Skip to content
CitationEasy
Citation Help

How to Cite a Textbook

A textbook is a book. Cite the copy in your hands: the names on the title page, the edition printed there, and the year on the copyright page. This page follows the APA Style book references and edited book chapter pages (Publication Manual §§10.2–10.3), the 23 March 2026 Reference Guide, the 3 March 2026 Common Reference Examples Guide, the 29 January 2024 APA Style blog on guest chapters in authored textbooks, the MLA Style Center plus its e-book, edition, electronic-textbook, and companion-materials notes, and the Chicago Manual of Style 18 Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date guides. It is the cross-style textbook page, not the APA book, MLA book, or Chicago book tutorial.

By 23 min read

A stack of old books beside a lit desk lamp
Photo: Jez Timms, Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
On this page

How to Cite a Textbook: Quick Answer

Take the author or editors, year, title, edition, and publisher from the title page and the copyright page behind it, not from the cover. APA 7 puts the edition in roman parentheses after the italic title and never names the city. MLA 9 puts the edition in the version slot after the title and any editors. Chicago 18 writes the edition after the title, dropped the place of publication (CMOS 14.30), and no longer requires a chapter page range in the bibliography (CMOS 14.8). If one named person wrote a chapter in an edited textbook, that person is the author. If the textbook is authored, cite the whole book even when a guest wrote the chapter you used.

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. 115–129). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

MLA 9, authored textbook:

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

MLA 9, article or chapter in an edited textbook:

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter." Title of Textbook, edited by First Name Last Name, 4th ed., Publisher, Year, pp. 115–29.

Chicago 18 note:

1. First Name Last Name, Title of Textbook, 2nd ed. (Publisher, Year), 92.

Chicago 18 bibliography:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Textbook. 2nd ed. Publisher, Year.

Chicago 18 author-date:

Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Textbook. 2nd ed. Publisher.

Read the title page before you cite

Most textbook errors start on the cover. Covers sell a lead name, hide the edition in a corner, and list a marketing imprint that is not the publisher on the title page. The five facts below decide the whole citation.

  1. Author or editor? If the title page says editor, editors, or edited by, the book is edited and its chapters have their own authors. If not, the named people wrote the book and every chapter is theirs unless a guest is credited inside.
  2. Which edition? Use the edition on the title page of the copy you read, written as a number: 2nd, 3rd, 4th. Do not cite a newer edition because it exists. Page 92 of the second edition is not page 92 of the first.
  3. Which year? APA Style is explicit: use the copyright year on the copyright page of your copy, even when a shop page shows a later release date.
  4. Publisher name. Take it from the title page. APA 7, MLA 9, and Chicago 18 all omit the city. Strip Inc., Co., and Ltd.; keep Press and Books when they are part of the name.
  5. DOI, URL, or nothing. A DOI becomes https://doi.org/.... A login-only VitalSource or EBSCOhost URL is not a public location: APA stops after the publisher; MLA and Chicago name a public URL, a database, or an e-book format instead.

The worked examples below are official. They replace the invented Okafor, Lindqvist, Abara, and Vasquez textbooks that used to sit on this page. Jackson is APA's second-edition book. Dillard is APA's fourth-edition chapter. Borel is Chicago's second-edition book. Marche is the MLA Style Center's electronic-textbook article.

APA 7: edition in parentheses, chapter author with In

APA's book reference has four elements: author, date, title, and source. The edition belongs to the title element. Publication Manual §10.2 covers the whole book; §10.3 covers a chapter in an edited book. The book references page, checked on 5 October 2026, states the print-and-ebook, copyright-year, edition, DOI, location, and database tests in the sentences this page quotes.

