PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Chapter in an edited book

How to Cite a Chapter in an Edited Book in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a chapter in an edited book starts with the chapter's author and the chapter title in quotation marks. Then comes the book title in italics, edited by and the editors' names, the edition, the publisher, the year, pp. and the chapter's page range, and the chapter's DOI. The in-text citation names the chapter's author, not the editors, with the page: (Campbell 373).

The format

Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Chapter." Title of the Book, edited by First Name Last Name, #th ed., Publisher, Year, pp. #–#, https://doi.org/xxxx.

PERRLA MLA Experts · Updated October 27, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Paste the chapter's DOI into PERRLA's reference search, or the link to a chapter on the NCBI Bookshelf (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books). PERRLA finds the chapter and fills in its authors, the chapter title, the editors, the book title, and the page range. When a chapter's own DOI record leaves the editors out, PERRLA looks them up from the book's record.

Before you add it, hold the result up against the book's title and copyright pages. Check the editors' names (MLA prints them the way the book does), the year, the edition, and the publisher's name.

Adding one by hand? Choose Book, then Chapter in edited book and All or part of a book chapter. Add the chapter's authors as authors and the book's editors as editors, then the chapter title, the book title, the chapter's page numbers, the year, the edition, the publisher, and the DOI or URL. PERRLA puts the chapter title in quotation marks, writes edited by after the book title, shortens three or more editors to the first one and et al., and puts the pages and the DOI at the end.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Chapter author

Start with the people who wrote the chapter, from the chapter's first page. The editors on the book's cover come later. Give the first author's last name, a comma, and their first name as the chapter prints it, with any middle initial.

Campbell, Margaret L.

Two authors: invert only the first name, then write and and the second author's name in normal order. Three or more: the first author, a comma, and et al.

Higham, Helen, and Charles Vincent.

Benner, Patricia, et al.

2. Chapter title

Put the chapter title in quotation marks and capitalize it in title case. The period goes inside the closing quotation mark.

"Withdrawal of Invasive Mechanical Ventilation."

3. Book title

The book is the container, so its title goes in italics and title case, with a capital after a colon, followed by a comma.

Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses,

4. Editors

After the book title, write edited by in lowercase and the editors' names in normal order, first name first, as the book prints them. Join two editors with and.

edited by Betty Rolling Ferrell and Judith A. Paice,

Three or more editors: give the first one and et al.

edited by Liam Donaldson et al.,

An editor who also wrote a chapter appears twice: once as an author at the front and once after edited by. Ronda Hughes edited the AHRQ nursing handbook and co-wrote its sixth chapter, so her name is in both places.

5. Edition

For any edition after the first, give the edition after the editors, as a numeral and ed., followed by a comma. A first edition gets nothing.

5th ed.,

6. Publisher and year

Give the publisher's name, a comma, and the book's copyright year. Leave out Inc. and the city. A university press is shortened to UP, so Oxford University Press becomes Oxford UP. A government agency can be the publisher.

Springer, 2021,

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2008,

Use the book's copyright year, not the date a chapter first went online. SpringerLink says the Higham and Vincent chapter was online in December 2020, but the book's copyright is 2021.

7. Pages

Write pp. and the chapter's page range. Up to 99, give both numbers in full. After that, the second number keeps only its last two digits, unless more are needed to make the range clear.

pp. 29–44,

pp. 371–76,

A chapter read online with no page numbers, like the chapters of a book on the NCBI Bookshelf, skips this part. Don't write in a chapter number in its place.

8. DOI or URL

End with the chapter's own DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link, followed by a period. Springer, Oxford, and many other publishers give every chapter its own DOI, separate from the book's.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59403-9_3.

No DOI? End with the chapter's stable URL, usually written without https://, like this chapter on the NCBI Bookshelf. Read it in print? End after the pages.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2643/.

Examples

A chapter with two authors, four editors, and a DOI

A chapter on human error from the open access Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management. With four editors, MLA names only the first, then et al. The year is the book's 2021 copyright, not the December 2020 date the chapter first went online.

  • In-text citation(Higham and Vincent 31)
  • Narrative citationHigham and Vincent point out that … (31).

A chapter in a later edition of a nursing textbook

Margaret Campbell's chapter in the fifth edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing, edited by Betty Rolling Ferrell and Judith Paice. The edition comes after the editors, and the page range comes after the year.

