How to Cite a Book Chapter in APA

An APA 7 chapter citation looks like this: Author, A. A. (Year). Chapter title. In E. Editor (Ed.), *Book title* (pp. 15-30). Publisher. That single line covers 90% of what your professor is checking for.

Use this format when the chapter has its own author and sits inside a book edited by someone else. If the whole book has one author across every chapter, you don't need a chapter citation. You cite the book.

The full reference format

Your reference list entry needs seven pieces, in this exact order:

1. Chapter author (Last, F. M.)
2. Publication year in parentheses
3. Chapter title in sentence case, no italics
4. The word "In" then the editor's initials and last name, followed by (Ed.) or (Eds.)
5. Book title in italics, sentence case
6. Page range in parentheses, with "pp." before it
7. Publisher name

Put a period after each block. Indent the second line and any lines after it by 0.5 inches. That's a hanging indent, and Word does it under Paragraph > Special > Hanging.

Worked example

Here's a real one you can copy the pattern from:

Kolb, D. A. (2015). The process of experiential learning. In M. Reynolds & R. Vince (Eds.), Organizing reflection (pp. 43-62). Routledge.

Notice what's italicized (book title only), what's capitalized (first word of chapter title, first word after the colon if there is one, and proper nouns), and where the periods sit.

In-text citations

For the chapter above, your in-text citation uses the chapter author, not the editor. So it's (Kolb, 2015) or Kolb (2015) argued that... If you're quoting directly, add the page: (Kolb, 2015, p. 47).

Students mix this up constantly. The editor's name belongs in the reference list. Nowhere else.

Two authors, three authors, more

For two chapter authors, use an ampersand: Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2020).

For 3 to 20 authors, list every single one in the reference, separated by commas, with an ampersand before the last. In-text, use only the first author plus "et al." from the first mention: (Smith et al., 2020).

For 21 or more authors, list the first 19, then an ellipsis, then the final author. No ampersand before the last name in that case.

When it's an ebook or online chapter

If you read the chapter in an ebook, you cite it the same way as print. APA 7 dropped the format tag like [Kindle edition]. If the chapter has a DOI, add it at the end:

Kolb, D. A. (2015). The process of experiential learning. In M. Reynolds & R. Vince (Eds.), Organizing reflection (pp. 43-62). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203019276

No DOI and you accessed it online through a library database? Skip the URL. Databases don't count as stable sources, and APA 7 says to treat those chapters like print.

If it's a free ebook on a public site (not a database), include the URL instead of the publisher location.

Common mistakes to avoid

Italicizing the chapter title. Only the book title gets italics. Chapter title stays plain.

Using "Ed." for two editors. Two or more editors take "(Eds.)" with an s.

Capitalizing every word. APA uses sentence case for chapter and book titles in the reference list. Only the first word, first word after a colon, and proper nouns get capitals. Journal titles are the exception (title case), but you're not citing a journal here.

Writing "pp" without the period. It's "pp." with a period, then a space, then the range.

Skipping the page range. Chapter citations need pages. Books don't.

Citing the editor as author. The chapter author goes first. Always.

What if there's no editor listed?

Then it's probably not an edited volume, and you should cite it as a regular book. Check the copyright page. If one name is on the spine and the same name wrote every chapter, cite the whole book, not the chapter.

What if the chapter has no author?

Rare, but it happens with reference works. Move the chapter title into the author slot, then continue as normal. In-text, use a shortened title in quotes: ("Chapter title," 2020).

Double-check your reference against your school's style guide too. Some programs modify APA slightly for pages or DOI formatting.

Generate APA citations →