One of the less common citation styles, the American Political Science Association citation style follows the Chicago Manual of Style closely. Used primarily while citing political science journals, the APSA citation has a simple set of rules and regulations.
This article lays out the basic rules of citing in APSA format in details.
Rules for an APSA reference list
1. An APSA citation style necessitates parenthetical references in the paper content and a list of references at the end of the whole paper.
2. Reference lists are added after the paper’s conclusion. Always mention the word “References” straight by the left margin.
3. Always use a hanging indent. Write the first line of every reference to the absolute left and then indent the following ones. All references must be single-spaced and have just one empty line between references.
4. Arrange all references in alphabetical order, not by their publication format i.e. book, journal, etc.
5. The author name should be written in the beginning. If no name is present, then begin with the editor’s name. And. if no editor is present, then start the reference with the book or article title.
6. Build the list starting with the author’s last name, followed by a comma. Then mentioned that author’s first and middle name, if any. Never use nay initials unless mentioned in the name itself.
7. All titles must be in italics.
8. Every chapter name and article titles must be written within quotation marks.
9. Add the date as the second element in every citation on the list.
10. Remember to capitalize every word in titles of books, articles etc.
Few examples
One Author :Hertsgaard, Mark. 1988. On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency. New York: Schocken Books.
Two Authors: Decker, Scott H., and Barrick Van Winkle. 1996. Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence.New York: Cambridge University Press.
Journal article, two authors (print, microfilm, PDF): Herrmann, Richard K, and Jonathan W. Keller. 2004. “Beliefs, Values, and Strategic Choice: U.S. Leaders’ Decisions to Engage, Contain, and Use Force in an Era of Globalization.”
In-text citation rules
Text citations in the APA format are simpler than any other format. Here are the basics that every writer must keep in mind.
1. You have to include the author’s last name and year within parentheses.
2. Enter a comma to separate the year from the page number and/or chapter number.
3. The terms “chap.” or “chaps.” is used to differentiate between page and chapter numbers.
4. The citation style allows omission of page and chapter numbers if an author is referring to an entire article or book.
Examples: Martinez (2008, 355) said... OR In a recent study (Martinez 2008) ... OR In 2008, Martinez said...
5. If you need to refer to more than one information source in a single citation, arrange every one of them alphabetically by author, and use semicolons to separate them.
6. If you are citing a work written by two or three authors, you have to include all of their last names in every citation.
Example: “Most children . . .” (White, Brown 2008, 75)
7. And, while citing a work that’s been written by four or more authors, you can only use the last name of the first author and then add “et al.” in all the citations.
Example: ...discovered (Wasserstein et al. 2005).
That brings us to the end of this quick guide on the APSA citation. Go through it well to learn all its nitty-gritty and never use any ACS citation generator again!
