APSA Style Manual for Political Science, Revised 2018 Edition is published by the American Political Science Association as a guide for authors who want to write and submit an article for publication in one of the APSA journals, such as American Political Science Review. Click the link above to access a PDF of the Manual.
APSA Style generally follows Chicago Manual of Style guidelines for formatting the paper.
General Guidelines:
Use a readable (e.g. Times New Roman) 11 or 12 point font for all parts of the paper, 1"-1 ½" margins, and double-space (single-space reference entries with a double-space between entries).
List all references cited in the text, alphabetically by author's last name, with a hanging indent.
Each element in a reference is separated by a period.
List the author's last name, followed by a comma and then the author's first and/or middle name. Spell out the author(s) names.
The date is always the second element in the citation.
Book and journal titles are next and should be in italics and title case (all important words capitalized).
Chapter and article titles are contained in quotation marks.
Whenever a source is found, read, or used online, a direct link that leads the reader to the sources should be included, preferably the DOI (digital object identifier) numerals or, if no DOI, a permalink URL (uniform resource locator).
Including an access date in a reference is only necessary if a publication or revision date cannot be determined from the source.
A quote of more than one hundred words, two or more paragraphs, quoted correspondence, or in need of general emphasis should be set off as a block quote. Block quotations always start on a new line and are not enclosed in quotation marks. Each new line should be indented (APSA Manual 2018, 33).
*Please note that there are additional formatting instructions on abbreviations, language, etc. in the APSA Style Manual.
Example Paper in Chicago Style from the OWL at Purdue: