ASA: journal article (with DOI)
- Only the first author's name is inverted.
- Article titles go in quotation marks; the journal name is italic, followed by volume(issue):pages with no spaces.
Not shown for ASA: book, chapter in an edited book, web page, report, thesis or dissertation. We publish only patterns we've checked against the American Sociological Association Style Guide, 7th edition; for these, see the manual or your course's guide.
ASA in-text citations
Give the surname and year with no comma; add a page after a colon with no space.
| Parenthetical | (Jergas and Baethge 2015) |
| With a page | (Doe 2021:14) |
| Narrative | Doe (2021:14) argues that… |
- No space after the colon before the page number.
Common ASA mistakes
- A comma between author and year, or a space after the page colon. ASA writes (Doe 2021:14).
- Using APA's “&” between authors. ASA writes “and”.
Format a reference in ASA
Our free in-browser formatter covers journal articles in six styles (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver). ASA is one of the 2,500+ styles in the full MoreMind workspace.
ASA questions
How is ASA different from APA?
Both are author–date, but ASA writes (Doe 2021:14) with no comma and a colon before the page, uses full first names in references and puts article titles in quotation marks.
What is the current edition of the ASA Style Guide?
The 7th edition, published in 2022.
Should I include DOIs?
Yes, when a journal article has one.
Why does this page show only a journal article?
We publish only patterns we've checked against the manual. For other source types, see the ASA Style Guide or your department's handout.
About the examples
Every style guide on this site formats the same six sources, so you can compare styles side by side. The journal article is real; the others are fictional, with placeholder names.
- Journal article (with DOI) (real): Hannah Jergas and Christopher Baethge, “Quotation accuracy in medical journal articles—a systematic review and meta-analysis,” PeerJ, volume 3, article e1364, published 27 October 2015, DOI 10.7717/peerj.1364.
- Book: Jane A. Doe, Evidence and argument in student research, Example University Press, London, 2021.
- Chapter in an edited book: Richard B. Roe, “Reading statistics critically,” pages 45–67 of A handbook of research methods, edited by Maria C. Sample and Lee D. Example, Example University Press, London, 2020.
- Web page: Pat Q. Public, “How to check that a source exists,” Example Research Hub (London), published 12 March 2024, https://www.example.org/guides/check-a-source, accessed 15 October 2026.
- Report: Example Institute for Education (author and publisher, London), Student research practices in higher education, 2023, https://www.example.org/reports/student-research-2023, accessed 15 October 2026.
- Thesis or dissertation: Alex B. Placeholder, Peer feedback and revision in first-year writing, unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Education, Example University, London, 2022.
Based on the American Sociological Association Style Guide, 7th edition. Last reviewed 2026-11. Your instructor's or journal's own guidelines take precedence. Spotted an error? Email support@moremind.ai.