APA Style on books, editions, DOIs, and databases

Provide the author, year of publication, title, and publisher of the book. Use the same format for both print books and ebooks.
Use the same formats for both print books and ebooks. For ebooks, the format, platform, or device (e.g., Kindle) is not included in the reference.
Use the copyright date shown on the book’s copyright page as the year of publication in the reference, even if the copyright date is different than the release date.
Include any edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics.
If the book includes a DOI, include the DOI in the reference after the publisher name.
Do not include the publisher location.
If the ebook is from an academic research database and has no DOI or stable URL, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include the name of the database in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.

The 23 March 2026 Reference Guide for Journal Articles, Books, and Edited Book Chapters restates the edition-before-volume order and the no-period-after-DOI rule.

APA Style reference guide on editions, volumes, and DOIs

Does the book have an edition or volume number? If so, include the number in parentheses after the title but before the period. If both, show edition first and volume second, separated by a comma. Do not put a period between the title and the parenthetical information.
Does the book have a DOI? Include a DOI if available. Do not include a URL or database information for works from academic research databases. Include a URL for ebooks from other websites. Do not put a period after the DOI or URL.
Write the word “In” and the initials and last name (not inverted) of each editor. Use “(Ed.)” for one editor or “(Eds.)” for multiple editors. End with a comma.

Authored textbook with an edition

Jackson is the official second-edition example on the APA Style book page. (2nd ed.) sits after the title in roman type. The DOI ends the reference; there is no period after it and no city before American Psychological Association.

Official APA Style authored textbook (Jackson, 2019)

Reference:

Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000

Parenthetical:

(Jackson, 2019)

Narrative:

Jackson (2019)

Chapter of an authored book, official Style Center form:

(McEwen & Wills, 2014, Chapter 16, p. 363)

One chapter from an edited textbook

This is the citation students most often get wrong. The chapter author is the author. The chapter title is sentence case with no quotation marks. Then In, the editors' names in normal order, (Eds.), the italic book title, and one set of parentheses that holds the edition and the chapter page range. The edited book chapter page is explicit that those two facts share the same parentheses.

APA Style on authored-book chapters versus edited-book chapters

Do not create references for chapters of authored books. Instead, write a reference for the whole authored book and cite the chapter in the text if desired.
Include any edition information in the same parentheses as the page range of the chapter, separated with a comma.
For ebook chapters without pagination, omit the page range from the reference (as in the Thestrup example).

Dillard is the official fourth-edition chapter. Zeleke, Hughes, and Drozda is the 3 March 2026 Common Reference Examples §10.3 sample. Thestrup is the official ebook chapter with no page range.

Official APA Style edited-textbook chapters

Reference (Dillard, 2020), 4th edition plus pages:

Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge.

Parenthetical:

(Dillard, 2020)

Narrative:

Dillard (2020)

Do not write:

(Oliver et al., 2020) — the editors did not write the chapter you are citing

Reference (Zeleke et al., 2020), Common Reference Examples:

Zeleke, W. A., Hughes, T. L., & Drozda, N. (2020). Home–school collaboration to promote mind–body health. In C. Maykel & M. A. Bray (Eds.), Promoting mind–body health in schools: Interventions for mental health professionals (pp. 11–26). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000157-002

Parenthetical:

(Zeleke et al., 2020)

Reference (Thestrup, 2010), ebook chapter with no pages:

Thestrup, K. (2010). To transform, to communicate, to play—The experimenting community in action. In E. Hygum & P. M. Pedersen (Eds.), Early childhood education: Values and practices in Denmark. Hans Reitzels Forlag. https://earlychildhoodeducation.digi.hansreitzel.dk/?id=192

Authored textbook with a guest chapter

Nursing and public-health textbooks often put a guest author on one chapter while the cover still names the book's authors. The 29 January 2024 APA Style blog says not to pretend those books are edited volumes.

APA Style blog on guest chapters in authored textbooks

Unlike an edited book, where each chapter has unique authors, usually you expect an authored book to have the same author(s) throughout. Thus, citing a chapter of an edited book is common, but as a general rule, citing chapters from authored books is not.
This is true whether the chapters were written by the book’s authors or an outside contributor who isn’t given cover credit.
To avoid potential confusion, the simplest solution is to cite the book as you would any other authored book, which is a reference format that readers can immediately recognize, but to add any additional information in the text.

