Books are still the backbone of most reading lists, so knowing how to reference them correctly is essential. The exact format depends on your referencing style. This UK guide shows you how to reference a book in Harvard, APA 7 and MLA, how to handle e-books and edited chapters, and the mistakes that lose easy marks.
The Short Answer
A book reference needs four things in every style: who wrote it, when it was published, what it is called and who published it. Harvard adds the edition and place of publication, APA 7 drops the place and keeps the edition in brackets, and MLA uses title case with the publisher and year only. Get those four elements from the title and imprint pages rather than the cover, and the rest is punctuation.
How to Reference a Book in Harvard Style
In Harvard, the in-text citation gives author and year, with a page number for direct quotes: (Smith, 2024, p. 40). The reference-list entry follows this pattern: Author surname, Initial. (Year) Title of book. Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher. Italicise the title, and only include the edition when it is not the first.
How to Reference a Book in APA 7
APA 7 uses author–date in-text citations such as (Jones, 2024). The reference-list entry is: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book (Edition). Publisher. APA 7 dropped the requirement to include the publisher’s location, so you no longer add the city. Capitalise only the first word of the title and subtitle, plus any proper nouns.
How to Reference a Book in MLA
MLA uses the core-elements template. A book entry reads: Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year. The in-text citation is the author’s surname and a page number with no comma: (Smith 40). Capitalise all major words in the title, which is a key difference from APA’s sentence-case style.
Referencing an E-book or a Chapter
For an e-book, reference it as you would a print book; if you read it on a device without stable page numbers, cite the chapter or section instead of a page. For a chapter in an edited book, name the chapter author first, then the book: Author of chapter (Year) ‘Chapter title’, in Editor (ed.) Book title. Place: Publisher, pp. x–y. This shows the marker exactly which part of the book you used.
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Common Book Referencing Mistakes
Typical errors include forgetting the edition of a later-edition textbook, adding a publisher location in APA 7 (no longer required), muddling sentence case and title case between styles, and citing the whole book when a specific page would be clearer. For quotations, always include the page number. As with any style, consistency across every entry matters as much as any single rule.
The Same Book in Harvard, APA 7 and MLA
Seeing one book written three ways makes the differences easy to remember. The elements barely change; what changes is order, capitalisation and punctuation.
- Harvard: Author, A. (Year) Title of book in sentence case. 3rd edn. Place: Publisher.
- APA 7: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case (3rd ed.). Publisher.
- MLA: Author, First Name. Title of Book in Title Case. 3rd ed., Publisher, Year.
The in-text forms differ too. Harvard and APA both give author and year, with a page number when you quote: (Author, 2024, p. 40) in Harvard and (Author, 2024, p. 40) in APA. MLA gives surname and page with no comma and no year: (Author 40). Mixing these is one of the fastest ways to lose presentation marks, so pick the style your department names and stay in it. Our Harvard quick guide, APA 7 guide and MLA guide go deeper on each.
Editions, Reprints and Translations
Edition information matters because page numbers and even chapter content move between editions, and a marker checking your quotation against the wrong edition will not find it.
- First editions need no edition statement at all. Only later editions are labelled, written as 3rd edn in Harvard and (3rd ed.) in APA.
- Reprints are not new editions. Use the edition year on the imprint page, not the latest printing date.
- Republished classics can carry two dates. A common Harvard solution is Author (1902 [2019]) or a note giving the original year, while APA uses Author (1902/2019) with both years in the in-text citation.
- Translations name the translator after the title, and APA also gives the original publication year, which matters when you discuss how a text was received over time.
Multiple Authors, Editors and Corporate Authors
Author lists cause more errors than any other element, because each style shortens them at a different point.
- Two authors: name both in every citation. APA joins them with an ampersand in brackets and with the word and in narrative sentences.
- Three or more: APA 7 uses the first author followed by et al. in the text from the very first citation, while listing up to twenty authors in the reference entry. Harvard variants usually allow et al. from three or four authors onwards, so check your handbook. MLA uses the first author and et al. for three or more.
