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Is it an Article, a Book, or a Chapter in a Book? Identifying Citations: Chapters in 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

Cover of book.

A CHAPTER IN A BOOK WITH AN EDITOR: CITATION ELEMENTS IDENTIFIED

This color-coded guide identifies the standard elements that make up a citation for a chapter in a book with an editor instead of an author; such books tend to be scholarly ones.  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.

 

Yokel, R. (2013). Aluminum. In B. Caballero (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human nutrition (pp. 57-63). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Yokel, R. (2013). Aluminum. In B. Caballero (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human nutrition (pp. 57-63). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

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COLOR KEY

AUTHOR(S) OF CHAPTER Yokel, R.

TITLE OF CHAPTER Aluminum.

EDITOR(S) OF BOOK In B. Caballero (Ed.)

TITLE OF BOOK Encyclopedia of human nutrition.

PLACE OF PUBLICATION Amsterdam:

PUBLISHER Elsevier.

DATE (2013)

PAGES (p. 57-63)

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HINTS - BOOK CHAPTER CITATIONS

  • Frequently have the word "in" followed by the editor's name and the title of the book.
  • Always list the name of an editor (Ed. or edited by).
  • To get the chapter, search for the title of the entire book in OneSearch set to Books & Media (CSUSB).  If we don't have the book, switch your search to Books & Media (all CSU), and run your search again.  If it is at another CSU library, you can request it through our CSU+ service.

CITATION FOR A CHAPTER IN A BOOK WITH AN EDITOR IN A DATABASE LIST OF RESULTS

The book chapter citation in the example on the left as it appears in a database list of results.

Screenshot of citation in database results.

**Please note that the yellow highlighting in this screenshot

does NOT relate the color-coding above!**

CITATION FOR A CHAPTER IN A BOOK WITH AN EDITOR FROM THE BOOK ITSELF

THE FRONT OF THE TITLE PAGE

Everything needed to make a complete citation for this book chapter and the book it comes from is on the title page except: the year of publication, the author of the chapter, the title of the chapter, and the page numbers for the chapter.

Photo of front of title page.

 

THE BACK OF THE TITLE PAGE

The year of publication is on the back of the title page (highlighted here in red).  When more than one year is given, always use the most recent year.

Photo of back of title page.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Finally, the table of contents shows the author of the chapter, the title of the chapter and the page numbers for the chapter.

Photo of table of contents.

Thin orange line.