Frequently Asked Questions: General

Unlike a traditional book that contains page numbers, there is no clear way to identify pages, or any other fixed form of text location, in electronic books or ebooks. Most style manuals suggest methods such as counting paragraphs, identifying e-reader models, etc. 

Although we recommend that you create your citations by using printed books and articles, when possible, you should also refer to the appropriate style manual for the formatting style you are using for more information. 

When citing an ebook, you will want to make approximate page identifications through any one of the several processes developed by those responsible for maintaining the major academic style standards (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). Once you make the identification in an electronic source through one of these methods, it will still be necessary for the reader of your document – who wishes to confirm the citation – to go through a comparably lengthy process in order to find the passage cited.