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From the OWL resource Formatting in Sociology (ASA Style)

This resource was written by Reece McGee and Muriel Harris.
Last full revision by Dana Lynn Driscoll.
Last edited by Dana Lynn Driscoll on July 26th 2006 at 5:54PM

Jump to listing of all of this resource's sections

References Page Formatting

References Formatting

References follow the text in a section headed "REFERENCES."

All references should be double spaced and use a hanging indent.

All references should be in alphabetical order.

References Examples

Book with one author

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

Book Collection

Clausen, John. 1972. "The Life Course of Individuals." Pp. 457-514 in Aging and Society, vol. 3, A Sociology of Stratification, edited by M.W. Riley, M. Johnson, and A. Foner. New York: Russell Sage.

Scholarly Journal articles (two articles from one author)

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.

Magazine

Ziff, Larzer. "The Other Lost Generation," Saturday Review, February 20, 1995, pp. 15-18.

Editorial

Newspaper editorial, Lafayette Journal & Courier, December 12, 1998, p. A-6.

Public Documents

Because the nature of public documents is so varied, the form of entry for documentation cannot be standardized. The essential rule is to provide sufficient information so that the reader can locate the reference easily. For example, see the following:

Reports Examples

U.S. Census: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1990. Characteristics of Population. Vol. 1. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

New York State Department of Labor. 1997. "Annual Labor Area Report: New York City, Fiscal Year 1996" (BLMI Report, No. 28). Albany: New York State Department of Labor.

Legislation Examples

Court cases and legislative acts follow a format stipulated by legal publishers. The act or case is listed first, followed by volume number, abbreviated title, and the date of the work in which the act or case is found. The volume number is given in Arabic numerals, and the date is parenthesized. Court cases are italicized, but acts are not. For example, see the following:

Higher Education Act of 1965. 79 Stat. (1965).

Kansas. Sessions Laws 1993.(Because the date is part of this title, it is not placed in parentheses.)

Ok. Rev. Stat. Title 22, Section 60.1.

State vs. Stewart, 763 P.2d 572 (Kan. 1998).

Unpublished materials

Personal communication from the author, January 12, 1997 Unpublished manuscript.

Personal interview with Joseph P. Doaks, June 7, 1993.

Unpublished correspondence of Jennifer Forsythe, 1881-1885. Cited with permission of the author's family.

All Sections in Formatting in Sociology (ASA Style): References Page Formatting:

  1. Manuscript Formatting
  2. In-Text References
  3. References Page Formatting
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