The blog's two nursing textbooks are the current official examples. Credit the guest in the sentence. Keep the book authors in the citation. The Style Center's older McEwen and Wills in-text form (2014) is the same rule with an earlier edition.

Official APA Style authored textbooks with guest chapters

Reference (DeMarco & Healey-Walsh, 2020):

DeMarco, R. F., & Healey-Walsh, J. (2020). Community and public health nursing: Evidence for practice (3rd ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Reference (McEwen & Wills, 2023):

McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2023). Theoretical basis for nursing (6th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Parenthetical citations:

(DeMarco & Healey-Walsh, 2020; McEwen & Wills, 2023)

Narrative citations:

DeMarco and Healey-Walsh (2020) and McEwen and Wills (2023)

Direct quotation of Melinda Oberleitner, guest chapter:

Formal leaders are appointed by official or legislative authority. Informal leaders derive power through influence and, in reality, may be more important to staff or groups than the formal, appointed, or designated leaders

How the blog cites that sentence:

(McEwen & Wills, 2023, Chapter 16, p. 369)

Style Center authored-chapter locator (2014 reprint):

(McEwen & Wills, 2014, Chapter 16, p. 363)

Narrative form of the Style Center locator:

McEwen and Wills (2014, Chapter 16, p. 363)

E-textbooks, missing pages, and publisher names

APA 7 dropped Kindle, VitalSource, and device names. A digital textbook with a DOI is the print reference plus the DOI. A campus-database copy with no DOI and no public URL stops after the publisher. When the file has no stable pages, put a chapter and paragraph or a section heading in the text, using the official authored-book pattern: (McEwen & Wills, 2014, Chapter 16, p. 363) when pages exist, or a heading/paragraph locator when they do not. Prefer the publisher's pagination when the platform still shows it.

  • Write the publisher as it appears on the title page, minus Inc., Co., Ltd., and Publishers.
  • Keep Press and Books when they are part of the name.
  • When the author and publisher are the same organisation, omit the publisher and go to the DOI or URL.
  • Never include the city. New York, NY: American Psychological Association is APA 6.

MLA 9: edition as the version, e-textbook without device pages

MLA builds the entry from its core elements. For a textbook the edition is the version element, so it follows the title and any editors as 4th ed., with a comma after it. The MLA Style Center puts a named series in that same slot. University Press becomes UP. The Style Center's one-author book is still Mantel; this page uses the edition, e-book, and textbook posts instead of repeating that book guide.

MLA Style Center on editions, e-books, and electronic textbooks

As the following example from the MLA Handbook demonstrates, a Norton Critical Edition should be listed in the “Version” slot (107):
Use the Version element to specify that the work you are citing is an e-book—that is, a book that lacks a URL and that you use software to read on a personal device or computer.
When citing an e-book in your text, avoid using device-specific numbering systems.
If you are citing an article from an electronic version of a textbook that does not have page numbers, do not provide page numbers in your entry, because there are no page numbers to give. Do not provide location numbers, because they can vary depending on the device.

Numbered edition and named edition

Wollstonecraft is the Handbook example the Style Center reprints for a Norton Critical Edition. The named edition and 3rd ed. share the version slot. MLA Handbook 9th edition, e-book edition, is the current Style Center e-book model.

Official MLA Style Center edition and e-book entries

Works cited (Wollstonecraft, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed.):

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed., W. W. Norton, 2009.

In-text:

(Wollstonecraft)

Works cited (MLA Handbook e-book):

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., e-book ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

Works cited (MLA Handbook 8th ed. EPUB, when formats differ):

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., e-book ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016. EPUB.

