's year unless the first edition is the one you used.

How do I write a page range for a textbook chapter?

APA writes both numbers in full: pp. 118–142. MLA and Chicago shorten the second number to its last two digits when the hundreds match, giving 118–42, but keep enough digits to be clear, so 98–104. Use an en dash, not a hyphen, in all three.

How to Cite a Textbook in APA, MLA, and Chicago [2026]

Quick Answer: cite a textbook

Take the author or editors, the year, the title, the edition, and the publisher from the title page and its reverse, not from the cover. APA 7 puts the edition in parentheses after the title and omits the publisher's city. MLA 9 puts the edition after the title as a version and puts editors either in the author position with the label editors or after the title as edited by. Chicago 18 writes the edition after the title in both notes and bibliography, drops the place of publication, and no longer requires a page range for a chapter in the bibliography. If you used a single chapter written by someone other than the book's editors, cite the chapter author and point to the book with In.

Textbook templates

APA 7, authored textbook:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of textbook: Subtitle (4th ed.). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

APA 7, chapter in an edited textbook:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of textbook (4th ed., pp. 118–142). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

MLA 9, authored textbook:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Textbook: Subtitle. 4th ed., Publisher, Year.

MLA 9, chapter in an edited textbook:

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter." Title of Textbook, edited by First Name Last Name and First Name Last Name, 4th ed., Publisher, Year, pp. 118–42.

Chicago 18 note:

1. First Name Last Name, Title of Textbook, 4th ed. (Publisher, Year), 214.

Chicago 18 bibliography:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Textbook. 4th ed. Publisher, Year.

Chicago 18 author-date:

Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Textbook. 4th ed. Publisher.

Read the title page before you cite

Most textbook citation errors come from the cover. Covers carry marketing names, list a lead author for a book that is really edited, and hide the edition in a corner. The title page and the copyright page behind it are the record the styles want, and five facts on them decide the whole citation.

Author or editor? If the names on the title page are followed by editor, editors, or edited by, the book is edited and its chapters have their own authors. If not, the named people wrote the whole book and every chapter is theirs.
Which edition? Use the edition on the title page of the copy you read, written as a number: 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Do not cite the newest edition because it exists. Page numbers change between editions, so a citation to the wrong edition points to the wrong page.
Which year? The copyright page lists the year of this edition, often alongside earlier editions. Cite the year of your edition, not the first edition's year and not the latest printing's year.
Publisher name. Take it from the title page. All three styles strip Inc., Co., Ltd., and similar business words; none of them wants the city in a current-edition citation.
DOI or URL. A digital textbook usually has a DOI on its copyright page or landing page. Use it as a link. If there is only a login-protected platform URL, cite the book as print.

The examples below use two invented textbooks: an authored one, Daniel R. Okafor's Foundations of Environmental Engineering, 4th edition, and an edited one, Principles of Clinical Nutrition, 3rd edition, edited by Maja Lindqvist and Tunde Abara, with a chapter by Pilar Vasquez.

APA 7: edition in parentheses, no city, chapter authors with In

APA's book reference has four elements: author, date, title, and source. The edition belongs to the title element and sits in parentheses after it, in roman type, abbreviated ed.: Title (4th ed.). The source element is the publisher's name alone, because APA 7 removed the location, followed by a DOI or URL when the book has one. Print and electronic copies are cited identically; the book references page says to use the same formats for both and never to name the platform or device.

Authored textbook

APA 7, authored textbook with an edition

Reference (print):

Okafor, D. R. (2022). Foundations of environmental engineering (4th ed.). Harrow Academic.

Reference (e-textbook with a DOI):

Okafor, D. R. (2022). Foundations of environmental engineering (4th ed.). Harrow Academic. https://doi.org/10.4321/hae.2022.0004

Parenthetical:

(Okafor, 2022, p. 214)

Narrative:

Okafor (2022) defines the treatment train as a sequence of unit processes (p. 214).

Edited textbook, cited as a whole

When you draw on the book as a whole rather than on one chapter, the editors take the author position with (Ed.) or (Eds.) after their names and before the date. Cite this form for a textbook whose chapters carry no separate authors, or when your point rests on the book's overall structure.

