APSA Citation Style

Student writing in notebook on lection

You are welcome at our APSA Citation Style Guidelines!

All important information about the APSA Citation Style is here:

APSA Style: Where Does It Come From?

The abbreviation comes from the American Political Science Association (founded in 1903) – the institution that organizes professional study of political science and brings together people dealing with politics.


PSA Style: Resources

  • the style Manual for Political Science (1993)
  • the Chicago Manual of style, 14th edition (1993)

APSA Style: Basic Rules

  • use parenthetical in-text citations for the sources you have referred to or cited
  • provide a list of references at the end of your paper

APSA Style: Citing

  • citing one author include the name of the author and the year of publication
  • citing a direct quote also include a page number
  • citing an entire article or book omit the page number
  • citing two or three authors include all of their names
  • citing four or more authors include only the first author’s name, for others use “et al.”
  • citing from electronic resources include author, year and, if available, the page number

APSA Style: Title Page

  • descriptive and short (up to 12 words)
  • includes the title of the paper, the author, the name and number of the class, the date of submission and the professor’s name

APSA Style: Abstract

  • the length is up to 150 words
  • summarizes your paper, admitting major points of the work done
  • typed on a separate page

APSA Style: Format

  • one inch margins
  • double-spaced text
  • centered page numbers at the bottom of each page

APSA Style: Italics

  • use italics only for unusual words

APSA Style: Language

  • avoid gender-specific language

APSA Style: Abbreviations And Contractions

  • avoid contractions
  • use only standard abbreviations

APSA Style: Notes

  • placed at the end of the paper
  • correspond to the numbers used within the text
  • present explanatory material
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