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eBooks: eBooks and Citation

A guide to finding and using e-books at Atlantic Cape

Citing Ebooks

Citing ebooks isn't difficult, but it does require a little thought. Our Ebsco eBook collections, and many others, provide citation assistance, but you may need to make some changes to the pre-formatted citations provided.

  • It's always important to check the details of the preformatted citation for errors. Common errors include incorrect capitalization, dates, spelling, and sometimes other errors.
    • A common error in preformatted citations from Ebsco is failure to include the name of the database in which the item was found. You will need to go back and check the record for the item.
  • Preformatted citations usually provide information about the whole book, but many academic books are edited anthologies that contain chapters written by different scholars. The chapters are collected by the editors, who are responsible for putting together the content of the book. If you use material from a chapter in an edited book (anthology or collection), you must cite the author of the chapter and the title of the chapter.
  • Below you will find examples of book and book chapter citations in MLA and APA formats.

What Got Changed - MLA

Compare the preformatted Ebsco eBook citation for the book above to the citation to the specific chapter:

Preformatted Citation (copied from the database)

Martinez, Ramiro, et al. Punishing Immigrants : Policy, Politics, and Injustice. NYU Press, 2012. New Perspectives in Crime, Deviance, and Law. EBSCOhost

Changes:

  • Added name of chapter author (Last name, First name).
  • Added title of chapter, in quotation marks.
  • Moved the names of the editors to follow the book title, preceded by the phrase edited by. Note that editor names are listed in the order First name Last name.
  • Added the page numbers of the chapter (first and last page) following the publication date.
  • Replaced the generic EBSCOhost with the name of the database containing the book.

Citation to Chapter

Cruz, Evelyn H. "Unearthing and Confronting the Social Skeletons of Immigrant Status in Our Criminal Justice System." Punishing Immigrants: Policy, Politics, and Injustice, edited by Ramiro Martinez et al, NYU P, 2012, pp. 91-112. New Perspectives in Crime, Deviance, and Law,  eBook Community College Collection (EBSCOhost)

What got changed - APA

Compare the preformatted Ebsco eBook citation for the book above to the citation to the specific chapter:

Preformatted Citation (copied from database)

Martinez, R., Zatz, M. S., & Kubrin, C. E. (2012). Punishing Immigrants : Policy, Politics, and Injustice. New York: NYU Press.

Changes:

  • Added name of chapter author (Last name, Initials). 
  • Added title of chapter. Note the capitalization of both chapter and book titles.
  • Placed the names of the editors to follow the chapter title, preceded by the phrase In. Note that editors are listed in the order: Initials Lastname.
  • Added the page numbers of the chapter (first and last page) following the book title.
  • Added the statement Retrieved from the Database Name and the permalink (stable URL)

Chapter citation

Cruz, E. H. (2012). Unearthing and confronting the social skeletons of immigrant status in our criminal justice system. In R. Martinez, M. S. Zatz, & C. E. Kubrin (Eds.), Punishing immigrants: Policy, politics, and injustice (pp. 91-112). New York: NYU Press. Retrieved from eBook Community College Collection (EBSCOhost)