  • In-text citation(Campbell 373)
  • Narrative citationAs Campbell explains, … (373).

An online chapter with no page numbers, where the editor is also an author

Patricia Benner's chapter on clinical reasoning in Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and free on the NCBI Bookshelf. The online version has no page numbers, so the page range drops out and the chapter's URL ends the entry. Ronda Hughes is a chapter author and the book's editor, so she's named twice.

  • In-text citation(Benner et al.)
  • Narrative citationBenner et al. argue that …

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a chapter gives the chapter author's last name and the page number, with no comma between them. The editors stay out of it, unless they wrote the chapter.

  • One author: (Campbell 373)
  • Two authors: both last names joined by and: (Higham and Vincent 31)
  • Three or more authors: the first author and et al.: (Benner et al.)
  • Name in your sentence: give the page alone in parentheses at the end of the sentence: Campbell describes the steps in order (373).
  • A chapter with no page numbers: the name alone, or nothing in parentheses when the name is in your sentence. Don't count pages or screens yourself.

Using two chapters by the same author? Add a short version of the chapter title, in quotation marks: (Benner et al., "Clinical Reasoning"). Each chapter gets its own Works Cited entry.

Common mistakes

  • (Ferrell and Paice 373)(Campbell 373)The in-text citation names whoever wrote the chapter. The editors put the book together, but the words and ideas are the chapter author's.
  • Ferrell, Betty Rolling, and Judith A. Paice, editors. "Withdrawal of Invasive Mechanical Ventilation."Campbell, Margaret L. "Withdrawal of Invasive Mechanical Ventilation."The chapter's author goes first. The editors go later, after edited by.
  • edited by Liam Donaldson, Walter Ricciardi, Susan Sheridan, and Riccardo Tartaglia,edited by Liam Donaldson et al.,With three or more editors, MLA names the first one and et al.
  • In L. Donaldson, W. Ricciardi, S. Sheridan, & R. Tartaglia (Eds.),Textbook of Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management, edited by Liam Donaldson et al.,That's APA. MLA puts the book title first, then edited by and the editors' full names, first name first.
  • Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing, Edited byOxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing, edited byAfter a comma, edited by starts with a lowercase e.
  • pp. 371–376pp. 371–76Past 99, MLA shortens the second page number to its last two digits.

Quick checklist

  • The chapter's author first, full first name as printed
  • Chapter title in quotation marks and title case
  • Book title in italics, then edited by and the editors, first name first
  • Three or more editors: the first one, et al.
  • Edition, publisher (UP for a university press), and the copyright year
  • pp. and the chapter's pages, then its DOI or a stable URL
  • In text: the chapter author and the page

Questions students ask

How do I know if a book is edited or authored?

Look at the title page. An edited book says "edited by" there, and each chapter opens with its own author's name. If the title page names authors instead, it's an authored book: cite the whole book and give the page in your in-text citation.

How do I cite two chapters from the same edited book?

Write a separate Works Cited entry for each chapter, each with its own author, title, and pages. Both repeat the book title, the editors, the publisher, and the year.

Do I use the chapter's DOI or the book's DOI?

The chapter's, when it has one. Publishers like Springer and Oxford give each chapter its own DOI, separate from the book's. Springer's adds the chapter number to the book's DOI: _3 for chapter 3. Use the book's DOI only when the chapter doesn't have its own.

What if the chapter has no page numbers?

Leave the page range out of the entry and the page out of your citation: (Benner et al.). That's common for chapters read online, like those on the NCBI Bookshelf. Don't make up page numbers from a printout or your screen.

Do I write "edited by" or "ed." in MLA?

Write it out: edited by, in lowercase, after the book title. The word editors appears only when the editors come first, in an entry for the whole edited book.

Can I just cite the editors if I can't find the chapter author?

Look again before you do. The author's name is almost always under the chapter title on its first page, or in the table of contents. Cite the editors only when you're citing the whole book.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and other contributors; 5.65 for UP and 5.93 for DOIs) and chapter 6 (in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center. Example sources verified against PubMed (PMIDs 36315764, 36315660, and 21328745), Crossref, Oxford Academic, and the NCBI Bookshelf, with each chapter's DOI or link opened.

PERRLA builds the chapter entry from its DOI, with the chapter author first and the editors after edited by.

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