SOC 100: Introduction to Sociology

Purdue OWL Guide to ASA Formatting

Official Manual

Chicago Manual of Style

ASA style is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. Consult the online Chicago Manual if you have a specific question that is not answered in the resources describing ASA.

Which link should I use for an online source from the library's collections?

Be aware: many times the link in the browser bar is a temporary link that is associated with the search you just ran in a database (like Sociological Abstracts) or an online book (like the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology). This means that the link will not resolve to the appropriate source in the future.

Look on the source page for a persistent link. This usually shows up somewhere in the citation information. Lots of library sources will have an option to create a citation in a particular style, or provide you with a generic citation (that you then need to modify to put into ASA style). Or, if a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is available for the source, use that as the persistent link.

For example:

• In the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, scroll down to the bottom of the entry and you will see a a heading in a green bar for "Cite this article." This citation includes the persistent link
• In Sociological Abstracts, a link to "Cite" is in a box on the right-hand side of the screen. You can both choose the ASA style citation format here, and get the persistent link to the Sociological Abstracts record for that source.
• A journal article has a DOI listed near the title information. The DOI can form a link by putting the string of letters and numbers that constitute the DOI number after the following URL prefix: http://dx.doi.org/

How do I cite an online encyclopedia article in ASA format?

Use a combination of the guidelines available for chapter in an edited book and website. Provide as much information as you can; okay to omit information that is not available for the electronic version (such as page numbers).

For example:

Press, Andrea. 2007. "Culture, Gender and." In Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, edited by G. Ritzer. Blackwell Publishing. Retrieved March 29, 2018 (http://www.sociologyencyclopedia.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/subscriber/tocnode.html?id=g9781405124331_yr2012_chunk_g97814051243319_ss1-186).

Harrington, Austin. 2006. "Action." Pp. 1-4 in Encyclopedia of Social Theory, edited by A. Harrington, B.L. Marshall, and H. Muller. New York: Routledge. Retrieved March 29, 2018 (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203825471).