How to Cite a Journal Article in American Political Science Association (APSA)

How to cite a journal article in APSA step by step

1. Author and year. Invert the first author name and place the year right after the author in the reference list, since APSA is author-date.
2. Article title. Give the article title in quotation marks, capitalized headline style.
3. Journal and volume. Italicize the journal name and add the volume and issue numbers.
4. Page range. Provide the full page range of the article in the reference list.
5. DOI. Close with the DOI as a full link, which APSA prefers over a database URL.

Common journal article citation variations

How do I write the in-text citation for an article in APSA?

Give the author last name and year in parentheses, adding a page after a comma for a direct quote, for example (Smith 2024, 48).

How do I cite an article with three or more authors in APSA?

List all authors in the reference list, and in the text use the first author followed by et al. once the author count passes the APSA threshold.

How do I cite a journal article with no DOI in APSA?

Give a stable URL or the database name in place of the DOI, or end at the page range for a print article with neither.

How do I order multiple works by the same author in APSA?

List them by year in the reference list, and use a, b, c suffixes on the year when the same author has more than one work in the same year.