APA 7, edited textbook

Reference:

Lindqvist, M., & Abara, T. (Eds.). (2021). Principles of clinical nutrition (3rd ed.). Meridian Health Press.

Parenthetical:

(Lindqvist & Abara, 2021)

Narrative:

Lindqvist and Abara (2021)

One chapter from an edited textbook

This is the most common textbook citation in a paper and the one students most often get wrong. The chapter author is the author. The chapter title follows the year in sentence case with no quotation marks or italics. Then In, the editors' names in normal order with initials first, (Eds.), a comma, the italic book title, and a single set of parentheses holding the edition and the page range of the chapter, separated by a comma. APA's edited book chapter page is explicit that edition information and page range share the same parentheses, and that a chapter DOI goes after the publisher.

APA 7, chapter in an edited textbook

Reference:

Vasquez, P. (2021). Micronutrient assessment. In M. Lindqvist & T. Abara (Eds.), Principles of clinical nutrition (3rd ed., pp. 118–142). Meridian Health Press. https://doi.org/10.5555/pcn3.007

Parenthetical:

(Vasquez, 2021, p. 121)

Narrative:

Vasquez (2021) recommends serum ferritin as the first-line marker (p. 121).

Do not write:

(Lindqvist & Abara, 2021, p. 121) — the editors did not write the page you are citing

The opposite case matters too. APA does not create references for chapters of an authored book. If Okafor wrote the whole textbook, cite the whole textbook and, if a chapter locator helps, put it in the in-text citation: (Okafor, 2022, Chapter 7, p. 214). The reference list entry is the same book entry shown above.

E-textbooks and missing page numbers

A digital textbook with a DOI is cited exactly like the print edition plus the DOI as a link. A textbook read on a publisher platform with no DOI and a URL that only works after login is cited as print: stop after the publisher. Do not add "Kindle," "VitalSource," or the platform name; APA 7 dropped format descriptors for books. When the digital copy has no fixed pages, cite a chapter and paragraph, or a section heading, in the text: (Okafor, 2022, Chapter 3, para. 6). The publisher's page numbers, where the platform shows them, are always preferable.

Publisher names in APA

Write the name as it appears on the title page, minus Inc., Co., Ltd., Publishers, and similar designations: Harrow Academic, not Harrow Academic Publishers, Inc.
Keep Press and Books when they are part of the name: Meridian Health Press.
When the author and publisher are the same organisation, as with an open textbook published by a university department, omit the publisher element and go straight to the DOI or URL.
Never include the city. New York: Harrow Academic is APA 6, not APA 7.

MLA 9: edition after the title, editors as contributors

MLA builds the entry from its core elements in order: author, title of source, title of container, contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, location. For a textbook the edition is the version element, so it follows the title and any editors, in the form 4th ed., with a comma after it because the elements that follow belong to the same container. The MLA Style Center uses the same slot for named editions, as in Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed.,. Publishers keep their names minus business words, and University Press becomes UP.

Authored textbook

MLA 9, authored textbook

Works cited:

Okafor, Daniel R. Foundations of Environmental Engineering. 4th ed., Harrow Academic, 2022.

With a DOI:

Okafor, Daniel R. Foundations of Environmental Engineering. 4th ed., Harrow Academic, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4321/hae.2022.0004.

In-text:

(Okafor 214)

Author in the sentence:

Okafor defines the treatment train as a sequence of unit processes (214).

Edited textbook, cited as a whole

Editors of a whole book go in the author position followed by a comma and the label editor or editors. Two editors are joined by and; three or more use the first name and et al. This is the entry to use when no individual chapter author is responsible for the material you cite.

MLA 9, edited textbook

Works cited:

Lindqvist, Maja, and Tunde Abara, editors. Principles of Clinical Nutrition. 3rd ed., Meridian Health Press, 2021.