In-text for an e-book with no stable pages:

cite a chapter or section, not a Kindle location

Article in an electronic textbook

The Style Center's 4 February 2020 electronic-textbook note still uses the eighth-edition template and points readers to the ninth edition for updates. The version logic is unchanged in MLA 9: numbered edition, then e-book, and no device locations. Marche is the official specimen.

Official MLA Style Center electronic-textbook article

Works cited (Marche in Barnet et al.):

Marche, Stephen. "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings, 11th ed., e-book, edited by Sylvan Barnet et al., Bedford / St. Martin's, 2017.

In-text:

(Marche)

If the same article later appears with publisher pages:

add the page range and drop e-book if you used a paged copy

Edited textbook and digital companions

Editors of a whole book go in the author slot with the label editor or editors. The Style Center model is Sánchez Prado. Two editors are joined by and; three or more use the first name and et al. Cite this form only when no individual chapter author is responsible for the passage. For one chapter, the chapter author leads and the textbook becomes the container.

Official MLA Style Center edited book and textbook companion

Works cited, whole edited book:

Sánchez Prado, Ignacio M., editor. Mexican Literature in Theory. Bloomsbury, 2018.

In-text:

(Sánchez Prado)

Treat CD, DVD, online, and other digital materials that accompany a print textbook as you would any other work in MLA style: follow the MLA format template and start your entry with the author and title of the materials or a description in place of a title.

Works cited, audio companion (Paden):

Lessons, Readings, and Songs to Accompany An Introduction to Old Occitan. Lessons and readings by William D. Paden, songs performed by Elizabeth Aubrey. An Introduction to Old Occitan, by Paden, Modern Language Association of America, 1998. Audio CD.

Chicago 18: later edition, optional chapter range, notes or author-date

Chicago cites textbooks in Notes-Bibliography or Author-Date. The elements are the same: author, title, edition, publisher, year. Two CMOS 18 changes matter for every textbook. The Notes and Bibliography guide and Author-Date guide, both checked on 5 October 2026, state them in the sentences below.

Chicago Manual of Style 18 on books, chapters, and ebooks

Note that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations (see CMOS 14.30).
The page range for a chapter in a book is no longer required in bibliography entries (see CMOS 14.8). In a note, cite specific pages as applicable.
The page range for a chapter in a book is no longer required in reference list entries (see CMOS 14.8). In the text, cite specific pages as applicable.
To cite a book consulted online, include either a URL or the name of the database. For downloadable ebook formats, name the format; if no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the note (or simply omit). For citing a place rather than a publisher for books published before 1900 (as in the Moby-Dick example below), see CMOS 14.31.

Notes-bibliography: later edition

Borel is the official second-edition book on the live Quick Guide, consulted as an EBSCOhost ebook. Booth et al. is the official fifth-edition Craft of Research note the Chicago book guide already reprints from CMOS. Humanities courses usually want this note form; social-science courses often want author-date instead.

Official CMOS 18 later-edition books

First note (Borel, 2nd ed., EBSCOhost):

1. Brooke Borel, The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking, 2nd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2023), 92, EBSCOhost.

Shortened note:

2. Borel, Fact-Checking, 104–5.

Bibliography:

Borel, Brooke. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, 2023. EBSCOhost.

First note (Booth et al., 5th ed.):

1. Wayne C. Booth et al., The Craft of Research, 5th ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Bibliography:

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. The Craft of Research. 5th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Notes-bibliography: one chapter

Doyle is the official chapter in an edited book. The bibliography line has no page range. The note carries the page you used. CMOS 18 shortened notes list up to two authors; three or more collapse to the first name plus et al.

Official CMOS 18 edited-book chapter

First note:

1. Kathleen Doyle, "The Queen Mary Psalter," in The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention, ed. P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin (University of Chicago Press, 2023), 64.

