Citing Sources
There are two options for citing sources in American Sociological Association (ASA) style. See below for more details on each option.
Cite by Hand
- Basic guidelines and examples for electronic references
- In-text Citations, ASA Style (Purdue OWL)
- References, ASA Style (Purdue OWL)
- Introduction to ASA Style (6th Edition)
- American Sociological Review. See bibliographies of current articles in this journal for examples of ASA style
Citation Management Tools
If you have 10 or more citations or a few citations you plan to use again, you may consider using a citation management tool such as RefWorks, so you can use & re-use them as needed (and have some extra options for organizing them and managing PDFs).
As of March 2020, RefWorks does not support ASA 6th edition (latest available is 5th edition); RefWorks is working on adding this style. Please note these two changes from 5th to 6th edition:
1. Self-reported access dates for online resources: Access dates do not need to be reported in references except in some specific situations (e.g., date for a source is not available or when citing certain online references and an access date can help identify which version of the reference the author consulted). In those cases, use n.d. as the date of publication.
2. URLs: No parentheses necessary with URL addresses.
- RefWorks
RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. See our RefWorks Guide for information about creating accounts, adding references, and using add-ons.
Zotero
Generate bibliographies and organize PDFs with this free, open source citation management tool.
Visit Zotero.org to download Zotero and set up an account. Loyola Marymount University has created some great video tutorials on how to get started with the standalone version of Zotero on PC and how to integrate Zotero with your word processor. For getting started with Mac, view this tutorial.