ASA Citation Style

ASA papers will have these elements:

• A separate title page.

• If required, on a separate page provide a short (150-200 word) abstract headed with the title.

• The text of your paper should begin on a separate page headed with the title of the paper.

• A reference list at the end of your paper.

Your title page should include:

• Title of paper, name(s) of authors, word count for the manuscript (including footnotes and references), title footnote (includes names, addresses of authors, acknowledgments, credits, and grants)

Your References list should include:

• A separate section headed References in the top-center of the section. 

• All references cited in the text must be listed and vice-versa. 

• References are double-spaced, in alphabetical order by first author’s last name. 

• Invert the author’s name (type the last name first). If there are two or more authors, invert only the first author’s name.  

• Use hanging indention (i.e., the first line of the entry remains flush with the left margin; subsequent lines are indented ½” to the right). 

Other formatting considerations:

• All text (including footnotes & references) must be double spaced and in 12 point type.

• Use 1" margins on all pages of your paper. 

In text citations should be in parentheses at the end of the sentence using the cited information. 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.

Citing a source with one author

At the end of the sentence, put the author's last name and publication year. If you cite the author's name within the text of your sentence, cite the publication year in parentheses immediately after the author name. 

• Example: Heyns (1978) first tested the idea of schooling as an “equalizer” a half a century ago by comparing learning rates across school seasons. 

• Example: The idea of schooling as an “equalizer” was first tested half a century ago by comparing learning rates across school seasons (Heyns 1978). 

Citing a source with two or more authors

When a source has two authors, use the word and in between their last names, followed by publication year. 

• Example: Proponents of the SCD themselves have criticized it for being prone to various statistical artifacts related to issues of comparability due to scaling and test forms—that might lead to an overestimation of schooling’s equalizing role (von Hippel and Hamrock 2019).  

When a source has 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.

• Example: Studies using the seasonal comparison design (SCD) have dominated sociological research on schooling effects for the past 40 years (Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson 2007). 

• Example: Previous studies on Germany report large social gaps in achievement at the start of primary school (Linberg et al. 2019). 

Citing more than one source in a sentence

When drawing from more than one source in a sentence, separate the citations with a semi-colon. 

• Example: The compensatory narrative takes root in the comparison of the learning environments that children from different socioeconomic backgrounds experience in school vis-à-vis the counterfactual out-of-school scenario (Downey and Condron 2016; Downey et al. 2004). 

When quoting directly from a source, include the author last name, publication year, and the page number you are quoting from. 

• Example: These studies, now 40 years old, suggested that “when it comes to inequality by socioeconomic status, schools are more part of the solution than the problem” (Downey et al. 2004:616).

Your References list should begin in a new section at the end of your paper. The word References should be a the top-center of your document. 

• All references are double-spaced and in alphabetical order by the author's last name. 

• Use hanging indention (i.e., the first line of the entry remains flush with the left margin; subsequent lines are indented ½” to the right).

• Invert the author’s name (type the last name first). 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.

• 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.

• If no date is available use N.d. in place of the date. 

• Include the state abbreviation only if the city of publication is not well known (e.g., New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles do not need a state abbreviation). For foreign cities, provide the name of the country.

See our handout titled Reference List Citations by Format