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APA – Citing Sources

Book chapters

Surname, A. (year). Title of the chapter. In B. Surname (Ed.), Book title (pages). Publisher.

Book chapter

Basic format:

Author, A., & Author, B. (year). Title of chapter. In C. C. Surname (Ed./Eds.), Title of the book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher.
Commentary: Write "In" followed by the editor's or editors' names, and use "Ed." for books with one editor and "Eds." for books with two or more editors within parenthesis. Write the abbreviation "pp." for pages and the pages on where you find the chapter. 

​References:

Law, M., Polatajko, H., Baptiste, S., & Townsend, E. (2002). Core concepts of occupational therapy. In E. Townsend (Ed.), Enabling occupation: An occupational therapy perspective (2nd ed., pp. 29–56). Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists.​

In-text citations:

If a book has three authors or more, you only include the first author's name followed by "et al.".

  • According to one study (Law et al., 2002) it is clear that ...

  • Law et al. (2002) argue for a ...

Read more:

To cite a book chapter is a bit different from citing a whole book in that you refer to a part (the chapter) of a whole (the whole book in where you find the chapter). This way of referencing is similar to how you reference a journal article which is also a part (the article) of a whole (the journal issue). Therefore, it is the whole, i.e. the title of the whole book, that is italicized, not the part (the article).

Further reading on how to write references for book chapters on APA Style: Edited Book Chapter References