Referencing to google books in article

[Shukie]

If I want to refer to a book that I read on google books, should I reference to the book itself or to the internet page?

 

[Pinu7]

The book I believe. This is because I think you are "reading" to book, not the web page, I could be wrong, though.

 

[LowlyPion]

The book as if it was in your hand.

Would you reference the library you got a book from?

 

[Civilized]

Since the purpose of a reference is to help the reader find the source, you could say something like:

Tian Yu Cao "Conceptual foundations of quantum field theory", Cambridge University Press, 2004, portions availible online at
http://books.google.com/books?id=d0wS0EJHZ3MC&pg=PA207&dq=qft&ei=cTk5SrvPG5TSkASK5-nzAg

is what I would do for a school essay.

 

[Cyrus]

Never ever link to a website.

The reason why this isn't allowed is because if the information is taken down, the reader can't find your referenced material.

Always reference the actual book/Journal it came from, even if its online.

 

[Shukie]

I want to refer to a book from 1827 though, which I doubt you will find anywhere, so Civilized's solution seems pretty good.

 

[Moonbear]

Never ever link to a website.

The reason why this isn't allowed is because if the information is taken down, the reader can't find your referenced material.

You can cite a website, but the way to do it is to include the name of the webpage, the URL, and the date you accessed the site (because you're citing it as you viewed it on that day). If you're going to cite a webpage, I strongly recommend printing a hardcopy (or saving a copy as a PDF), that way you have the material as it appeared when you cited it in case the content changes and someone wants to see your source.

Always reference the actual book/Journal it came from, even if its online.

Yes, if it's not a webpage, but an electronic version of a book or journal, you cite it the same as if you had the hardcopy, bound version in front of you. If it's ONLY available online, then you may need to modify the citation slightly, such as if there are no page numbers, and instead write something like "Online" in that place.

 

[Cyrus]

You can cite a website, but the way to do it is to include the name of the webpage, the URL, and the date you accessed the site (because you're citing it as you viewed it on that day). If you're going to cite a webpage, I strongly recommend printing a hardcopy (or saving a copy as a PDF), that way you have the material as it appeared when you cited it in case the content changes and someone wants to see your source.


Yes, if it's not a webpage, but an electronic version of a book or journal, you cite it the same as if you had the hardcopy, bound version in front of you. If it's ONLY available online, then you may need to modify the citation slightly, such as if there are no page numbers, and instead write something like "Online" in that place.

It depends on who your are giving your paper to. My one professor would not accept *any* online sources - what so ever.

 

[Shukie]

I don't see why he wouldn't. If you're careful enough you can find lots of trustworthy information on the web. I do almost always use websites from universities though, if I use internet sources. Those are fairly reliable and my professors accept them.

 

[Astronuc]

One should reference the original source: book, article, . . . . Google books provides a reproduction.

 

[Moonbear]

It depends on who your are giving your paper to. My one professor would not accept *any* online sources - what so ever.

That's for a class assignment, and maybe the objective of the exercise was to get you into the library. The question here didn't specify it was for a class assignment, or that any such restrictions were put in place if it were. Just because you have one professor that doesn't allow you to use online sources doesn't mean there is never a reason to cite them nor an appropriate format to do it.