Shortened note:

2. Doyle, "Queen Mary Psalter," 65.

Bibliography (no chapter range):

Doyle, Kathleen. "The Queen Mary Psalter." In The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention, edited by P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin. University of Chicago Press, 2023.

Note, whole edited book:

3. P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin, eds., The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention (University of Chicago Press, 2023).

Bibliography, whole edited book:

Marks, P. J. M., and Stephen Parkin, eds. The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention. University of Chicago Press, 2023.

Author-date and e-textbooks

Author-date moves the year next to the author and cites in the text as (Borel 2023, 92) — no comma between name and year, no p. Roy is the official Kindle book with a chapter locator instead of a page.

Official CMOS 18 author-date and ebook locators

Reference list (Borel):

Borel, Brooke. 2023. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press. EBSCOhost.

In-text:

(Borel 2023, 92)

Reference list (Doyle):

Doyle, Kathleen. 2023. "The Queen Mary Psalter." In The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention, edited by P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin. University of Chicago Press.

In-text:

(Doyle 2023, 64)

Note (Roy, Kindle, no fixed pages):

1. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (Random House, 2008), chap. 6, Kindle.

Author-date in-text (Roy):

(Roy 2008, chap. 6)

Whole book or one chapter?

Pick the form from the title page, not from the assignment word textbook. An authored Jackson, DeMarco, Borel, or Booth book is one reference. An edited Oliver, Maykel, Barnet, or Marks volume is either the whole book or one chapter, depending on what you used.

Cite the whole book

The title page names authors, not editors.

You are using the book's overall argument or several chapters by those authors.

A guest wrote the chapter, but the cover still names the book authors (DeMarco; McEwen and Wills).

APA then puts the chapter only in the citation: (McEwen & Wills, 2023, Chapter 16, p. 369).

Cite one chapter

The title page names editors, and the chapter has its own byline.

Dillard in Oliver, Raney, and Bryant; Zeleke in Maykel and Bray; Doyle in Marks and Parkin; Marche in Barnet.

Each chapter you use gets its own list entry under its own author.

Chicago 18 may omit the chapter page range from the bibliography; the note still needs the page you cite.

Citing a specific page in the text

Instructors ask for textbook pages more than for any other source. The three styles write the locator differently. Cite the page in the edition you list. When a textbook prints chapter-relative numbers such as 7-14, copy them as printed; do not convert them.

APA 7

Comma, then p. or pp., with both numbers in full.

(Jackson, 2019)

(Dillard, 2020, pp. 115–129)

(McEwen & Wills, 2023, Chapter 16, p. 369)

MLA 9

No comma and no p.; shorten the second number when the hundreds match.

(Wollstonecraft)

(Marche)

e-book with no pages: a chapter or section, never a device location

Chicago 18

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

(Borel 2023, 92)

(Roy 2008, chap. 6)

2. Borel, Fact-Checking, 104–5.

Side-by-side summary

Textbook citation elements compared across APA 7, MLA 9, and Chicago 18.
ElementAPA 7MLA 9Chicago 18
Edition(2nd ed.) after the title, roman2nd ed., after the title and editors, as the version2nd ed. after the title; in a note, before the parentheses
Whole edited bookMaykel, C., & Bray, M. A. (Eds.).Sánchez Prado, Ignacio M., editor.Marks, P. J. M., and Stephen Parkin, eds.
Chapter in an edited bookChapter 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
Chapter of an authored bookCite the whole book; chapter only in the textCite the whole book; page or chapter in the textUsually the whole book; a chapter entry is permitted when it helps
Page range in the listpp. 115–129 (full numbers)pp. 115–29Optional in the bibliography (CMOS 14.8)
Place of publicationNeverNeverNo longer required (CMOS 14.30)
DOI or URLhttps://doi.org/... after the publisher, no final periodhttps://doi.org/... at the end, with a periodURL, database name, or format at the end
E-textbook with no pagesChapter and paragraph in the texte-book in the version slot; no device locationsFormat at the end; chap. in the note or citation
In-text page(McEwen & Wills, 2023, Chapter 16, p. 369)(Wollstonecraft)(Borel 2023, 92) or a note

