• 2-minute read
• 2nd March 2020

How to Cite an Edited Book in AMA Referencing

We’ve looked at how to cite a book in AMA referencing before. But what about an edited book featuring work by several authors? The rules for this are a little different, as you will need to list the chapter as well as the container volume in your reference list. Let’s see how this works.

How to Cite an Edited Book Chapter in AMA Referencing

As it is a Vancouver-style number–endnote system, in AMA referencing you cite sources with a superscript number in the text at the end of the relevant clause. For example, we could cite a source like this:

The author explains how to cite an edited book in great detail.¹

This number indicates the position of the source in the reference list at the end of your document. Sources should be numbered sequentially in the order you cite them, so the ‘1’ above would indicate the first source cited in the document and point to the first source in the reference list.

If you are also quoting a book, add a page number in brackets:

Quoting sources allows you ‘to provide evidence.’^1(p25)

Above, for instance, the number in brackets shows we’re quoting page 25 of the source. You will then give full information for all sources, included edited book chapters, in a reference list at the end of your document.

Edited Books in an AMA Reference List

The format for a chapter from an edited book in the AMA Manual of Style is:

n. Chapter Author Name(s) and Initial(s). Chapter Title. In: Editor Name(s), ed(s). Edited Book Title. Publisher’s name; copyright year:page range.

The ‘page range’ here should include the full page range for the chapter, not just the page(s) you were citing or quoting in your work.

In practice, the entry for a chapter from an edited book would look like this:

1. Sepe R. The Secrets of AMA Referencing. In: Johnston A, Beltman A, eds. Everything You Could Ever Want to Know About Citing Sources. Sardonic Books Inc.; 2017:21-35.

This will tell your reader both the chapter you’ve cited and the book that you found it in. We hope you now feel confident about citing a chapter from an edited book in AMA referencing! But if you ever need any more help with a document, our proofreading services are available 24/7.