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Citation Styles

This guide lists some major styles that are commonly used by various subject disciplines.

Introduction to American Sociological Association (ASA)

The American Sociological Association (ASA) citation style is widely used in the sociology field and is made up of two components:

  • In-text citation
  • Reference list 

This guide follows the rules set by American Sociological Association (ASA) Style Guide 6th edition and serves as a quick reference for students who are advised to use ASA style for their academic paper.

The ASA  Style Guide 6th edition is also intended for authors who are preparing manuscripts for publications in the ASA journals. You may consult this book for more detailed examples. 

In-text citations

The following table provides some examples of how in-text citations may be done using ASA style. 

Guidelines  Examples

If the author's name is in the essay sentence, include only the year of the sources in parentheses.

 

According to Neuendorf (2002), content analysis can be used to ......


Note: Neuendorf is the last name. 
If the author's name is not in the essay sentence, include the author's last name and the year. .... using manifest indicators (Neuendorf 2002).

If the publication date is unknown, include n.d. after the author's last name.

Note: "n.d." means "no date".

 (Wilfred n.d.)

For sources by one or two authors, list their last names and the year.

 The advantages of Web-based survey... (Connaway and Powell 2010).

For sources with three authors, list all authors' last names in the first in-text citation.

For subsequent in-text citations, use the author's  last name followed by "et al" and the year.


Note: "et al" means "and others"

 

In first citation:
...is derived (David, Bagozzi, and Warshaw 1989).

In subsequent citations: 

.....(Davis et al 1989).
For sources with four or more authors, use the first author's last name followed by “et al.” and the year. (Briggs et al 2016)

Reference list

The following tables provide some examples of how reference list may be done using ASA style. 

  • Books
Guideline Example
Single author

Neueundorf, Kimberly A. 2002. The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Two authors Macionis, John J. and Ken Plummer. 2008. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Three or more authors

Holland, John H., Keith J. Holyoak, Richard E. Nisbett, and Paul R. Thagard. 1986. Induction Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Book Chapter
Guideline Example
Single author book chapter

Pilz, Madlen. 2011. “Tbilisi in City-Maps: Symbolic Construction of an Urban Landscape.” Pp. 81 -105 in Urban Spaces after Socialism: Ethnographies of Public Places in Eurasian Cities, edited by T. Darieva, W. Kaschuba, and M. Krebs. Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.
  • Book Review
Guideline Example
Single author

Braun, Robert. 2021. Review of Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels by Catherine A. Sanderson. Contemporary Sociology 50(6):509-511. doi:10.1177/00943061211050046s.
  • Electronic Resources 
Guideline Example
Newspaper article

Raguraman, Anjali, 2022. "In demand this CNY: Hotpot, video game sets and... ART kits." Straits Times. January 23, A18. 
Opinion article

Shamir, Ruchir. 2020. “The Pandemic Isn’t Changing Everything”. Opinion, New York Times, May 3. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/opinion/coronavirus-economy-nationalism.html.
  • Journal Articles 
Guideline Example
Single author Pekerti, Andre A. 2008. "The Independent Family-Centric Career: Career Perspective of the Overseas Chinese in Indonesia." Career Development Quarterly 56(4):362-77.
  • Thesis
Guideline Example
PhD thesis

Chen, Miao Hua. 2016. “Construct Development and Testing of a Measure of Guanxi Quality: Understanding Workplace Relationships from a Cultural Perspective”. PhD thesis, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. doi: 10.32657/10356/68850.
  • Video
Guideline Example
YouTube video

Rosling, Hans. 2007. “The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen.” Posted January 17. Video, 19:37. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w.

 

Additional resources

ASA Style: In-Text (Citation) References / Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University 
ASA style: References Page Formatting / Purdue Online Writing Lab, Purdue University

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