ASA Citation Generator
Your bibliography
0 sourcesASA citation generator is a free tool that builds American Sociological Association (ASA) references and in-text citations in the current 7th edition format. Enter a source or its details, and it returns a copy-ready, correctly punctuated citation in seconds.
How do I use the ASA citation generator?
Paste a URL, DOI, ISBN, or title into the search box, or choose your source type and fill in the fields manually. The generator formats a full reference and its matching in-text citation, which you copy into your paper with one click. Follow three steps:
- Select the source type — website, book, book chapter, journal article, or video.
- Enter the details the generator requests, or let an auto-lookup pull them from a DOI or URL.
- Copy the finished reference into your alphabetized References list and paste the parenthetical citation next to the claim it supports.
Always proofread the result against your original source, because databases sometimes return incomplete author names or missing page ranges.
What is ASA citation style?
ASA style is the citation and formatting system of the American Sociological Association, used in sociology and related social sciences. It is an author-date system: brief parenthetical citations in the text point to a full alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper. ASA closely resembles Chicago author-date but has its own punctuation and capitalization conventions. Sociology journals, seminar papers, and dissertations typically require it, and the rules on this page follow the 7th edition (2022) ASA Style Guide.
How do ASA in-text citations work?
ASA in-text citations give the author’s last name and the year in parentheses, adding a page number after a colon with no space when you quote or cite specifics — for example (Bourdieu 1984:170). There is no comma between name and year and no p. before the page.
If the author’s name appears in your sentence, place only the year in parentheses: Kuhn (1970:71) argued.... Cite two authors with and, never an ampersand. For three authors, list all three the first time, then shorten to et al. For four or more, use et al. every time.
| Situation | In-text form |
|---|---|
| One author | (Massey 1990) |
| With page number | (Massey 1990:341) |
| Two authors | (Martin and Bailey 1988) |
| Three authors (first cite) | (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962) |
| Three authors (later) | (Carr et al. 1962) |
| Four or more authors | (Nilson et al. 1962) |
| Author in sentence | England (2005:384) found… |
How is the ASA reference list formatted?
The reference list is titled References, starts on a new page, and lists every cited source alphabetically by the first author’s last name with a hanging indent. Only the first author’s name is inverted; give full first names rather than initials, and join authors with and. The year follows the author, and book and journal titles are set in italics.
Order multiple works by the same author chronologically, oldest first. When one author has two works from the same year, add lowercase letters — 2019a, 2019b — matching the letters used in your in-text citations. ASA 7th edition recommends including a DOI for any source that has one, placed at the end as doi:10.xxxx.
What does an ASA reference look like?
- Author — first author inverted (Last, First), full first name, ending in a period.
- Year — publication year immediately after the author, followed by a period.
- Article title — in quotation marks, headline case, period inside the closing quote.
- Source — italic journal name, then volume(issue):pages; issue is optional if paged continuously.
- DOI — added when available as doi:10.xxxx, closing the entry with a period.
How does ASA handle authors and names?
ASA inverts only the first author’s name and writes the rest in normal order — for example, Edin, Kathryn, and Maria Kefalas. Use full given names when the source provides them, and separate the final two authors with and rather than an ampersand. For a work by a group or agency, use the organization as the author. When no author exists, begin the entry with the title, and alphabetize by its first significant word. For an unknown date, use N.d. in place of the year, both in the text and in the reference list.
ASA reference examples by source type
The examples below show the exact punctuation, italics, and order the ASA 7th edition requires. Italicized elements appear in italics.
Book, one authorMaghbouleh, Neda. 2017. The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Book, two authorsEdin, Kathryn, and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chapter in edited bookWilliams, Susan L. 2001. “City Kids and Country Cousins: Rural and Urban Youths, Deviance, and Labor Market Ties.” Pp. 379–441 in Social Awakening: Adolescent Behavior as Adulthood Approaches, edited by R. T. Michael. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Journal article, with DOIDemirkol, Ismail Cenk, and Mahesh K. Nalla. 2019. “How Does Police Culture Shape Officers’ Support for Community Policing?” Policing and Society 29(6):692–705. doi:10.1080/10439463.2017.1410149.
