The pattern at a glance
- Reference listAuthor, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. xx-xx). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxUse "(Eds.)" when the book has two or more editors, and put the edition before the pages, for example "(3rd ed., pp. 362-382)".
- Parenthetical in-text citation(Author, Year) or (Author, Year, p. 12) for a quotation
- Narrative in-text citationAuthor (Year) argues that...
When a chapter gets its own APA reference
APA 7 treats a chapter as a separate source only when the book is an edited collection: each chapter has its own authors, and one or more editors put the volume together. Handbooks, readers, conference books and most "companion" volumes work this way. The chapter authors are the people you cite, and the editors appear later in the entry after the word "In".
If one person or one team wrote the whole book, do not write a reference for the chapter. APA's guidance for authored books is to reference the whole book and, if you want to point to a specific part, add the chapter to the in-text citation, for example (Kahneman, 2011, Chapter 3). A textbook with a single author team is an authored book, so a chapter of it is cited the same way even if each chapter has a different title.
The quickest test is the title page or the table of contents. If names appear under each chapter title and the cover says "edited by", you need a chapter reference. If the cover names authors only, cite the book.
What APA 7 requires in a chapter reference
- Chapter authors: surname, then initials, in the order printed at the top of the chapter. Up to 20 authors are listed; join the last two with an ampersand.
- Year: the copyright year of the book. A chapter does not get a separate date even if it appeared online first.
- Chapter title: sentence case and plain text, not italic. Keep a capital after a colon.
- The word "In", then the editors with initials first (E. E. Editor), followed by "(Ed.)" or "(Eds.)".
- Book title: italic and sentence case. Edition and page range go together in one set of parentheses after the title.
- Publisher name without location. APA 7 dropped the city that APA 6 used to ask for.
- DOI written as a full https://doi.org/ link when the chapter has one. If there is no DOI and you read it in print, end the entry with the publisher.
Editors, editions and page ranges in practice
Editors are the field people most often get wrong. In the chapter part of the entry their initials come first (T. Bretag), the opposite of the author order. One editor takes "(Ed.)"; two or more take "(Eds.)", and two editors are joined with an ampersand: K. Hyland & P. Shaw (Eds.).
When the book is not a first edition, the edition sits inside the same parentheses as the pages, separated by a comma: (3rd ed., pp. 362-382). The page range uses "pp." because it covers more than one page, and the generator prints an en dash between the numbers.
Ebook chapters with a DOI are cited exactly like print chapters; the DOI simply goes at the end. If an ebook has no page numbers at all, leave the page range out of the reference and use a section heading or paragraph number in the in-text citation when you quote.
Field by field: filling in the chapter form
Each row below matches a field in the generator's book chapter form, with the place in the book where the information usually sits.
| Field | What to enter | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter authors | Every author of the chapter, surname plus given names or initials. The engine shortens given names to initials for APA. | Under the chapter title on its first page, or in the table of contents. |
| Year | Copyright year of the edited book. | Copyright page (the back of the title page). |
| Chapter title | Full chapter title in sentence case, including any subtitle after a colon. | First page of the chapter. |
| Editors | All editors of the book. Leave the role words out; the engine adds (Ed.) or (Eds.). | Title page, often after "edited by". Publisher pages also list them. |
| Book title | Title of the whole volume in sentence case. The engine sets it in italics. | Title page or cover. |
| Edition | Only when it is not the first edition: a number such as 3. The engine writes "3rd ed.". | Title page or copyright page. |
| Pages | First and last page of the chapter, for example 481-496. | Table of contents, the chapter's first page, or the DOI landing page. |
| Publisher | Publisher name as printed. Shorten "Springer Singapore" to the imprint that appears on the book if you prefer, but be consistent. | Title page or copyright page. |
| DOI | The chapter DOI, not the book DOI, when both exist. | Chapter landing page or the first page footer of the PDF. |
APA chapter citation examples from real books
Each example below is a real chapter with a DOI that resolves. The reference and the in-text citation were formatted by Rephrasa's citation engine from the data shown in the note.
One author, one editor (Springer handbook)
APA 7th: Reference entry
East, J. (2016). Educational responses to academic integrity. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 481–496). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_33
In-text citation: (East, 2016)
The DOI lookup returns the chapter author, title, pages and year but no editor, so Tracey Bretag had to be added by hand from the book page. Without that step the reference would be missing the whole "In T. Bretag (Ed.)" part, which is the most common error in generated chapter citations.
