Citing a textbook follows the same basic pattern regardless of style: you need the author’s name, the title, the edition, the publisher, and the year of publication. The exact order and formatting depend on whether your assignment uses APA, MLA, or Chicago style. Here’s how to build a correct citation in each one.
Where to Find the Information You Need
Before you format anything, flip to the first few pages of your textbook. The title page lists the author (or authors), full title and subtitle, and publisher. The copyright page, usually printed on the back of the title page, shows the edition number, copyright year, and sometimes the publisher’s city. Use the copyright date as your publication year, even if it differs from the date the book was released or the date you bought it.
If the textbook is digital, the same details usually appear on the first screens or in the “about this book” section. For e-books accessed through a database, note the DOI (a permanent link that starts with “https://doi.org/”) if one is available, or the URL where you accessed it.
APA Style (7th Edition)
APA is the standard in psychology, education, nursing, and most social sciences. A textbook citation in APA includes four core pieces: the author, the year of publication, the title, and the publisher. You do not include the publisher’s city.
The basic template looks like this:
Last Name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year). Title of the textbook: Subtitle (Xth ed.). Publisher.
Here’s a real example:
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association.
A few details to get right: the book title is italicized, but the edition information in parentheses is not. Only capitalize the first word of the title, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. If you’re citing the first edition, skip the edition note entirely.
Multiple Authors in APA
For two authors, list both names separated by an ampersand: Smith, J. R., & Lee, K. (2022). For three or more authors, list every author up to 20 in the reference list, separating names with commas and placing an ampersand before the final name. In your in-text citation, use only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” when there are three or more authors.
Editors Instead of Authors
Some textbooks, especially anthologies or collected readings, are put together by editors rather than written by a single author. In APA, list the editor’s name in the author position and add “(Ed.)” or “(Eds.)” after the name:
Williams, R. T. (Ed.). (2020). Readings in developmental psychology (4th ed.). Academic Press.
MLA Style (9th Edition)
MLA is the go-to format in English, literature, humanities, and many liberal arts courses. It uses a different order than APA and includes some formatting quirks worth knowing.
The basic template:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Textbook: Subtitle. Edition, Publisher, Year.
A filled-in example:
Jackson, Lisa M. The Psychology of Prejudice: From Attitudes to Social Action. 2nd ed., American Psychological Association, 2019.
Notice two differences from APA right away. First, MLA uses the author’s full name rather than initials. Second, MLA capitalizes every major word in the title (skip small words like “of,” “to,” “in,” and “an” unless they start the title). Include the edition only if it is not the first. You can shorten publisher names by dropping words like “Inc.” or “Co.” and abbreviating “University Press” to “UP” if you prefer.
Multiple Authors in MLA
For two authors, list the first author last-name-first and the second author first-name-first: Jackson, Lisa M., and Robert T. Williams. For three or more authors, list only the first author followed by “et al.”
Edited Textbooks in MLA
If the book was prepared by an editor, add “edited by” followed by the editor’s name after the title:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Textbook, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year.
Chicago Style (17th Edition)
Chicago is common in history, some humanities courses, and publishing. It offers two systems: Notes-Bibliography (used more in humanities) and Author-Date (used more in social sciences). Your professor or assignment guidelines will specify which one to use.
Notes-Bibliography System
This system uses footnotes or endnotes for in-text citations and a bibliography at the end. The bibliography entry and the footnote use slightly different formatting.
Bibliography entry:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Textbook: Subtitle. Xth ed. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.
Footnote (first citation):
First Name Last Name, Title of Textbook: Subtitle, Xth ed. (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page number.
The key difference: bibliography entries start with the last name for alphabetical sorting, while footnotes use normal name order. After your first footnote for a source, subsequent references can use a shortened form with just the author’s last name, a shortened title, and the page number.
Author-Date System
This version looks closer to APA. Your reference list entry puts the date right after the author’s name:
Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Textbook: Subtitle. Xth ed. Place of Publication: Publisher.
In-text citations use parenthetical references: (Last Name Year, page number). Unlike the Notes-Bibliography system, Chicago’s Author-Date system does include the publisher’s city.
Citing E-Books and Online Textbooks
Digital textbooks follow the same templates above with one addition at the end. If the e-book has a DOI, append it as a full URL (https://doi.org/xxxxxxx). If there’s no DOI but you accessed it online, include the URL. In APA, you no longer need to write “Retrieved from” before the URL.
If you read the textbook on a specific platform like Kindle or VitalSource but the content is identical to the print version, you generally don’t need to note the platform. The exception is if the digital version lacks page numbers, in which case your in-text citations should reference chapter numbers or section headings instead.
In-Text Citations at a Glance
The reference list or bibliography entry is only half the job. You also need to point to the source inside your paper every time you quote, paraphrase, or reference it.
- APA: Parenthetical citation with the author’s last name and year, plus a page number for direct quotes: (Jackson, 2019, p. 45). For narrative citations, work the name into the sentence: Jackson (2019) argued that…
- MLA: Parenthetical citation with the author’s last name and page number only, no year: (Jackson 45). No comma between the name and page number.
- Chicago Notes-Bibliography: A superscript footnote number in the text, with the full citation in the footnote area at the bottom of the page or end of the paper.
- Chicago Author-Date: Parenthetical citation similar to APA: (Jackson 2019, 45). No comma between the name and year, but a comma before the page number.
Chapters or Sections Within a Textbook
If you only used one chapter from an edited textbook where different authors wrote different chapters, cite the specific chapter rather than the whole book. In APA, begin with the chapter author’s name, then the year, then the chapter title (not italicized), followed by “In” and the editor’s name, the book title (italicized), the page range of the chapter, and the publisher. In MLA, list the chapter author first, then the chapter title in quotation marks, then the book title in italics, and include the page range at the end of the entry.
If you wrote the same textbook’s chapter and the whole book has a single author, you usually cite the whole book rather than individual chapters. Just include the relevant page numbers in your in-text citation.
Quick Checklist Before You Submit
- Author names: Initials only in APA, full names in MLA and Chicago.
- Title capitalization: Sentence case in APA (only first word capitalized), title case in MLA and Chicago (major words capitalized).
- Edition: Always included unless it’s the first edition.
- Publisher location: Not used in APA or MLA. Used in Chicago.
- Punctuation: APA uses periods between each element. MLA uses commas between edition, publisher, and year. Chicago uses a mix of periods and commas depending on the system.
- Hanging indent: All three styles use a hanging indent in the reference list or bibliography, where the first line is flush left and subsequent lines are indented half an inch.