In-text:

(Lindqvist and Abara 5)

One chapter from an edited textbook

The chapter author leads, the chapter title sits in quotation marks, and the textbook becomes the container: italic title, then edited by and the editors' names in normal order, then the edition, publisher, year, and the chapter's page range with pp. MLA shortens the second number of a page range to its last two digits when the first two digits match: 118–42, 201–19, but 98–104. A chapter DOI ends the entry as a link, per the Style Center's note on DOIs for book chapters.

MLA 9, chapter in an edited textbook

Works cited:

Vasquez, Pilar. "Micronutrient Assessment." Principles of Clinical Nutrition, edited by Maja Lindqvist and Tunde Abara, 3rd ed., Meridian Health Press, 2021, pp. 118–42. https://doi.org/10.5555/pcn3.007.

In-text:

(Vasquez 121)

Two chapters from the same textbook:

Each chapter gets its own works-cited entry under its own author; the book is repeated as the container each time.

E-textbooks

If the digital textbook has a DOI or a stable URL, add it as the location at the end of the entry and cite pages as usual. If you read it in an app with no URL and no fixed pagination, the MLA Style Center says to add e-book ed. in the version slot, after any numbered edition, and to avoid device-generated page numbers in the text; cite a chapter instead.

MLA 9, e-textbook without fixed pages

Works cited:

Okafor, Daniel R. Foundations of Environmental Engineering. 4th ed., e-book ed., Harrow Academic, 2022.

In-text:

(Okafor, ch. 3)

Chicago 18: edition after the title, no city, optional chapter range

Chicago cites textbooks through either its notes-bibliography system or its author-date system, and the elements are the same in both: author, title, edition, publisher, year. Two Chicago 18 changes matter for textbooks. The Notes and Bibliography guide states that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations, so the note's parentheses hold only the publisher and year. And the page range of a chapter is no longer required in a bibliography entry, although you may keep it; the specific page always goes in the note.

Notes-bibliography: authored textbook

Chicago 18 notes-bibliography, authored textbook

First note:

1. Daniel R. Okafor, Foundations of Environmental Engineering, 4th ed. (Harrow Academic, 2022), 214.

Shortened note:

2. Okafor, Foundations, 220–21.

Bibliography:

Okafor, Daniel R. Foundations of Environmental Engineering. 4th ed. Harrow Academic, 2022.

Bibliography, e-textbook with a DOI:

Okafor, Daniel R. Foundations of Environmental Engineering. 4th ed. Harrow Academic, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4321/hae.2022.0004.

Notes-bibliography: edited textbook and one chapter

For the whole edited book, the editors lead with ed. or eds. after their names. For one chapter, the chapter author leads; the chapter title is in quotation marks; then in and the italic book title, ed. and the editors in the note or edited by in the bibliography, the edition, and the facts of publication. Chicago abbreviates page ranges like MLA: 118–42, 201–19, 98–104.

Chicago 18 notes-bibliography, edited textbook and chapter

Note, whole edited book:

3. Maja Lindqvist and Tunde Abara, eds., Principles of Clinical Nutrition, 3rd ed. (Meridian Health Press, 2021), 5.

Bibliography, whole edited book:

Lindqvist, Maja, and Tunde Abara, eds. Principles of Clinical Nutrition. 3rd ed. Meridian Health Press, 2021.

Note, one chapter:

4. Pilar Vasquez, "Micronutrient Assessment," in Principles of Clinical Nutrition, ed. Maja Lindqvist and Tunde Abara, 3rd ed. (Meridian Health Press, 2021), 121.

Shortened note:

5. Vasquez, "Micronutrient Assessment," 130.

Bibliography, one chapter (range optional in Chicago 18):

Vasquez, Pilar. "Micronutrient Assessment." In Principles of Clinical Nutrition, edited by Maja Lindqvist and Tunde Abara, 3rd ed., 118–42. Meridian Health Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5555/pcn3.007.

Author-date

Author-date moves the year to directly after the author and cites in the text with author, year, and page, separated by a space and then a comma: (Okafor 2022, 214). Everything else follows the Author-Date guide, including the dropped place of publication.

