ASA Citation: Format, Examples & In-Text Guide
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0 sourcesASA Citation is the author-date style of the American Sociological Association (6th edition). You cite sources in-text as (Author Year:page) and list full details alphabetically on a page titled References, with article titles in quotes and book and journal titles in italics.
What is ASA citation style?
ASA citation style is the format created by the American Sociological Association for sociology papers, journals, and books. It uses a parenthetical author-date system in the text and a matching alphabetical reference list, and it is now in its 6th edition (2019).
ASA closely resembles Chicago author-date and APA, but it has its own conventions: the reference list is headed References, page numbers attach to the year with a colon, and edited-chapter citations use the abbreviation Pp. before page ranges. Titles use headline (title) case throughout.
How do ASA in-text citations work?
ASA in-text citations name the author’s last name and the year in parentheses, adding a page number after a colon with no space for quotations. The three common patterns are (Author Year), (Author Year:page), and naming the author in your sentence with only the year and page in parentheses.
| Situation | In-text form |
|---|---|
| General reference | (Massey 2007) |
| Direct quote with page | (Massey 2007:71) |
| Author named in sentence | Massey (2007:71) argues that… |
| Two authors | (Massey and Denton 1993) |
| Three authors (first cite) | (Pager, Western, and Bonikowski 2009) |
| Three authors (later cites) | (Pager et al. 2009) |
| Four or more authors | (Wilson et al. 2015) |
For two authors, cite both names every time. For three, list all three the first time and use et al. afterward. For four or more, use et al. from the very first citation. When two sources share an author and year, add letters: (Cohen 2019a, 2019b).
What does an ASA reference look like?
A full ASA reference orders the parts as author, year, title, and source details, ending with a DOI when one exists. The colour-coded example below shows a journal article, the most common source in sociology writing.
- Author(s) — first author inverted (Last, First); later authors in normal order, joined by “and”.
- Year — publication year, followed by a period.
- Article title — headline case, in quotation marks.
- Source — italic journal name, then Volume(Issue):pages.
- DOI — lowercase
doi:plus the number, no space.
ASA citation examples by source type
ASA formats each source type with a consistent author-year opening but different tail elements. Use the copy-ready references below as templates, swapping in your own details while keeping the punctuation exactly as shown.
Journal article
ReferenceCohen, Philip N. 2019. “The Coming Divorce Decline.” Socius 5:1–6. doi:10.1177/2378023119873497.
In-text(Cohen 2019:3)
Book
ReferenceMassey, Douglas S., and Nancy A. Denton. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
In-text(Massey and Denton 1993:118)
Chapter in an edited book
ReferenceEngland, Paula. 2016. “Sometimes the Social Becomes Personal.” Pp. 25–40 in Gender and the Life Course, edited by A. S. Rossi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
In-text(England 2016:30)
Website
ReferenceAmerican Sociological Association. 2021. “ASA Style Guide.” Washington, DC: ASA. Retrieved July 18, 2026 (https://www.asanet.org/asa-style-guide).
In-text(American Sociological Association 2021)
Note the pattern differences: chapters use Pp. and name the editor with initials first (edited by A. S. Rossi), while online sources add a Retrieved date and a URL in parentheses. Publisher locations include the two-letter state for U.S. cities.
How do you format the References page?
The ASA reference list appears on a new page titled References, centered, with entries alphabetized by the first author’s last name. Each entry is double-spaced with a hanging indent, and multiple works by one author are ordered from earliest to latest year.
- Head the page
References(not “Works Cited” or “Bibliography”). - List every author in full — ASA does not use
et al.in the reference list itself. - Alphabetize letter by letter; for a repeated author, list the name in full each time rather than using a dash.
- Use a hanging indent of about 0.5 inch and double spacing throughout.
- Order same-author works by year; add
a,b,cto identical years.
How accurate is this guide, and what are the limits?
This guide reflects the ASA 7th edition and the mainstream reading shared across university library guides, so it is reliable for the source types most students cite. Still, ASA leaves some cases underspecified, and instructors sometimes impose local rules that override the manual.
Edge cases — datasets, government reports, machine learning preprints, social media, and non-English sources — are handled only briefly in the official guide, so formatting can legitimately vary. Older papers may follow the 5th edition, which lacks explicit DOI guidance. When your department issues a style sheet, treat it as the final authority, and always confirm a machine-generated citation against a real example before submitting.
ASA citation FAQ
Quick answers to the questions students ask most about ASA style.