The Official Source

The American Sociological Association Style Guide, 7th Edition (2022) is published by the American Sociological Association. Order from asanet.org.

The 7th edition includes updated guidance on electronic sources, social media citations, singular "they" usage, and capitalization for racial/ethnic categories.

Quick Overview

ASA uses an author-date system with two components:

1. In-text citations — Author's last name and year in parentheses

2. References — Full source details alphabetized at the end

ASA style is similar to APA but has distinct formatting differences.

In-Text Citations

Place the author's surname and year in parentheses. No comma between author and year.

One Author

Social mobility patterns vary by region (Smith 2023).

Smith (2023) found that social mobility patterns vary by region.

Two Authors

The study confirmed earlier findings (Smith and Jones 2022).

Three or More Authors

Use "et al." after the first author.

Research supports this conclusion (Garcia et al. 2021).

Direct Quotes

Include page numbers after a colon.

The results were "statistically significant" (Smith 2023:45).

Multiple Works, Same Parentheses

Separate with semicolons, ordered alphabetically or chronologically.

Several studies support this view (Adams 2020; Chen 2021; Smith 2019).

Same Author, Same Year

Add lowercase letters after the year.

Recent work (Johnson 2023a, 2023b) addresses this question.

Reference List Basics

The reference list is titled "References" and alphabetized by author surname. Use hanging indentation.

Basic Structure

Last, First. Year. "Article Title." Journal Title Volume(Issue):Pages.

Journal Article

Innocente, Nathan and Jayne Baker. 2018. "The Sociology Teaching Fellowship: A Mentorship Model for Graduate Student Teacher Training." Teaching Sociology 46(4):335–45.

Journal Article with DOI

Bateman, Tyler, Shyon Baumann, and Josée Johnston. 2019. "Meat as Benign, Meat as Risk: Mapping News Discourse of an Ambiguous Issue." Poetics 76:101356. doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2019.04.001.

Book

Wilson, William Julius. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Edited Book

Smelser, Neil J. and Paul B. Baltes, eds. 2001. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Chapter in Edited Book

Clawson, Dan. 2007. "Neo-liberalism Guarantees Social Movement Unionism." Pp. 161–71 in Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds, edited by L. Turner and D. Cornfield. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Website

American Sociological Association. 2023. "Code of Ethics." Retrieved January 15, 2024 (https://www.asanet.org/about/governance-and-leadership/code-ethics).

Key ASA Conventions

No comma before year — Write (Smith 2023), not (Smith, 2023)

Colon before page numbers — Write (Smith 2023:45), not (Smith 2023, p. 45)

Sentence-case article titles — Capitalize only first word and proper nouns

Headline-style book titles — Capitalize major words in book titles

"Pp." for page ranges — Use "Pp. 45–67" in book chapters

"Retrieved" for websites — Include retrieval date and URL

Full journal names — Do not abbreviate journal titles

Racial/ethnic capitalization — The 7th edition recommends capitalizing Black and White, though it acknowledges some scholars prefer not to capitalize "white"

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Adding comma before year — ASA uses (Smith 2023), not (Smith, 2023) like APA.

Using "p." or "pp." in-text — ASA uses a colon: (Smith 2023:45), not (Smith 2023, p. 45).

Wrong title capitalization — Article titles use sentence case; book titles use headline style.

Forgetting "et al." — Use "et al." for three or more authors from the first citation.

Abbreviating journal names — ASA uses full journal titles, unlike APA.

Missing retrieval information — Websites need "Retrieved [date]" before the URL.

Who Uses ASA Style?

ASA is the standard for:

• Sociology journals (especially ASA publications)

• Criminology and criminal justice

• Social work research

• Demography

• Urban studies

• Some interdisciplinary social science journals

If you're submitting to a sociology journal or writing for a sociology course, ASA is likely required.

ASA vs. APA

ASA and APA are both author-date systems but differ in key ways:

Further Resources

• ASA Style Guide — Purchase from ASA

• Purdue OWL ASA Guide — Free tutorial

• Your university library — Many have ASA quick guides

Need help generating ASA citations? Research tools like Wonders can export your sources in ASA format automatically.