Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
Last updated
To cite a textbook, treat it as a book: give the author, year, title, edition (if it is not the first) and publisher, in the order your style guide sets. The elements are the same in every style; the order, punctuation and a few small rules (edition, publisher location, DOI) differ, and those small rules are where most textbook citations go wrong. This guide covers APA 7th edition, Harvard (the Cite Them Right variant), IEEE and AMA.
The format
A textbook reference has five parts: author(s), year, title, edition and publisher. Textbooks are usually later editions, so the edition is the element writers most often lose. Each style puts it in a different place.
- APA 7th: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the book (7th ed.). Publisher. DOI or URL
- Harvard (Cite Them Right): Surname, Initial. (Year) Title. Edition (if not the first). Publisher.
- IEEE: J. K. Author, Title, City, State, Country: Publisher, year.
- AMA: Authors. Title. Edition. Publisher; year.
How the styles differ on the elements a textbook needs:
| Element | APA 7th | Harvard (CTR) | IEEE | AMA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Author names | Surname, initials with spaces | Surname, Initial. | Initials then surname | Surname then initials, no periods or comma (as in the AMA sample) |
| Year | In parentheses after the authors | In parentheses after the authors | At the end, after the publisher | At the end, after the publisher and a semicolon |
| Publisher location | Never given | Not in the template | Kept: City, State, Country | No longer needed |
Edition rules, once per style: in APA the edition goes in parentheses straight after the title, as in (7th ed.), with no period between title and bracket. In Harvard it follows the title and is given only if later than the first edition. In AMA it is its own element after the title.
APA also sets these rules for the title and names: invert author names and use initials; capitalise only the first word of the title and subtitle and proper nouns; italicise the title; leave out the publisher location; separate multiple publishers with a semicolon; and add a DOI as a https://doi.org/ link if the book has one, with no full stop after it. An ebook with publication details and page numbers is referenced as a printed book in Harvard (Open University guidance).
Examples
The examples below marked “example” are fictional and written to show the pattern. They are not real books.
APA 7th
Fictional example: Smith, J., & Lee, K. (2024). Writing for review boards (2nd ed.). Example Press.
A real example from APA’s own handout, with a DOI: Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000
Harvard (Cite Them Right)
Real example from the Open University guide: Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project. Open University Press.
IEEE
Fictional example: J. Smith and A. Lee, Widget Design. Springfield, IL, USA: Example Press, 2020.
AMA
Pattern from the AMA Manual’s own sample (11th ed.): Christiansen S, Iverson C, Flanagin A, et al. Title. 11th ed. Oxford University Press; 2020.
In-text citation version
APA: author and year, as (Author, 2019) or Author (2019). Works with three or more authors use “et al.” from the first citation, as in (Smith et al., 2019). A direct quotation adds the page, as in (Author, 2019, p. 20), and a quotation of 40 words or more goes in a block.
Harvard (Cite Them Right): (Harris, 2015) for one author, (Shah and Papadopoulos, 2015) for two, (Wong, Smith and Adebole, 2015) for three, and (Wong et al., 2015) for four or more. Add the page when you quote or paraphrase a specific passage, as in Harris (2015, p. 5), and leave it out when you summarise the whole book.
IEEE: a number in square brackets, [1], used like a noun (“According to [1]”). A page goes inside the bracket: [1, p. 5] or [1, pp. 5-10]. Write each number out, [1], [2], [3], rather than [1]-[3].
AMA: numbered in order of first appearance, with superscript Arabic numerals.
For manuscripts and theses
Pick one style and one edition of that style for the whole document, and apply it to every textbook. Harvard has no single governing manual and local variants differ (for example, how many authors to list before “et al.”), so check the thesis handbook or journal instructions for the variant you must follow. A textbook cited by the edition you actually used will matter if a reader tries to find the page you quote. If you only know a textbook idea through another author, see how to cite a secondary source in APA.
Common errors
- Adding the city in APA or AMA. Publisher location was dropped from APA book references and is no longer needed in AMA. IEEE is the style that keeps it.
- Leaving out the edition. A “2nd ed.” textbook cited as the first edition points readers to different pages.
- Using “et al.” too early or too late. APA uses it from the first in-text citation for three or more authors; Harvard (CTR) starts at four.
- Quoting without a page. APA and Harvard both expect a page number on a direct quotation.
- A “DOI:” label in APA. APA 7th writes the DOI as a https://doi.org/ link.
- Citing the editor for a chapter in Harvard. For a chapter in an edited textbook, the in-text citation names the chapter author, not the editor.
- Title case in APA. Book titles take sentence case.
Style-guide edition
As of 2026-10, APA is on its 7th edition (2020); the APA reference handouts used here are labelled 7th edition and were last updated in March 2026. Harvard is a family of variants rather than one manual; this page follows the Cite Them Right variant as set out by the Open University and Newcastle University. The IEEE guidance is the IEEE Reference Guide, version 3.28.2025. The AMA book pattern is from the AMA Manual of Style, 11th edition (2020).
FAQ
Do I include the edition of a textbook?
Yes, if it is not the first edition. APA puts it in parentheses after the title, (7th ed.); Harvard gives it after the title; AMA gives it as its own element after the title.
How do I cite a chapter in an edited textbook?
Cite the chapter, not the whole book. In APA: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of chapter. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the book (2nd ed., pp. #-#). Publisher. Editor names are not inverted, and the chapter title is not italic. In Harvard the chapter title goes in single quotation marks and the in-text citation uses the chapter author.
How do I cite an ebook textbook?
If the ebook has publication details and page numbers, Open University Harvard guidance says to reference it as a printed book. For APA, add a DOI or URL at the end if the book has one.
Do I need the publisher’s location?
Not in APA, and no longer in AMA. IEEE book references include City, State, Country before the publisher.
How do I cite a lab manual or a dataset instead?
Those have their own patterns: see how to cite a lab manual and how to cite a dataset. For the general idea, see parenthetical citation, the DOI entry, and our Harvard reference list guide.
Sources
Checked 2026-10-29 unless stated otherwise.
- APA Style, Common Reference Examples (7th edition, last updated March 3, 2026): https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf (checked 2026-10-29).
- APA Style, Reference Guide (7th edition, last updated March 23, 2026): https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-guide.pdf (checked 2026-10-28).
- Open University Library, Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right): https://university.open.ac.uk/library/referencing-and-plagiarism/quick-guide-to-harvard-referencing-cite-them-right (checked 2026-10-29).
- Newcastle University, Cite Them Right Harvard Style Sheet (August 2025): https://www.ncl.ac.uk/mediav8/academic-skills-kit/file-downloads/manage-info/2025%20Cite%20Them%20Right%20Harvard%20Style%20Sheet.pdf (checked 2026-10-28).
- IEEE Publication Operations, IEEE Reference Guide (V 3.28.2025): IEEE Reference Guide on Google Docs (checked 2026-10-28).
- JAMA Network, Instructions for Authors (AMA style): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/pages/instructions-for-authors, and the AMA Manual of Style 11th edition guide to citing: https://academic.oup.com/amamanualofstyle/pages/about/guide-to-citing (checked 2026-10-28).