Chicago 18 author-date

Reference list, authored textbook:

Okafor, Daniel R. 2022. Foundations of Environmental Engineering. 4th ed. Harrow Academic. https://doi.org/10.4321/hae.2022.0004.

In-text:

(Okafor 2022, 214)

Reference list, edited textbook:

Lindqvist, Maja, and Tunde Abara, eds. 2021. Principles of Clinical Nutrition. 3rd ed. Meridian Health Press.

Reference list, one chapter:

Vasquez, Pilar. 2021. "Micronutrient Assessment." In Principles of Clinical Nutrition, edited by Maja Lindqvist and Tunde Abara, 3rd ed., 118–42. Meridian Health Press. https://doi.org/10.5555/pcn3.007.

In-text, chapter:

(Vasquez 2021, 121)

E-textbooks in Chicago

Add a DOI or URL at the end of the entry when the book has one. If you read a copy with no fixed pages, name the format as the last element, Kindle., and cite a chapter in the note or in-text citation instead of a page: (Okafor 2022, chap. 3) or ..., chap. 3, Kindle. in a note. A fixed-page edition, print or PDF, gives a more precise locator, so prefer one when you have the choice.

Citing a specific page in the text

Instructors ask for page numbers from textbooks more than from any other source, because a textbook is long and a page number is the only way to check a claim. The three styles write the locator differently, and the difference is mechanical.

APA 7

Comma, then p. for one page or pp. for a range, with the full second number.

(Okafor, 2022, p. 214)

(Okafor, 2022, pp. 214–216)

(Vasquez, 2021, pp. 118–142)

MLA 9

No comma, no p.; a range shortens the second number when the hundreds match.

(Okafor 214)

(Okafor 214–16)

(Vasquez 118–42)

Chicago 18

Author-date: comma after the year, no p., shortened range. Notes: the page after the closing parenthesis.

(Okafor 2022, 214)

(Okafor 2022, 214–16)

6. Okafor, Foundations, 214–16.

Two page-number rules travel with the edition. First, cite the page in the edition you list: page 214 of the 4th edition is not page 214 of the 3rd. Second, when a textbook prints chapter-relative numbers such as 7-14, cite them exactly as printed; do not convert them.

Side-by-side summary

Textbook citation elements compared.
Element	APA 7	MLA 9	Chicago 18
Edition	(4th ed.) after the title, in parentheses	4th ed., after the title and editors, as the version	4th ed. after the title; in a note, before the parentheses
Editors of a whole book	Lindqvist, M., & Abara, T. (Eds.).	Lindqvist, Maja, and Tunde Abara, editors.	Lindqvist, Maja, and Tunde Abara, eds.
Chapter in an edited book	Chapter author, then In Editors (Eds.), Title (ed., pp.)	Chapter author, "Chapter," Title, edited by Editors, ed., pp.	Chapter author, "Chapter," in Title, ed./edited by Editors, ed.
Chapter of an authored book	Cite the whole book; chapter only in the text	Cite the whole book; page in the text	Usually the whole book; a chapter entry is permitted
Page range in the list	pp. 118–142 (full numbers)	pp. 118–42	118–42, optional in the bibliography
Place of publication	Never	Never	No longer required
Publisher name	As printed, minus Inc./Co./Ltd.	As printed, minus business words; UP for University Press	As printed, minus Inc./Co./Ltd.
DOI or URL	https://doi.org/... after the publisher	https://doi.org/... at the end, with a period	https://doi.org/... at the end, with a period
E-textbook with no pages	Chapter and paragraph in the text	e-book ed. in the entry; chapter in the text	Format at the end; chap. in the note or citation
In-text page	(Okafor, 2022, p. 214)	(Okafor 214)	(Okafor 2022, 214) or a note

