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Is it a Journal Article, a Book, or a Chapter in a Book? Identifying Citations: Books

No matter what style manual you are following (APA, MLA, etc.), you will need to learn how to recognize the three basic types of citations. #citations #bibliography #article #book #chapter

 

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VIDEO VERSION

A Field Guide to Citations: Books (5 minutes, 8 seconds)

 

Walking with the Great Apes

A print book.

A BOOK CITATION: ELEMENTS IDENTIFIED

 

This color-coded guide identifies the standard elements that make up a book citation.  Notice how the arrangement of the very same elements changes depending on where you are viewing it as demonstrated in the following screenshots and photos of the actual book.

Montgomery, S. (1991). Walking with the great apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Beruté Galdikas. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co.

 

Montgomery, S. (1991). Walking with the great apes: Jane GoodallDian FosseyBeruté Galdikas. Boston, MA Houghton Mifflin Co.

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COLOR KEY

AUTHOR(S)  Montgomery, S.

TITLE OF BOOK  Walking with the great apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Beruté Galdikas.

PLACE OF PUBLICATION  Boston, MA

PUBLISHER  Houghton Mifflin Co.

DATE  (1991)

A BOOK CITATION AS IT APPEARS IN A DATABASE LIST OF RESULTS

 

The book citation in the example above as it appears in the OneSearch database list of results:

Screenshot of book citation in list of results.

A BOOK CITATION AS IT APPEARS ON A DATABASE DETAIL SCREEN

 

Clicking on the title takes you to the database detail screen where the book citation appears again:

Screenshot of book citation on detail screen.

A BOOK CITATION FROM THE BOOK ITSELF

 

- THE TITLE PAGE -

Everything needed to make a complete citation for this particular book is on the front of its title page.  Some books may have part of the citation information on the back of the title page.

The title page from the print book.

 

 

Thin orange line.