2

I want to cite a chapter from a book. So according to APA style, I should include a page number, like "pp.64".

\usepackage{apacite}
\cite{hua_2013}
\bibliographystyle{apacite}
\bibliography{ref.bib}

However, although I have included the page number in the BibTex file, the reference at the bottom of my article still doesn't have a page number.

No page number

And someone says I can add "note={pp. 64}". But the format is not correct after that because it also adds a parenthesis for me. With parenthesis

Below is my BibTex code:

@book{hua_2013, 
    place={Hong Kong}, 
    title={Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in China}, 
    publisher={Hong Kong University Press, HKU}, 
    author={Hua, Wen}, 
    year={2013},
    pages={64},
}

And a version with "note".

@book{hua_2013, 
    place={Hong Kong}, 
    title={Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in China}, 
    publisher={Hong Kong University Press, HKU}, 
    author={Hua, Wen}, 
    year={2013},
    note={64},
}

So what should I do to generate a correct reference with page numbers and without a parenthesis?

3
  • 1
    For citing a part of a book use @inbook instead of @book
    – DG'
    Mar 5, 2018 at 10:02
  • Off-topic: You need to encase the word "China" in curly braces to prevent it from being lowercased.
    – Mico
    Mar 5, 2018 at 10:43
  • It's not entirely clear what you mean by "I want to cite a chapter from a book." Do you wish to cite a specific passage from a specific chapter of the book? Or, do you mean to point out to your readers that they needn't consult the entire book but should consult just a specific chapter? Please clarify. Usually, when a citation call-out contains a single page number (say, "64"), then the corresponding formatted bib entry shouldn't just repeat this page number. Instead, the formatted entry should provide information about the page range of the chapter in question.
    – Mico
    Mar 5, 2018 at 16:18

1 Answer 1

3

You say that you wish to cite a chapter from a book. I can think of two cases.

First, suppose that it's important to inform your readers that the relevant information is from a specific chapter in the book. In that case, you should provide the name of the chapter as well as, presumably, the chapter number. I.e., change the entry type from @book to @inbook, change the title field to booktitle, provide the name of the chapter in a new title field, and state the number of the chapter in a new field called chapter. I.e., something like this:

@inbook{hua_2013,
  author       = "Wen Hua",
  year         = 2013,
  title        = "The Commodification of the Body",
  chapter      = 5,
  booktitle    = "Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in {China}",
  publisher    = "Hong Kong University Press",
  address      = "Hong Kong",
}

Second, suppose that all you need to do is to inform your readers that you are citing something from page 64 of Hua's book. In that case, there's presumably no need to provide information about the chapter name and number. Thus, using the @book entry type is just fine. However, you will need to change the citation command from \cite{hua_2013} to \cite[p.~64]{hua_2013}.

@book{hua_2013,
  author       = "Wen Hua",
  year         = 2013,
  title        = "Buying Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery in {China}",
  publisher    = "Hong Kong University Press",
  address      = "Hong Kong",
}
4
  • If I \cite[p.~64]{hua_2013}, will the page number also appear in the reference list? Actually I also want it to appear there.
    – user155860
    Mar 5, 2018 at 15:47
  • @user155860 - The following applies to the apacite bibliography style; it probably doesn't apply to all possible bibliography styles. If one uses the entry type @inbook and provides both chapter and pages fields, only the pages field will be shown, while the chapter field (which contains the chapter number) will be suppressed. Remember that with @inbook, the fields title (to show the chapter name) and booktitle are both required. If the @book entry type is used, the chapter and pages fields will both be ignored. (continued in next comment)
    – Mico
    Mar 5, 2018 at 16:09
  • @user155860 - If you were to switch to the @incollection entry type, the contents of the chapter and pages fields could both be shown. However, for the @incollection entry type, the pages field should generally show the range of page number for the chapter in question, not just a single page number that corresponds to a given citation call-out. As with @inbook, the name of the chapter should be stored in the title field, while the title of the book should be stored in the booktitle field.
    – Mico
    Mar 5, 2018 at 16:14
  • Yes, now I think \cite[p.~64]{hua_2013} is a more reasonable way, and there's no need to show the pages at the end.@Mico
    – user155860
    Mar 6, 2018 at 1:31

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