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APSA citation style is the standardized author-date referencing and manuscript documentation format established by the American Political Science Association. Predominantly used across political science, international relations, comparative politics, and public policy scholarship, APSA citation style standardizes parenthetical in-text attributions and end-of-manuscript reference lists. Researchers submitting manuscripts to major disciplinary outlets or drafting dissertations in political science adhere to this standard to ensure intellectual integrity, bibliographic accuracy, and clear tracking of empirical evidence.
Operating under the core principles of academic attribution, APSA style aligns disciplinary manuscript preparation with parenthetical citation conventions. Scholars analyzing public policy, governance structures, or voting behavior must distinguish clearly between primary vs. secondary sources in research, ensuring every empirical dataset, government white paper, and theoretical claim connects directly to a verified bibliographic entry. Whether publishing in traditional formats or gold open access journals, political science authors rely on this uniform format for editorial consistency.
The Format
In APSA style, full bibliographic citations appear at the end of the manuscript in an alphabetical section titled References. APSA uses a hanging indent (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches) and headline-style capitalization for English titles. The year of publication is placed immediately after the author’s name, reflecting the author-date system. Below are the standard templates for the four most common source types:
Book Template
Author Last Name, First Name. Publication Year. Title of Book: Subtitle in Italics. Place of Publication: Publisher Name.
Journal Article Template
Author Last Name, First Name. Publication Year. “Title of Article: Subtitle in Quotations.” Title of Periodical in Italics Volume Number (Issue Number): Page Range. DOI or Stable URL.
Chapter in an Edited Volume Template
Author Last Name, First Name. Publication Year. “Chapter Title in Quotations.” In Title of Book in Italics, edited by Editor First Name Last Name, Page Range. Place of Publication: Publisher Name.
Government Document or Institutional Report Template
Authoring Agency or Organization Name. Publication Year. Title of Report: Subtitle in Italics. Document or Publication Series Number. Place of Publication: Issuing Office or Digital URL.
Examples
The following examples illustrate the correct application of APSA reference formatting across representative source types. Note that bibliographic records use illustrative fictitious sources to demonstrate structural layout:
1. Single-Author Scholarly Book
Lin, Christina. 2023. Legislative Coalitions: Bargaining Dynamics in Multiparty Democracies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2. Journal Article with Two Authors and DOI
Vance, Marcus, and Sarah Al-Mansoor. 2022. “Electoral Volatility in Emerging Democracies: Longitudinal Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.” Comparative Political Studies 55 (4): 612–638. https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140211024301.
3. Chapter in an Edited Volume
Kowalski, Elena. 2021. “The Administrative State and Regulatory Enforcement.” In Modern Governance and Bureaucracy, edited by David R. Hughes and Maria Ortiz, 88–114. New York: Oxford University Press.
4. Institutional or Think Tank Research Report
Global Governance Initiative. 2024. Strengthening Electoral Transparency: Assessment of Auditing Mechanisms. GGI Research Report No. 42. Washington, DC: Global Governance Initiative. https://www.ggi-research.org/reports/2024-transparency.pdf.
In-Text Citation Version
APSA in-text citations use a parenthetical author-date system embedded directly in the narrative, typically placed immediately before closing punctuation. Crucially, APSA style requires no comma between the author’s last name and the publication year.
- Paraphrased Idea or General Reference: Place the author’s last name and year inside parentheses.
(Lin 2023) - Direct Quotation or Specific Data Reference: Include a comma after the year, followed by the specific page number.
(Lin 2023, 145) - Narrative In-Text Mention: When the author’s name appears naturally in the sentence structure, include only the year in parentheses.
According to Lin (2023, 145), coalition stability depends on portfolio allocations. - Two Authors: Always join both surnames with the word “and” rather than an ampersand.
(Vance and Al-Mansoor 2022, 615) - Three Authors: List all three surnames separated by commas and “and” in every citation instance.
