Citing Chapters of Edited Books in Harvard and APA
If you’ve ever scratched your head wondering how to cite just one chapter of a book with multiple contributors, you’re not alone. In academic writing, it’s common to use just one part of an edited volume, such as a textbook with chapters by different specialists or an anthology of essays by various writers. Knowing how to reference this source properly is essential, and referencing styles don’t all follow the same rules.
In this post, we’ll break down how to cite a chapter in an edited book according to two common academic referencing styles: Harvard and APA. We’ll walk you through the key components of both the in-text citation and the reference entry and explain why naming the author (and not the editor!) is so important.
Whether you’re proofreading an academic paper or compiling references for your own writing, we’ve got you covered.
Citing Chapters of Edited Books in Harvard and APA: The Basics
When a writer sources information or a quote from a chapter in an edited book, the in-text citation should include the name of the chapter author, and the corresponding reference list entry should provide full information about the chapter, the whole book, and the editor.
This is where it’s easy to get confused! Although the names of both the chapter author and the book editor are included in the reference list entry, the only time the editor should be included in the in-text citation is when citing:
- A contribution the editor has made to the edited volume as an author
- The edited volume as a whole
For instance, let’s imagine a student is writing about the anthology of horror stories Metahorror, edited by Dennis Etchison, and you’ve been tasked with proofreading the essay. Here’s an example of a sentence with the in-text citation for the full volume (not just one chapter) in APA style:
Metahorror (Etchison, 1992) features stories by several horror writers.
The reference list entry would be for the whole edited book. In APA style, it would be written like this:
Etchison, D. (Ed.). (1992). Metahorror. Dell Publishing.
When proofreading, if you suspect that your client has cited an editor when they should be citing a chapter author, you should leave a comment to note the problem and ask them to check the source.
Next, we’ll explain how to cite just one chapter of an edited volume.
Edited Books in Harvard Style
Harvard referencing is a generic term for various author–date referencing systems, but there are some slight differences between versions. The Open University (OU) guide to Harvard referencing is a good example of Harvard referencing rules and a useful resource – this is the version we will use in our examples.
When referencing a chapter from an edited book in Harvard style, the author of the chapter, not the editor of the book, is the focus. This is because an edited volume includes contributions from multiple writers, each with distinct viewpoints or areas of expertise.
There are two key elements to consider: how to format in-text citations and how to structure the corresponding reference list entry.
Harvard Citation for a Chapter in an Edited Book
With an in-text citation, the writer’s name should be provided, along with the year of publication. So, while the name of a book’s author would be given if citing an authored book, the name of the chapter’s author is given when citing one chapter of an edited collection.
As an example, if citing a chapter (authored by Straub) from the horror anthology mentioned above, the correct format for a parenthetical in-text citation using the OU Harvard rules would look like this:
An abandoned village was home to unhappy spirits (Straub, 1992).
As you can see, the citation includes the chapter author and the year of the publication, with no mention of the editor of the collection.
Harvard Reference Entry for a Chapter in an Edited Book
As we mentioned, the corresponding reference list entry should list all the important information about the work. For a chapter in an edited book, a Harvard reference entry should follow this template:
[Surname of chapter author], [Initial/s]. ([Year of publication]) “[Title of chapter or section],” in [Initial/s]. [Surname of editor] (ed.) [Title of book]. [Publisher], pp. [Page range].
So, the reference list entry for the Straub citation above would look like this:
Straub, P. (1992) “The ghost village,” in D. Etchison (ed.) Metahorror. Dell Publishing, pp. 370–377.
In the example above, the work has a single editor. If a work has more than one editor, all their names should be listed and an “s” added to the abbreviation to make it plural.
Edited Books in APA
APA referencing style, currently in its seventh edition, is the go-to system for the social sciences and psychology. Like Harvard, APA focuses on the author of the chapter being cited – not the editor – when referencing a specific section of an edited book.
Following referencing guidelines ensures the writer gives proper credit to authors and allows readers to trace the sources accurately. To help you get this right every time, let’s look at the correct approach for APA in-text citations and reference entries for a book chapter.
APA Citation for a Chapter in an Edited Book
As with Harvard style, in-text citations using APA should name the chapter author and the year of publication. So, to cite the same chapter from our horror anthology, a parenthetical in-text citation would look like this:
The man’s spirit lived in the abandoned village (Straub, 1992).
Once again, the chapter author is the focus, and the editor isn’t included here.
APA Reference Entry for a Chapter in an Edited Book
Moving on to the reference list, here is a template you can use to correctly format the corresponding entry in APA style:
[Surname of chapter author], [Initial/s]. ([Year of publication]). [Title of chapter]. In [Initial/s]. [Surname of editor] (Ed.), [Title of book] (pp. [page range]). [Publisher].
So, the APA reference list entry for our chapter would look like this:
Straub, P. (1992). The ghost village. In D. Etchison (Ed.), Metahorror (pp. 370–377). Dell Publishing.
In the reference entry, the chapter author and chapter name come first, but the details of the full work are provided too, giving the reader everything they need to identify the source.
This example has only one editor, so let’s take a quick look at a work that has been edited by more than one person. In this case, all editors’ names are listed, and the abbreviation is altered to the plural form:
Bennett, T. (1994). The exhibitionary complex. In N. B. Dirks, G. Eley, & S. B. Ortner (Eds.), Culture/power/history: A reader in contemporary social theory (pp. 123–154). Princeton University Press.
Now you know how to cite chapters of edited books in Harvard and APA! Whether you’re writing an essay or proofreading one, you can be sure that the citations and references will be perfectly presented.
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