There are many aspects to book references, but for now we'll confine ourselves to the three most common types of book:

• Books written by one (or more) authors
• Books consisting of separate chapters written by different people with an editor
• Books without a specified author

Referencing books written by one (or more) authors

[Author's last name], [Author's first name] [Date published]: [Book Title]. [Publisher's city]: [Publisher].

Example

Chapham, Christopher 1976: Liberia and Sierra Leone. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

If two or more authors have collaborated on writing the whole book without an editor, you just list their names as they appear on the book right after each other

Example

Lynn, Leonard and McKeown, Timothy 1988: Organizing Business Trade Associations in America and Japan. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Referencing books with an editor

[Author's last name], [Author's first name] "[Title of chapter or article]". In [Editor's last name], [Editor's first name] (ed) [Date published]: [Book Title]. [Publisher's city]: [Publisher].

Example

Pempel, T.J. and Tsunekawa, Keiichi, "Corporatism without labor? The Japanese anomaly". In Schmitter, Philippe and Lehmbruch, Gerhard (eds) 1979: Trend Toward Corporatist Intermediation. Beverly Hills, Cal.: Sage Publications.

Books without specified authors

Some books have no author's or editor's names. They are referenced as follows:

[Book name] [Date published]: [Name of article or chapter if there is one]. [Edition if applicable], [Publisher's City]: [Publisher].

Example

Australian Encyclopedia 1996: Deregulation. 6th edition, Terrehills NSW: Australian Geographic PTI Ltd.

notes
references (periodicals | books | web sites)