ASA Format
American Sociological Association
Overview:
The American Sociological Association Style Guide is intended for
authors who are preparing manuscripts for publication in ASA journals.
This handout is intended for students who are instructed to use "ASA
style" when writing research papers. Consult the ASA Style Guide
for additional or more detailed information (ref desk
HM73 A57 1997).
Manuscript Format:
- All text (including footnotes & references) must be
doubled spaced and in a 12 point type.
- Margins must be at least 1 ¼ inches on all four sides
- A separate title page including title of paper, name(s)
& institution(s) of authors, word count for the manuscript
(including footnotes and references), title footnote (includes names,
addresses of authors, acknowledgements, credits, and grants)
- If required, on a separate page provide a short (150-200
word) abstract headed with the title.
- Begin the text of the paper on a separate page headed with
the title of the paper.
Citations in Text:
Basic form for citations in the text
include the last name of the author(s) and year of publication. Include
page number when you quote directly from the work or refer to specific
passages.
- If author’s name is in the text, follow it with the
publication year in parentheses
When Chu (1977) studied…
- If the author’s name is not in the text, enclose the last
name and year in parentheses:
When the study was completed…(Jones 1994)
- If the page number is to be included it follows the year of
publication after a colon:
…Chavez (1966:16)
- For three authors, give all last names in the first
citation in the text; afterwards use the first name and et al.; for
more than three names, use the first author’s last name plus et al.:
(Smith, Garcia and Lee 1954) (Snow et al. 1989)
- Quotations in the text must begin and end with quotation
marks; the citation follows the end quote mark and precedes the period.
"In 1999, however, the data were reported by more
specific job types which showed that technologically oriented jobs paid
better" (Hildenbrand 1999:47).
Footnotes & Endnotes:
- Try to avoid footnotes, but if necessary, use footnotes to
cite material of limited availability or to add information presented
in a table.
- Footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the
essay with superscript Arabic numerals and included at the bottom of
the paper or in a separate section headed "Endnotes."
Reference List (Bibliography):
- References follow the text and footnotes in a separate
section headed "References."
- All references cited in the text must be listed and
vice-versa.
- Remember references should be double-spaced.
- List references in alphabetical order by author’s last
names.
- Use hanging indention (see examples)
- Invert the authors’ name; if there are two or more authors,
invert only the first author’s name.
- Arrange multiple items by the same author in order by year
of publication, earliest year first.
- Use six hyphens and a period(------.) in place of the
name(s) for repeated authorship.
- Distinguish works by the same author in the same year by
adding letters (e.g. 1993a, 1993b, 1993c).
- Use italics for book and periodical titles (underline if
italics are not available).
- If no date is available use "N.d." in place of the date.
- Include both city and state for place of publication except
for New York using U.S. Postal Code abbreviations. For foreign
cities provide the name of the country.
Examples of References:
Books: Basic form for a book
entry is 1-Author’s last name, followed by a comma and the first name
and middle initial, ending with a period. 2- Year of publication
followed by a period. 3- Title of book italicized ending with a period.
4- Place of publication, followed by a colon and name of publisher
ending with a period.
-One Author
De Anda, Roberto M. 1995. Chicanas and Chicanos in
Contemporary
Society. Boston, MA: Allyn and
Bacon.
-Two Authors
Herrera-Sobek, María and Helena María Viramontes. 1995. Chicana
(W)rites
: On Word and Film. Berkeley, CA: Third Woman Press.
-Chapter in Book
Nathan, Peter E. and Raymond S. Niaura. 1987. "Prevention of
Alcohol
Problems." Pp. 333-354 in Treatment and Prevention of
Alcohol Problems: A Resource Manual, edited by W.M.
Cox.
Orlando, FL: Academic Press, Inc.
-No Author
Manual of Style. 1993. 14th ed. Chicago,
IL: University of Chicago Press.
List books with no author alphabetically by the first
significant word in the title.
Journal Articles in Print: Basic form for a
journal article is 1- Author’s last name, followed by a comma and the
first name and middle initial ending with a period. 2- Year of
publication followed by a period. 3-Title of article in quotations and
ending with a period inside the closing quotation mark. 4-Name of
journal in italics 5- volume number followed by colon, page number(s)
and period. Use the issue number following the volume number in
parenthesis or exact date for journal article prior to the volume
number for journals that do not number pages consecutively within a
volume.
-One Author
Garcia, Alma M. 1998. "An Intellectual Odyssey:
Chicana/Chicano Studies
Moving into the Twenty-first Century." Journal of
American
Ethnic History 18:109.
-Two or More Authors
Exum, William H., Robert J. Menges, Bari Watkins, and
Patricia Berglund.
1984. "Making it at the top: Women and minority faculty in
the
academic labor market." American Behavioral Scientist
27:301-324.
Newspaper & Magazine Articles in Print:
Basic form for a newspaper or magazine entry is 1- Author’s
last name, followed by a comma and the first name and middle initial,
ending with a period. 2- Year of publication followed by a period.
3-Title of article in quotations and ending with a period inside the
closing quotation mark. 4-Name of newspaper/magazine in italics 5-date
of publication followed by a comma 6- page number of article within the
publication ending with a period.
-Magazine
Jana, Reena. 2000. "Preventing culture clashes - As the IT
workforce grows
more diverse, managers must improve awareness without
creating
inconsistency." InfoWorld, April 24, pp. 95.
-Newspaper
Rimland, Bernard. 2000. "Do children's shots invite autism?"
Los Angeles
Times, April 26, A13.
Articles Retrieved in Electronic Format
-From Commercial Databases
Graham, Lorie M. 1998. "The Past Never Vanishes: A
Contextual Critique of
the Existing Indian Family Doctrine" American Indian
Law
Review, 23:1. Retrieved May 25, 1999 Available:
LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe, Law Reviews.
-Web Version of Newspapers
Clary, Mike. 2000. "Vieques Protesters Removed Without
Incident." Los
Angeles Times, May 5. Retrieved May 5, 2000
(http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates/lat_vieques000505.htm).
-Web Base Journals
Smith, Herman W. and Takako Nomi. 2000. "Is Amae the Key to
Understanding Japanese Culture?." Electronic Journal
of
Sociology 5:1. Retrieved May 5, 2000
(http://www.sociology.org/content/vol005.001/smith-nomi.html).
-Information Posted on a Web Site
American Sociological Association. 2000. "Scholarship of
Teaching and
Learning Workshop." Washington, DC: American Sociological
Association, Retrieved May 5, 2000
(http://www.asanet.org/members/socwkshp.html).
Other
-Government Documents: Since the nature of public
documents is so varied, the form of entry for documents cannot be
standardized. The essential rule is to provide sufficient information
so that the reader can locate the reference easily. For example see the
following:
United States. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. 1999.
Rehab a home
with HUD's 203(k) : HUD and FHA are on your side.
Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban
Development.
-Dissertations & Theses
Valencia, Albert. 1995. "An examination of selected
characteristics of
Mexican-American battered women and implications for
service
providers." Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Education,
University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA.
For other more information please see ASA Style Guide
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