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Citing Sources & Avoiding Plagiarism

How to avoid plagiarism and cite sources correctly.

ASA Style Books

Books

Book with One Author

Author's full name, inverted so that last name appears first.

Year. Book Title in Title Caps and Italicized. Publishing City: Publisher.

Note that the two-letter state abbreviation should be given only if needed to identify the city. For a publisher located in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Boston, for example, it would not be necessary to include the state abbreviation.

Note that the word "volume" is capitalized and abbreviated but not italicized.

Gurr, Ted Robert, ed. 1989. Violence in America. Vol. 1, The History of Crime. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Mason, Karen. 1974. Women's Labor Force Participation. Research Triangle Park, NC: National Institutes of Health.

Book with Two or More Authors

Same as with one author, but do not invert authors’ names after the first author. Separate authors’ names with a comma (unless there are only two authors), and include the word and before the final author. Note that the word “edition” is abbreviated, and not italicized or capitalized.

 Corbin, Juliet and Anselm Strauss. 2008. Basics of Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Purdue OWL: ASA References Page Citation

Journal Articles

Scholarly Journal Article

Author's full name, inverted so that last name appears first.

Year. “Article Title in Title Caps and in Quotes.” Journal Title in Title Caps and Italicized Volume Number (Issue Number):page numbers of article.

Note that there is no space after the colon preceding page numbers. For multiple authors, invert last name of first author only. Separate with commas, unless there are only two authors. Use and between last two authors.

Conger, Rand. 1997. "The Effects of Positive Feedback on Direction and Amount of Verbalization in a Social Setting." American Journal of Sociology 79:1179-259.

Coe, Deborah L. and James D. Davidson. 2011. “The Origins of Legacy Admissions: A Sociological Explanation.” Review of Religious Research 52(3):233-47.

Purdue OWL: ASA References Page Citation

Web Sources

For electronic references, follow the same guidelines as for print references, adding information about the medium, such as the URL and date of access.

For online periodicals (journals, magazines, and newspapers), use the same format as for printed periodicals, unless they are available ONLY in online form. In that case, simply add the date viewed and the URL for retrieving the article.

Purdue OWL: ASA References Page Citation