How to format your references using the American Political Science Review citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for American Political Science Review. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Download the output style file
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

Cuffey, Kurt M. 2008. “Climate Change. A Matter of Firn.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 320(5883): 1596–97.

A journal article with 2 authors

Klein, Daniel J., and Adrian R. Ferré-D’Amaré. 2006. “Structural Basis of GlmS Ribozyme Activation by Glucosamine-6-Phosphate.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 313(5794): 1752–56.

A journal article with 3 authors

Cho, Younghyun, Jong Bum Lee, and Jinkee Hong. 2014. “Controlled Release of an Anti-Cancer Drug from DNA Structured Nano-Films.” Scientific reports 4: 4078.

A journal article with 5 or more authors

Gao, Yong-Gui, Maria Selmer, Christine M. Dunham, Albert Weixlbaumer, Ann C. Kelley, and V. Ramakrishnan. 2009. “The Structure of the Ribosome with Elongation Factor G Trapped in the Posttranslocational State.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 326(5953): 694–99.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

Stafford, Fiona. 2012. Reading Romantic Poetry. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An edited book

Neri, E., M. Cosottini, and D. Caramella, eds. 2010. MR Angiography of the Body. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

A chapter in an edited book

Ferrari, Alessio, Byron Quan Luna, Anke Spickermann, Julien Travelletti, Dominika Krzeminska, John Eichenberger, Theo van Asch, et al. 2014. “Techniques for the Modelling of the Process Systems in Slow and Fast-Moving Landslides.” In Mountain Risks: From Prediction to Management and Governance, Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, eds. Theo Van Asch, Jordi Corominas, Stefan Greiving, Jean-Philippe Malet, and Simone Sterlacchini. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 83–129.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for American Political Science Review.

Blog post

Andrews, Robin. 2016. “Jurassic Monster Is Largest Meat-Eating Dinosaur Found In Germany.” IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/jurassic-monster-is-largest-meateating-dinosaur-found-in-germany/ (October 30, 2018).

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

Government Accountability Office. 1996. Energy Research: Opportunities Exist to Recover Federal Investment in Technology Development Projects. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

Roediger, Erik. 2015. “Relaxation Skills Training for Elementary Aged Children.” Doctoral dissertation. Southern Illinois University.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

Vecsey, George. 2011. “After Long Hours, the Red Sox Keep a Slim Lead.” New York Times: D7.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Cuffey 2008).
This sentence cites two references (Cuffey 2008; Klein and Ferré-D’Amaré 2006).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

Two authors: (Klein and Ferré-D’Amaré 2006)
Three authors: (Cho, Lee, and Hong 2014)
4 or more authors: (Gao et al. 2009)

About the journal

Full journal title	American Political Science Review
Abbreviation	Am. Polit. Sci. Rev.
ISSN (print)	0003-0554
ISSN (online)	1537-5943
Scope	Sociology and Political Science Political Science and International Relations