APSA Citation Guide for Students (2025): Format, Examples & Style Tips

If you’re writing a paper in political science, there’s a good chance you’ll be asked to use APSA style. But unlike APA or MLA, APSA isn’t as commonly taught—so it’s easy to feel lost trying to figure out the rules.

Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered.

In this student-friendly APSA citation guide, you’ll learn:

What APSA style is
How to format in-text citations
How to build a proper reference list
Real examples for books, articles, websites, and more

Let’s dive in.

📘 What Is APSA Style?

APSA stands for the American Political Science Association, and its citation style is primarily used in:

Political science
Government and public policy
International relations

APSA is based on Chicago Manual of Style’s author-date system, meaning it uses in-text citations with the author’s name and year, and a full reference list at the end of the paper.

🔹 APSA In-Text Citations

Just like APA, APSA in-text citations go in parentheses and include:

Author’s last name
Year of publication
Page number if quoting

✅ Examples:

Paraphrasing: (Smith 2021)
Quoting: (Smith 2021, 44)
Two authors: (Lopez and Zhang 2020)
Three or more authors: (Nguyen et al. 2023)

✅ Multiple sources:

(Brown 2021; Chen 2019; Wilson 2020)

💡 There is no comma between the author name and year, but there is a comma before the page number.

📋 How to Format the APSA Reference List

Your References page should:

Be titled “References” (bold, centered, no underline)
Be alphabetized by author last name
Use hanging indentation
Include all sources cited in-text
Be double-spaced

✍️ APSA Citation Examples by Source Type

📚 Book (1 Author)

Format:
Last name, First name. Year. Title in Italics. Publisher.

Example:
Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon & Schuster.

📘 Book (2–3 Authors)

Example:
King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton University Press.

📰 Journal Article

Format:
Last name, First name. Year. “Article Title.” Journal Name volume(issue): page range.

Example:
Levitsky, Steven, and Daniel Ziblatt. 2018. “How Democracies Die.” Journal of Democracy 29(3): 5–19.

🌐 Website

Format:
Organization or Author. Year. “Page Title.” Website Name. Accessed [Month Day, Year]. URL.

Example:
Pew Research Center. 2023. “Youth Voter Turnout in the U.S.” Pew Research. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/youth-turnout/

🗞️ Newspaper Article

Example:
Friedman, Thomas L. 2023. “A Climate Solution That’s Actually Doable.” New York Times, July 14.

🧑‍🏫 Class Lecture or Presentation

Example:
Jenkins, Lisa. 2024. “Politics and Pop Culture.” Lecture, University of Chicago, February 7.

❗️Common APSA Formatting Rules

Capitalize titles like sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns)
Italicize book and journal titles
Use quotation marks for article and web page titles
Don’t use “Retrieved from” before URLs
For multiple authors, use “and” (not “&”) between names

🛠 Tools to Help With APSA Formatting

Zotero – Free citation manager
BibGuru – APSA citation generator
Purdue OWL (Chicago Author-Date) – For cross-reference
StudyDoll Writing Services – For editing and citation help 👇

✅ Quick APSA Citation Checklist

✔ In-text citations match the reference list
✔ References page is alphabetized
✔ Sources are formatted consistently
✔ Page numbers are included in direct quotes
✔ No missing publication years or links
✔ Hanging indent is applied properly

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