POLS 325: Asian American Politics

APSA Style Manual

The APSA Style Manual is the premier style manual for the political science discipline. The complete guide is available to download for free on the American Political Science Association website.

Chicago Manual of Style

APSA is based on the Chicago Author/Date style, and it refers to specific sections of Chicago in its own manual.

• APSA provides limited instructions/examples for citing archival materials. In cases when APSA is unclear, look to Chicago Author/Date style (which APSA is based on) for guidance. Often, APSA will refer you to a specific section in the Chicago manual.
• If you are citing digital archival materials that you accessed online or through a database, you must add a direct link to the source (either a DOI or URL) to the end of the citation in the reference list.
• Citing sources from manuscript collections:
  • If you are citing multiple items in your paper from the same manuscript collection, use the collection or series (not the item) as the main element in the reference and include information about the specific item in the body of the text (see: Chicago 15.54).
    • Example (In-Text):
      On January 13, 1945, the Minidoka Irrigator published an article titled, "Traveling Aliens Must Have Permits," which described new Department of Justice regulations regarding the travel of Japanese people (Victor McLaughlin Papers).
    • Example (Reference List):
      Victor McLaughlin Papers. Series 7: Minidoka Irrigator, 1943-1945. Gonzaga University Archives and Special Collections.
  • If you only cite one item from a particular manuscript collection in your paper, use the specific item (not the collection) as the main element in the reference.
    • Example (In-Text):
      Internees could leave the camp if they had a gate pass, such as the one issued to Mary Usui on June 6, 1944 (War Relocation Authority 1944).
    • Example (Reference List):
      War Relocation Authority. 1944. Gate Pass, WRA-139A, Mary Usui. Usui Family Papers. CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Archives and Special Collections. https://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16855coll4/id/18265.
• Citations can be tricky! If you're having trouble, contact a librarian for help.

Zotero is a citation management software system. You can add citations for all kinds of sources to Zotero, and organize them into personal folders for your research projects. You can also create Group Libraries in order to more easily collaborate with others on projects. There is a desktop application, a web library, and a browser plug-in that renders almost any web page easily cite-able.

Zotero, while not supported directly by Foley Libraries, is a free service*, and is not tied to your affiliation with Gonzaga University.This means that when you graduate or leave GU, you never have to worry about losing access to your Zotero library. And when you join another organization, you can continue to use your Zotero account seamlessly.

*There is a fee structure if you are hosting more than 300MB of files on Zotero, but most users never reach this point, and pricing is very reasonable even if you do.