Citing a Book Written by Numerous Authors
Updated on / dernière mise à jour : 12/09/2023
Answer
 | Regarding your problem, we must distinguish two things: is it a book that includes numerous articles (each article being from a specific author?) or is it a book written by several authors, each of them participating in complete solidarity to the book's content and ideology (hence, such a book would not include articles by different authors but would, instead, be the result of an overall and collective effort). |
If the book includes articles from different authors, your footnote should appear as follows:
S. Rossmanith, "Arztrolle – Patientenrolle", in Medizinische Psychologie, 6th Edition, Vienna: Facultas, 1999, p. 104.
If the book is a collective effort and does not include any particular article, your footnote should appear as follows:
G. Sonneck et al., Medizinische Psychologie, 6th Edition, Vienna: Facultas, 1999, p. 104.
OR
G. Sonneck et alii, Medizinische Psychologie, 6th Edition, Vienna: Facultas, 1999, p. 104.
["et al." / "et alii" are used whenever more than one author contribute to the book. I usually use it when more than two authors are present though. When there are two authors, you can indicate both of them in the footnote (i.e.: "G. Sonneck and M. Hexel") but when more than two are present, use the "et al." or "et alii" terminology. When used, you must indicate the name of one of the authors of the book followed by "et al." or "et alii". In your work, you must decide which one you'll use though: if you use "et al.", you must continue using it for all of the other references with numerous authors in your paper; the same goes for "et alii". Hence, it's one or the other. I normally use « et alii » for my papers in French and "et al." when my work is written in English. Finally, don't forget to italicize the "et al." or "et alii" terminology used.] |
For your bibliography:
If it's an article…
Rossmanith, S. "Arztrolle – Patientenrolle", in Medizinische Psychologie. 6th Edition. Vienna: Facultas, 1999. pp. 92-115.
["pp. 92-115" is just an example; you must replace it with the exact pages referring to Rossmanith's article. If the article starts at page 92 and ends at page 115, then you would indicate "pp. 92-115". As for the article's title, it always appears between quotation marks but must not be italicized; on the other hand, the title of the book is italicized but does not appear between quotation marks. Remember that "pp." means "pages" (plural form since there may be numerous pages for the article; if the article fits on a single page, then you would indicate "p." (singular form) instead of "pp.".] |
If it's a collective effort that does not include any particular article…
Sonneck, G. et al. Medizinische Psychologie. 6th Edition. Vienna: Facultas, 1999. 366 p.
| [I believe this book has a total of 366 pages but I'm not 100 sure… be aware that you must indicate the total number of pages contained in the book only if your reference is not considered an article.] |