Checked against DOI record (checked on 25 October 2026). Crossref chapter record has no editor; the Springer book page (doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8) names Tracey Bretag as editor. Pages 481-496, 2016.
Two authors, two editors (Routledge handbook)
APA 7th: Reference entry
Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (2016). Ethnographic perspectives on English for academic purposes research. In K. Hyland & P. Shaw (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English for academic purposes (pp. 218–229). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315657455-21
In-text citation: (Paltridge & Starfield, 2016)
Two chapter authors are joined with an ampersand in the reference and in the parenthetical citation, while the narrative form uses "and". The two editors are Ken Hyland and Philip Shaw, so the entry shows "(Eds.)".
Checked against DOI record (checked on 25 October 2026). Crossref chapter record: pages 218-229, 2016, no editors; Open Library lists Ken Hyland and Philip Shaw for the 2016 handbook.
A chapter in a third edition (Cambridge handbook)
APA 7th: Reference entry
Pea, R., & Sharples, M. (2022). Mobile learning. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (3rd ed., pp. 362–382). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108888295.022
In-text citation: (Pea & Sharples, 2022)
This handbook is in its third edition, so the edition and the page range share one set of parentheses: (3rd ed., pp. 362-382). Some library records list R. Keith Sawyer as the book's author; for the reference he is the editor.
Checked against DOI record (checked on 25 October 2026). Crossref chapter record: pages 362-382, 2022. Open Library (ISBN 9781108840989) lists R. Keith Sawyer for the third edition, but in its author field, which is why a lookup can mistake the editor for the author.
Formatted by the same citation engine that runs the generator above (citeproc-js with the official CSL style file). Italics follow the style.
In-text citations for a book chapter
In the body of your paper you cite the chapter authors and the year, never the editors. The editors only appear in the reference list entry.
- One author, parenthetical: (East, 2016)
- One author, narrative: East (2016) describes three kinds of institutional response.
- Two authors: (Paltridge & Starfield, 2016) in parentheses, Paltridge and Starfield (2016) in the sentence.
- Three or more authors: Use the first author and "et al." from the first citation: (O'Halloran et al., 2016).
- Direct quotation: Add the page: (Pea & Sharples, 2022, p. 365).
- Chapter of an authored book: Cite the book and name the part: (Kahneman, 2011, Chapter 3).
If you cite two chapters from the same edited book, each chapter gets its own reference entry and its own in-text citation. Do not cite the editors for ideas that came from one chapter.
Common mistakes in APA chapter references
- Citing the editor as the author. The editor put the book together but did not write the chapter. Cite the chapter author in text and keep the editor after "In".
- Writing editor names surname first. In the "In" part the order flips: initials, then surname (R. K. Sawyer, not Sawyer, R. K.).
- Dropping the page range. The page range tells readers where the chapter sits in a long handbook. Copy it from the table of contents if the DOI record lacks it.
- Adding a publisher city. APA 7 removed publisher locations. A reference that ends "New York, NY: Routledge" is APA 6 formatting.
- Using the book DOI for a chapter. Many handbooks have one DOI for the book and one per chapter. Use the chapter DOI so the link opens the right text.
- Italicising the chapter title. Only the book title is italic. The chapter title stays in plain text and sentence case.
APA chapter citation FAQ
How do I cite a chapter in a book in APA 7?
Write the chapter author, the year, the chapter title, then In plus the editors with (Ed.) or (Eds.), the italic book title, the page range in parentheses, the publisher and the DOI. In the text, cite the chapter author and year, for example (East, 2016).
How do I cite a chapter in a textbook in APA?
If the whole textbook was written by the same authors, cite the textbook as a book and mention the chapter in the in-text citation, such as (Author, 2020, Chapter 4). Only an edited textbook with different authors per chapter gets a chapter reference.
What if the edited book has no DOI?
End the reference with the publisher name. If you read the chapter on a website that is not a database, you can add the URL instead. Never invent a DOI.
Do I include the editors in the in-text citation?
No. In-text citations name only the chapter authors and the year. The editors appear in the reference list entry after the word In.
Where does the edition go in an APA chapter reference?
Inside the parentheses after the book title, before the pages: (2nd ed., pp. 45-67). First editions show no edition statement.
Can the generator find the editors from the DOI?
Sometimes. Publisher DOI records often omit editors, as the Springer example on this page shows. The generator opens the form after every lookup so you can add them before saving.
Style guides used on this page
Rules on this page were checked against these pages on 25 October 2026.