Book versus chapter

When we have an edited book, what should we cite and reference? Just the chapter we are using? Or the whole book? That is a great question, and the answer is that it depends.

What does it depend on? Well, if we are using more than one chapter of an edited book, then we cite the whole book. But if we are only using the chapter, it is easier for our reader to connect with our evidence if we cite just the chapter. A couple of examples are below:

• (Crocket et al., 2011).
  Crocket, K., Agee, M., & Conforth, S. (Eds.) (2011). Ethics in Practice: A guide for counsellors. Dunsmore Press.
• (Agee et al., 2011)
  Agee, M., Crocket, K., Fatialofa, C., Frater-Mathieson, K., Kim, H., Vong, C. & Woolf, V. (2011). Chapter 1.3 Culture is Always Present: A conversation about ethics. In K. Crocket, M. Agee, S. Conforth (Eds.) Ethics in Practice: A guide for counsellors (pp. 28-32). Dunsmore Press.

But if we were wanting to cite an author whose story is particularly important to us, from a chapter citation where the author's name does not show in the citation, then we need to write a narrative around our citation. Taking the example of the references above, if we were only citing the chapter, we could tackle this as:

Within our nations, despite aims of egalitarianism, our individual cultural experience may vary significantly. Fatialofa, a member of the Pasifika community, notes that the "experience of our own culture may be different from the person sitting next to us" (Agee et al., 2011, p. 30).

Or if we were citing the book, because we were using more than one chapter, this would appear as:

Within our nations, despite aims of egalitarianism, our individual cultural experience may vary significantly. Fatialofa, a member of the Pasifika community, notes that the "experience of our own culture may be different from the person sitting next to us" (Crocket et al., 2011, p. 30).

I hope that helps!

Sam

References:

Agee, M., Crocket, K., Fatialofa, C., Frater-Mathieson, K., Kim, H., Vong, C. & Woolf, V. (2011). Chapter 1.3 Culture is Always Present: A conversation about ethics. In K. Crocket, M. Agee, S. Conforth (Eds.) Ethics in Practice: A guide for counsellors (pp. 28-32). Dunsmore Press.

Crocket, K., Agee, M., & Conforth, S. (Eds.) (2011). Ethics in Practice: A guide for counsellors. Dunsmore Press.