(Gomez, Hughes, and Patel 2021, 89) - Four or More Authors: Provide the surname of the first author followed by “et al.” on the first and all subsequent citations.
(Harrison et al. 2020, 204) - Multiple Sources in One Parenthesis: Separate different works with a semicolon, arranged in alphabetical order by first author surname.
(Kowalski 2021; Lin 2023; Vance and Al-Mansoor 2022) - Institutional Author: Spell out the full organization name on first reference, with standard acronyms permitted in subsequent parenthetical citations.
(Global Governance Initiative 2024)
Common Errors
Manuscript reviewers, editorial assistants, and copyeditors frequently encounter several recurring errors in submitted political science manuscripts. Adhering to the following corrections prevents formatting defects:
| Common Defect | Incorrect Pattern | Correct APSA Pattern | Editorial Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comma between author and year | (Johnson, 2022) | (Johnson 2022) | Omit commas between author last name and publication year in parenthetical references. |
| Ampersand in in-text citation | (Smith & Jones 2021) | (Smith and Jones 2021) | Always spell out “and” in parenthetical and narrative in-text citations; do not use ampersands. |
| Improper reference section title | “Bibliography” or “Works Cited” | “References” | APSA author-date format mandates the centered or flush-left section title “References”. |
| Inverting secondary author names | Miller, John, and Davis, Arthur | Miller, John, and Arthur Davis | Only invert the first author’s name (Last, First); subsequent authors are listed First Last. |
| Missing issue numbers for journals | Journal Title 55: 612–638 | Journal Title 55 (4): 612–638 | Include both the volume and issue number (in parentheses) when paginated by issue. |
Style-Guide Edition
The authoritative standard for the discipline is the Style Manual for Political Science, Revised 2018 Edition, published by the American Political Science Association. This revision formally aligned APSA documentation with the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (specifically its Author-Date system), superseding the earlier 2006 manual edited by Lee Sigelman.
APSA member journals—including the American Political Science Review (APSR), Perspectives on Politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, and the Journal of Political Science Education—require contributors to follow this 2018 framework. While the Chicago manual released its 18th edition in late 2024, political science editorial workflows continue to maintain the 2018 author-date principles, prioritizing clear data accessibility, inclusion of digital object identifiers (DOIs), and rigorous citation of government repositories.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does APSA style use footnotes or parenthetical in-text citations?
APSA style strictly utilizes parenthetical author-date citations for bibliographic attribution. Footnotes or endnotes are reserved exclusively for substantive explanatory comments, methodological caveats, or technical extensions that would disrupt narrative flow.
How do you cite a source with no author in APSA format?
When an individual author is not identified, cite the publishing organization, agency, or corporation as the institutional author (e.g., American Political Science Association 2018). If no institutional author exists, use a shortened title of the work in quotation marks or italics matching the reference list entry.
What is the difference between APSA style and Chicago author-date style?
APSA style is directly based on Chicago author-date documentation. Its primary distinctions relate to disciplinary conventions in political science, such as specific rules for citing legal briefs, Supreme Court decisions, legislative hearings, and executive documents, alongside strict adherence to parenthetical author-date format rather than Chicago notes-and-bibliography.
How should page numbers be formatted for direct quotations?
In-text citations for direct quotations must include a comma immediately following the publication year, followed by the specific page or page range without the abbreviations “p.” or “pp.” (e.g., (Miller 2023, 45–48)).
Sources
- American Political Science Association. 2018. Style Manual for Political Science. Revised Edition. Washington, DC: APSA. https://connect.apsanet.org/stylemanual/.
- University of Wisconsin–Madison Writing Center. 2024. “APSA Documentation Style.” The Writer’s Handbook. https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/documentation/docapsa/.
- University of Texas at Tyler Robert R. Muntz Library. 2024. “APSA Citation Style Guide: References and In-Text Citations.” https://libguides.uttyler.edu/c.php?g=1065114.
