Citations

Political scientists use citation formats that are similar to those used by other scholars, particularly by other social scientists.  However, some of the forms may be new to you, so I have provided this guide for the perplexed.  I hope you find it useful; you should use this style in your papers for my classes.

Parenthetical Citations

Instead of footnotes, you may choose to use parenthetical citations (though footnotes are also perfectly acceptable).  All works cited in parentheses must have full citations in your bibliography at the end of the paper.

The Basic Form.  The basic form is really very simple: (Author Year).   For example, you could cite my book as: (Lublin 1997).  If you wish to refer to a specific page in the book, the form is (Author Year: Page).  Example: (Lublin 1997: 27).  If multiple pages need citation simply use dashes or commas as necessary.   Example: (Lublin 1997: 27-32, 64).  If you are referring to the author in the text, you should simply put the date, and pages if necessary, in parentheses after the reference to the author's name.  Example: According to Lublin (1997: 9), Earl Warren directly contradicted Thernstrom (1987) on the applicability of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to redistricting.

Multiple Sources.  If you want to cite more than one work at the same time, use semi-colons to separate the cites.  Example: (Lublin 1997; Thernstrom 1987).  If you have more than one work by the same author(s) in one year, you need to designate the work that appears first in your bibliography (the one with the title that begins with the letter that appears earlier in the alphasbet) as "a" and the second as "b" and so on.  The letter designations should appear in both the bibliography and in your parenthetical citations.  Example: (Lublin 1997a).

Multiple Authors.  You should list all authors for works with three or fewer authors.  The order of their names should following the order given by the authors.  Example: (Grofman, Griffin and Glazer 1992; Lublin and Voss 1998).  If there are more than three authors, give the author's first name and then "et al."  Example: (de la Garza et al 1991).

No Author.  Use the title in place of the author if there is no author.   You should feel free to shorten it as long as it is clear and distinct.   Example: (LDF Report 1994).

Biblographic Citations

The Basic Form. 

Books: Lublin, David.  The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress.   Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Articles in Scholarly Journals: Bullock III, Charles S.  1981.   "Congressional Voting and the Mobilization of a Black Electorate in the South."  Journal of Politics 43 (December): 662-82.

Magazine and Newspaper Articles: Kelly, Michael.  "Segregation Anxiety."   New Yorker, 20 November 1995, 43-54.  Swain, Carol M.   "Black-Majority Districts: A Bad Idea."  New York Times, 3 June 1993, A21.

Supreme Court Cases: Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544 (1969).   The number before the "U.S." refers to the volume; the number after is the page number.  The "U.S." refers the to Supreme Court Reporter.   (District and Circuit Court decisions will have something else instead of U.S. between numbers, e.g. F. 2d or F. Supp.)  Even if you found your case on the internet (e.g. on Findlaw or Lexis), you should still use this format as the cite will likely give you this citation format somewhere near the beginining of the case.

Internet Citations

There are lots of ways to cite internet sources.  I am not particular about which one you use as long as you follow certain rules:

• Cite the exact URL or internet site.  Do not just cite the general home page.   The point is to be able to quickly locate the exact page on which you found your information.  Even though it is more lengthy and more complex, give the full cite of the page so that your reader can go directly to it.  For example, if you want to cite the Christian Coalition position paper on gambling, you should cite the exact site, http://www.cc.org/issues/gambling.html, not the general Christian Coalition site, http://www.cc.org/.  
• State the date you visited the page.  "Visited 30 January 1999." or "Visited January 30, 1999." are both sufficient.  Pages unfortunately change often, so it is nice to know when you visited the page.
• Give the title of the page as well as the internet site.  Simply giving the site or URL is not very informative.  People don't speak internet and you want your paper to be accessible to all.
• Many pages on the internet are just replications of paper sources.  If this is the case, you should cite it as you would the paper form.  For example, if you use an article from the Washington Post, you should simply cite it as you would a normal newspaper article.
• Sample Bibliographic Form: "Christian Coalition Stand on Gambling."   http://www.cc.org/issues/gambling.html.  Visited 19 August 1999.
• Sample Parenthetical Citiation: (Christian Coalition Stand on Gambling 1999) or (http://www.cc.org/issues/gambling.html  1999).  Personally, I prefer the former format as it is more informative.

Go to my Home Page.

he views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the American University. If you have any questions about this page, please email David Lublin at dlublin@american.edu. This page was last updated on August 19, 1999.