Common mistakes

Citing the editors for a chapter someone else wrote. The chapter author is the author; the editors appear after In.
Writing 4th edition in full or (4th Ed.) with a capital. All three styles use lowercase ed. and a numeral.
Adding an edition statement for a first edition. Only a second or later edition is named; 1st ed. is not written.
Adding the publisher's city. APA 7, MLA 9, and Chicago 18 all left it out.
Citing the newest edition when you read an older one, or the first edition's year for a later edition. Cite the copy you used.
Copying page ranges in full in MLA or Chicago (118–142) or shortening them in APA (pp. 118–42). The rule is style-specific.
Naming the platform. Kindle belongs only in a Chicago entry for a copy with no fixed pages; APA and MLA do not want it, and MLA uses e-book ed. instead.
Citing device-generated page numbers from an e-textbook. Use the publisher's pagination or a chapter locator.
Writing (Okafor 2022, p. 214) in Chicago author-date or (Okafor, 214) in MLA. Neither uses p. in the text, and MLA has no comma before the page.
Leaving the DOI as doi:10.4321/.... All three styles now write it as a link beginning https://doi.org/.

Generate the textbook entry from its ISBN or details

Paste the ISBN from the copyright page to pull the edition, year, and publisher automatically, then pick APA, MLA, or Chicago. Use the chapter generator for one chapter of an edited textbook and the e-book generator when your copy has a DOI or no fixed pages.

ISBN citation generator →Book citation generator →Book chapter citation generator →E-book citation generator →

Frequently asked questions

How do I cite a textbook edition in APA?: Put the edition in parentheses directly after the italic title, in roman type: Foundations of environmental engineering (4th ed.). Follow it with a period, the publisher, and a DOI if there is one. First editions are not labelled.
Where does the edition go in an MLA works-cited entry?: After the title and any editors, as the version element: Title. 4th ed., Publisher, Year. Use a numeral and lowercase ed., and follow it with a comma because the publisher and year that come next belong to the same container.
Do I cite the editor or the chapter author of a textbook?: The chapter author, whenever the chapter has one. The editors appear later in the entry: after In (Eds.) in APA, after edited by in MLA, and after ed. or edited by in Chicago. Cite the editors as authors only when you are citing the book as a whole or the chapters carry no separate authors.
How do I cite one chapter of a textbook written by a single author?: Cite the whole textbook. APA does not create references for chapters of authored books and instead lets you add the chapter to the in-text citation: (Okafor, 2022, Chapter 7, p. 214). MLA and Chicago likewise cite the book and put the page in the text, although Chicago permits a chapter-level entry when it genuinely helps the reader.
How do I cite an e-textbook with no page numbers?: Cite the book as usual, adding a DOI or URL if it has one, and never cite the page counter a reading app generates. In the text, use a chapter and paragraph or a section heading in APA, a chapter such as (Okafor, ch. 3) in MLA, and chap. 3 in Chicago. MLA adds e-book ed. to the entry when the copy has no URL, and Chicago names the format, such as Kindle, at the end.
Should I include the publisher's city for a textbook?: No. APA 7 removed the location, MLA has omitted it since the 8th edition, and Chicago 18 no longer requires it. The publisher's name, minus business words such as Inc. and Ltd., is enough.
Which year do I use when the copyright page lists several?: The year of the edition you read, which is usually the latest copyright year on that page. Earlier years belong to earlier editions. Do not use a printing or reprint date, and do not use the first edition's year unless the first edition is the one you used.
How do I write a page range for a textbook chapter?: APA writes both numbers in full: pp. 118–142. MLA and Chicago shorten the second number to its last two digits when the hundreds match, giving 118–42, but keep enough digits to be clear, so 98–104. Use an en dash, not a hyphen, in all three.

Quick Answer: cite a textbook

Read the title page before you cite

APA 7: edition in parentheses, no city, chapter authors with In

Authored textbook

Edited textbook, cited as a whole

One chapter from an edited textbook

E-textbooks and missing page numbers

Publisher names in APA

MLA 9: edition after the title, editors as contributors

Authored textbook

Edited textbook, cited as a whole

One chapter from an edited textbook

E-textbooks

Chicago 18: edition after the title, no city, optional chapter range

Notes-bibliography: authored textbook

Notes-bibliography: edited textbook and one chapter

Author-date

E-textbooks in Chicago

Citing a specific page in the text

Side-by-side summary

Common mistakes

Generate the textbook entry from its ISBN or details

Related guides and official manuals

Frequently asked questions