Common mistakes

  • Citing the editors for a chapter someone else wrote. Dillard is the author of "Currents in the study of persuasion"; Oliver, Raney, and Bryant are not.
  • Treating a guest chapter in an authored textbook as an edited-book chapter. DeMarco and McEwen stay in the author position.
  • Writing 4th edition in full or (4th Ed.) with a capital. All three styles use lowercase ed. and a numeral.
  • Adding 1st ed. A first edition is not labelled.
  • 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 printing.
  • Copying page ranges in full in MLA or Chicago (115–129) or shortening them in APA (pp. 115–29).
  • Naming VitalSource, Kindle, or the campus proxy in APA. Chicago names Kindle or EBSCOhost only when that is the official location; MLA uses e-book ed.
  • Citing a Kindle location or app page counter. Use publisher pages, a chapter, or a section.
  • Writing (Borel 2023, p. 92) in Chicago author-date or (Wollstonecraft, 84) in MLA. Chicago author-date has no p.; MLA has no comma before a page.
  • Leaving a DOI as doi:10.1037/.... Write https://doi.org/10.1037/...

Generate the textbook entry from its ISBN

Paste the ISBN from the copyright page to pull the edition, year, and publisher, 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. For the full APA-only, MLA-only, or Chicago-only book rules, open those guides instead of this one.

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 7?
Put the edition in roman parentheses directly after the italic title: Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000. First editions are not labelled. Use the copyright year on that copy's copyright page, not a shop release date.
Where does the edition go in an MLA works-cited entry?
In the version slot, after the title and any editors: Title. 4th ed., Publisher, Year. A named edition can share that slot, as in Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed., W. W. Norton, 2009. Follow the version with a comma because the publisher and year belong to the same container.
Do I cite the editor or the chapter author of a textbook?
The chapter author, whenever the chapter has its own byline in an edited book. Dillard, not Oliver, is the author of "Currents in the study of persuasion." The editors appear 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.
How do I cite one chapter of a textbook written by a single author or author team?
Cite the whole textbook. APA is explicit: do not create references for chapters of authored books. Put the chapter in the citation instead: (McEwen & Wills, 2023, Chapter 16, p. 369). That rule still applies when a guest such as Melinda Oberleitner wrote the chapter. MLA and Chicago likewise cite the book and put the page or chapter in the text.
How do I cite an e-textbook with no page numbers?
Do not invent device locations. APA keeps the print reference and uses a chapter, paragraph, or heading in the text. MLA adds e-book to the version slot when the file has no URL, as in MLA Handbook. 9th ed., e-book ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021, and cites a chapter in the text. Chicago names Kindle or the database and uses chap. 6, as in the official Roy note.
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 CMOS 14.30 no longer requires it. The publisher's name, minus Inc. and Ltd., is enough.
Which year do I use when the copyright page lists several?
The year of the edition you read. APA Style says to use the copyright date on that copy's copyright page even when it differs from the release date. Earlier years belong to earlier editions. Do not use a printing date, and do not use the first edition's year unless that is the copy you used.
How do I write a page range for a textbook chapter?
APA writes both numbers in full: pp. 115–129. MLA shortens the second number when the hundreds match, giving 115–29. Chicago 18 no longer requires the chapter range in the bibliography (Doyle has none) but still wants the specific page in the note. Use an en dash in all three.
How do I cite a CD, website, or quiz bank that came with the textbook?
MLA treats companion materials as their own work. Start with the author or a description, then the textbook as the container when the file is packaged with the print book, as in the official Paden audio CD that accompanies An Introduction to Old Occitan. If the material lives on a website, that site is the container. APA and Chicago cite the recoverable file the same way they cite any standalone audio, webpage, or dataset.