29. Books, Journals, Restatements, and Looseleaf Works

29.1 Identify authorship roles

The author of a chapter, editor of a collected volume, translator, institutional author, and publisher are not interchangeable. Read the title page, chapter heading, and publication information. Attribute the proposition to the writer responsible for it. For a contributed chapter, preserve both chapter-level and volume-level identity.

29.2 Use edition and update information

An edition number can distinguish materially different texts. For a multivolume work, record the volume and relevant edition. For a looseleaf or continuously updated service, preserve the update or release information shown by the item used. A year printed in a website footer is not necessarily the date of the cited section.

When a treatise quotes a case, decide whether the proposition concerns the treatise's analysis or the court's words. If the latter, obtain the judicial source and verify it. Cite the intermediary explicitly when direct access is unavailable; do not imply that you read a source you did not obtain.

29.3 Distinguish pages, article numbers, and electronic locators

Some journals use article numbers instead of continuous page runs. Preserve the publication's actual identifier and use available section or paragraph locators. Do not turn an article number into a first page merely to fit a traditional template. For PDF pagination, distinguish printed pages from viewer counts when necessary.

29.4 Handle restatements and uniform texts carefully

Identify the issuing organization, title, edition or draft status, section, and the component used: black-letter text, comment, illustration, or reporter's note. These components can serve different research purposes. A tentative draft is not the same publication as an adopted final text. A uniform act's model language is not proof that a particular jurisdiction enacted that language unchanged.

The citation identifies the secondary or model source. The legal analysis establishes whether and how a court or legislature adopted it. Keep the enacted local provision or adopting opinion in the source packet when that relationship matters.

29.5 Prefer stable identifiers without losing publication facts

A DOI can provide a durable route to a publication. Verify that it resolves to the correct work and version. Retain author, title, publication, date, and locator; a bare DOI is a route, not a complete explanation of the source. Crossref recommends a consistent URL presentation for its DOI links. Crossref display guidance.

Fictional editing check. A bibliography lists the third edition, while the quoted page was copied from the second. Correct the version or obtain and verify the quotation in the third edition. Changing only the year creates a citation that looks updated but cannot be reproduced.