Citations.
Cite now

APSA Citation Generator

APSA Citation Generator
Have the details already?
APA 7th edition · reference

Your bibliography

0 sources
    No sources yet — generate a citation above and hit Add to list. Your bibliography stays on this device, no account needed.
    Copied

    APSA Citation Generator builds references in the American Political Science Association author-date style, based on the Chicago Manual (17th edition). Enter a book, journal article, or website and it returns a formatted reference list entry plus the matching in-text citation.

    Formatting follows the APSA Style Manual for Political Science, Revised 2018 Edition, which adopts Chicago’s author-date system. Every example on this page is verified against that manual.

    What is APSA citation style?

    APSA style is the citation system of the American Political Science Association, used across political science journals, dissertations, and coursework. It is an author-date system built directly on the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. Sources are cited in parentheses in the text and listed alphabetically under a heading titled References.

    Because APSA borrows Chicago’s mechanics, it differs sharply from APA and MLA in punctuation: the year follows the author with no comma, book and journal titles use headline capitalization, and reference entries carry a hanging indent. Publishers and place of publication appear in full, including the U.S. state abbreviation.

    How do I use the APSA citation generator?

    Select the source type, enter the details, and the tool assembles both the reference list entry and the in-text citation in APSA order. It handles the small formatting choices — comma placement, quotation marks around article titles, italics on book and journal names, and the volume-issue-page string — automatically.

    1. Choose the source type: book, journal article, book chapter, or website.
    2. Type or paste the author names, publication year, title, and publisher or journal details.
    3. Add a DOI or URL for online sources so readers can retrieve them.
    4. Copy the finished reference into your References page and the parenthetical into your text.
    Anatomy of an APSA journal reference
    Putnam, Robert D. 1995. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy 6 (1): 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1995.0002
    • Author — surname first, then given name and middle initial, ending with a period.
    • Year — publication year directly after the author, followed by a period.
    • Title — article title in quotation marks, headline case, period inside the closing quote.
    • Source — journal name italicized, then volume, issue in parentheses, colon, page range.
    • DOI — full https://doi.org/ link at the end for retrievable articles.

    How do APSA in-text citations work?

    APSA in-text citations name the author’s surname and the year with no comma between them, inside parentheses. Add a page number after a comma only when quoting directly or pointing to a specific passage. The parenthetical sits before the sentence’s closing period.

    Situation In-text form
    Paraphrase (Dahl 1961)
    Direct quote with page (Dahl 1961, 24)
    Two authors (Bartels and Achen 2016)
    Three or more authors (Verba et al. 1995)
    Author named in sentence Dahl (1961, 24) argued that…
    Two works, same parenthesis (Dahl 1961; Putnam 1995)

    When an author has two works from the same year, distinguish them with lowercase letters attached to the year — (Skocpol 1992a) and (Skocpol 1992b) — matching the letters used in the reference list.

    What is the APSA reference format? Examples by source

    Reference list entries appear in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname, each with a hanging indent. The patterns below cover the source types students cite most. Titles of books and journals are italicized; article and chapter titles take quotation marks.

    BookDahl, Robert A. 1961. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Journal articlePutnam, Robert D. 1995. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy 6 (1): 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1995.0002.

    Book chapterLijphart, Arend. 1999. “Consensus Democracy.” In Patterns of Democracy, ed. Arend Lijphart, 90–115. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Two authorsAchen, Christopher H., and Larry M. Bartels. 2016. Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    WebsitePew Research Center. 2021. “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology.” Pew Research Center. November 9. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/beyond-red-vs-blue.

    Government reportU.S. Government Accountability Office. 2019. Elections: Observations on Voting Equipment Use and Replacement. GAO-19-577. Washington, DC: GAO.

    How authors are ordered

    Only the first author’s name is inverted (surname first); co-authors follow in normal first-name-last-name order. Separate the final two names with “and.” For four or more authors, list all names in the reference entry but use “et al.” after the first author in the in-text citation.

    How accurate is this generator, and what are its limits?

    The generator applies APSA’s structural rules reliably — element order, italics, quotation marks, and the author-date parenthetical. It cannot judge the quality of the data you enter, so it depends on complete, correctly spelled input. A few cases still need a human check.

    • Capitalization — the tool applies headline case, but proper nouns, hyphenated terms, and non-English titles may need manual correction.
    • Missing dates — use n.d. for undated works and forthcoming for accepted but unpublished pieces; confirm the tool inserted the right placeholder.
    • Institutional authors — agencies and think tanks are cited by their full name; verify no personal author was assumed.
    • Edition and translation details — editors, translators, and edition numbers should be double-checked against the source’s title page.

    Always reconcile the output with your instructor’s requirements or the target journal’s submission guidelines, since departments sometimes layer their own preferences on top of APSA.

    APSA citation generator FAQ

    Is APSA style the same as Chicago style?

    APSA is built on the Chicago Manual of Style’s author-date system, so the two look nearly identical. APSA simply codifies Chicago’s rules for political science and adds discipline-specific guidance, such as citing legal and government sources.

    Does APSA use footnotes or in-text citations?

    APSA uses author-date in-text citations in parentheses, not footnotes, for source references. Footnotes are reserved for substantive commentary or explanatory notes, and full details appear in the References list.

    What is the current edition of the APSA style manual?

    The current guide is the Style Manual for Political Science, Revised 2018 Edition, published by the American Political Science Association and aligned with the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

    How do I cite a source with no author in APSA?

    Begin the reference with the title, and use a shortened title with the year in the in-text citation. For organizational content, use the publishing body as the author instead of leaving it blank.

    Do I include page numbers in every APSA in-text citation?

    No. Page numbers are required only for direct quotations or when directing readers to a specific passage. For general paraphrases, the author and year alone are sufficient.

    Is this APSA citation generator free?

    Yes. The generator is completely free, with no account required. You can format unlimited books, articles, chapters, and websites in APSA style.