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Political Science

APSA citation style

Academic writing in political science often uses the American Political Science Association (APSA) style, which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style's author-date format.

The final authority for APSA Style is the Style Manual for Political Science (revised edition, 2006). The final authority for the bibliographic form used in your paper is your professor.

In-text APSA citations

  • Include the author's last name and the date, e.g., (Coltrane 2011)
  • If you are citing a direct quotation, also include the page number for that quotation, e.g., (O'Reilly 2010, 34).
  • If the author's name is in your sentence, you can just put the date in parentheses: "...claims Nate Silver" (2007).
  • If there is no author, use one or two words of the title, e.g., ("Voters choose" 2008).

Citing print sources in APSA style

Book:

Fish, Stanley. 2001. How Milton Works. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Book with more than one author:

Houser, Shelley, Veronica Kessenich, and Kristen Matha. 2002. Quiet Hours: Revealing the Mysteries. Notre Dame, IN: VMS Publishing.

Journal article:

Zagano, Phyllis. 2007. "The Question of Governance and Ministry for Women." Theological Studies 68 (Spring): 348-367.

Essay or chapter in a book:

Writer, Sarah. 2012. "Essay on Chapterhouses: Advancing the Scholarly Discourse." In Discourses on Chapterhouses: A Collection of Essays, ed. Edward Editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Citing electronic sources in APSA style

Example of a full-text journal article from a database:

  • Articles from databases include the name of the database, after the page numbers.
  • They include a date of access at the end of the citation.

Lawson, Bill. 2011. "Sterba on Affirmative Action, Or, It Never Was the Bus, It Was Us." Journal of Ethics 15 (May): 281-290. Academic Search Premier (September 19, 2012).


Example of a website:

Cillizza, Chris. 2009. "Dodd's Troubles Continue." The Fix: Political News & Analysis by Chris Cillizza. 28 July. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/ (July 29, 2009).

Other common sources

Video or DVD:

Achbar, Mark and Peter Wintonick. 2002. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. New York: Zeitgeist Video.

Secondary style guides