- Edited books: put (ed.) or (eds) after the names in Harvard, and (Ed.) or (Eds.) in APA, and reference the specific chapter rather than the whole book if that is what you read.
- Corporate authors: organisations, charities and government bodies act as authors. Spell the name out in full on first use and only abbreviate later if you introduce the abbreviation.
Chapters, Anthologies and Set Textbooks
If a chapter has its own named author, cite the chapter. Crediting the editors for someone else’s argument is a genuine accuracy problem, not just a formatting one.
The pattern places the chapter author first, then the chapter title, then the word In followed by the editors and the book title, with the page range of the chapter at the end. Textbooks used across a module are often cited chapter by chapter for the same reason: different chapters carry different authors and dates of revision. When you paraphrase a definition that appears in several editions, cite the edition you actually read, and note the page even when paraphrasing if your department expects locators.
E-books, Audiobooks and Library Platforms
Format is not a source type, so an e-book is referenced as a book. What changes is how you point your reader to a specific place in the text.
- Fixed-page e-books such as PDF-based library copies keep the printed page numbers, so cite as normal.
- Reflowable e-books shift pagination by device. Cite the chapter, section heading or paragraph instead, for example (Author, 2024, ch. 4).
- Audiobooks are cited with a timestamp for direct quotations, and APA also names the narrator when the recording itself is your object of study.
- Library platforms such as aggregator databases are not publishers. Keep the original publisher and add a DOI or stable link only if your style asks for one.
Where the Details Live in a Physical Book
Covers are marketing; title and imprint pages are the record. Take your details from inside the book and your reference will match what other readers see.
- The title page gives the full title, subtitle, authors and editors, and often the edition.
- The imprint or copyright page on the reverse gives the publisher, place, copyright year, edition and printing history.
- The contents page confirms chapter authorship in edited collections.
- The running heads confirm you have the right chapter when you photograph pages for later.
Record all of this the first time you use a source. Rebuilding references from memory the night before submission is where most bibliography errors and unintentional plagiarism begin, as our plagiarism guide explains. If you are unsure whether your list should include everything you read, see references versus bibliography.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need the edition when referencing a book?
Include the edition only when it is not the first edition. For a second edition or later, add it after the title (for example, 3rd edn) so your reader finds the exact version you used.
How do I reference an e-book?
Reference it like a print book. If the e-book has no fixed page numbers, cite the chapter or section for direct quotations instead of a page number.
How do I reference a book with multiple authors?
List the authors in the order shown on the book. In APA 7, use an ampersand before the final author in the reference list and “et al.” in text for three or more authors; Harvard and MLA have their own conventions, so follow your chosen style.
How do I reference a book with no author?
Move the title into the author position and keep the rest of the pattern the same. Harvard would read Title of book (Year), and APA 7 places the title first followed by the year in brackets. Alphabetise the entry by the first significant word of the title, ignoring A, An and The, and use a corporate author instead if an organisation is clearly responsible for the text.
How do I cite a book I only saw quoted in another book?
This is a secondary citation, and most UK departments prefer you to find the original. If that is genuinely impossible, make the chain visible: write (Original author, year, cited in Author you read, year) and list only the source you actually read in your reference list. Markers penalise secondary citations used as a shortcut, so keep them rare.
Do I need to include the ISBN?
No. None of the mainstream UK styles ask for an ISBN in a reference list. Author, year, title, edition and publisher are enough for a reader to find the book. Record the ISBN in your own notes if it helps you order the right edition, but leave it out of the submitted list.
How do I reference a translated book?
Name the translator after the title, and make the two dates clear so your reader knows which version you read. APA 7 gives both years in the citation, as in (Author, 1902/2019), while Harvard variants usually show the original date in square brackets or explain the edition in a note. Quote from the translation you actually used, because wording differs between translators.
What if I use two books by the same author from the same year?
Distinguish them with lower-case letters attached to the year, so (Author, 2024a) and (Author, 2024b), and use the same letters in the reference list. Order the lettered entries alphabetically by title. This keeps every in-text citation pointing to exactly one entry, which is what markers check when they follow up a claim.