It’s 10:00 p.m., your research paper is due first thing in the morning, and you have access only to the e-book or open access edition of the work you’ve been consulting through your institutional login. The digital edition doesn’t have page numbers, but your library has a print copy of the same book. What do you do?
a) Run to the library before your deadline and find the page numbers from the print book that correspond to the parts of the work you’re citing.
b) Cite the digital source or e-book edition you consulted, omitting page numbers from your citations.
If you answered b, you’re correct!
Generally, if you’ve consulted the digital edition of a work, that is the edition you should include in your works-cited list. It is not necessary to track down the page numbers for the print edition if you consulted the digital or open access edition, nor should you include both the print and digital editions of the same book in your works-cited list, unless you consulted both.