I am told that when writing a book the references must be written in American Library Association format. I have yet to find any examples. I am writing a book on psychology, does the reference style vary with the type of book being written? Can you provide me with a source or an example of how the reference should be written?

Question

I am told that when writing a book the references must be written in American Library Association format.  I have yet to find any examples.  I am writing a book on psychology, does the reference style vary with the type of book being written?  Can you provide me with a source or an example of how the reference should be written?

anonymous · Answer

Yes, I do believe the reference style vary with genre, because I know academically it does based on what class it's for.

I have honestly never heard of that reference style, the ones I see commonly are Modern Language Assoc., Chicago Manual of Style (Turabian), and American Psychological Assoc. I would have thought APA is what you'd use for a psychology book, although my knowledge is limited to research papers. Even putting American Library Assoc. into a search engine I could find no mention of their citation style. Where did you hear this from? I would suggest maybe checking your sources and taking a look at other psychology books to see what style they use.

Hope this helps!