Journal article, no DOIEngland, Paula. 2005. “Emerging Theories of Care Work.” Annual Review of Sociology 31:381–99.
WebsiteAmerican Sociological Association. 2021. “About ASA.” Washington, DC: ASA. Retrieved June 1, 2021 (https://www.asanet.org/about/).
Newspaper article, onlineBadger, Emily. 2019. “How the Suburbs Have Stayed White.” The New York Times, October 1. Retrieved March 4, 2020 (https://www.nytimes.com/).
Online videoTED. 2013. “The Danger of a Single Story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.” YouTube. Retrieved May 12, 2021 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg).
Government reportU.S. Census Bureau. 2020. Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Publishing Office.
DissertationSmith, Jordan A. 2018. “Neighborhood Effects on Adolescent Aspirations.” PhD dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan.
How is an ASA paper formatted?
ASA papers use a separate title page, double spacing throughout, a readable 12-point serif font, and 1.25-inch margins as recommended in the style guide. Number pages consecutively and include a running head. Place any footnotes as numbered notes, and start the alphabetized References section on its own page. Tables and figures each go on separate pages at the end, with a short descriptive title. An abstract of roughly 150 to 200 words follows the title page when the assignment or journal requires one.
What changed in the ASA 7th edition?
The 7th edition (2022) is the current ASA Style Guide and replaces the 6th edition (2019). Its most practical change is the stronger emphasis on including DOIs for articles and books that have them, formatted as doi: followed by the number. The 7th edition also expanded guidance for citing digital and social-media sources and clarified retrieval-date usage. The core author-date system, the colon-before-page rule, and the italic-title conventions are unchanged from earlier editions, so citations built under the 6th edition remain largely valid.
Common ASA citation mistakes
- Using an ampersand (
&) between authors instead of and. - Inserting
p.or a comma before a page number rather than a colon — write(Massey 1990:341). - Reducing full first names to initials in the reference list.
- Titling the list “Works Cited” (MLA) or “Bibliography” instead of References.
- Inverting the names of the second and later authors.
- Omitting a DOI that the source provides.
- Forgetting the
Pp.and page range before in for a book chapter.
How accurate is this generator?
The generator applies the ASA 7th edition CSL template consistently, so punctuation, italics, and author order come out reliably correct. Its accuracy still depends on the metadata you feed it. Automated lookups can miss an issue number, truncate a subtitle, mislabel an editor as an author, or default to title case where headline case is needed. Treat every result as a strong draft: confirm author spellings, publication years, page ranges, and DOIs against the source itself, and fix any capitalization the database returns in the wrong case. Used that way, the tool removes the tedious formatting work while you keep final editorial control.
ASA citation FAQ
Is this ASA citation generator free?
Yes. The generator is completely free, and requires no account. You can create unlimited ASA references and in-text citations and copy them with no watermark.
Which ASA edition does the generator use?
It follows the ASA Style Guide 7th edition, published in 2022, which is the current standard for sociology papers and journals. The core author-date rules are also compatible with 6th-edition requirements.
Does ASA use “References” or “Works Cited”?
ASA uses a list titled References. “Works Cited” belongs to MLA and “Bibliography” to some Chicago papers, so using either heading in an ASA paper is incorrect.
How do I add a page number to an ASA in-text citation?
Place it after the year with a colon and no space, and no p. — for example (Bourdieu 1984:170). Use page numbers whenever you quote directly or reference a specific passage.
Does ASA require a DOI?
The 7th edition strongly recommends including a DOI whenever a source has one, formatted as doi:10.xxxx at the end of the reference. If no DOI exists, use a stable URL with a retrieval date instead.
How do I cite a source with no author or no date in ASA?
With no author, start the entry with the title and alphabetize by its first significant word. With no date, use N.d. in place of the year in both the reference list and the in-text citation.