Skip to Main Content

Sociology

Guides

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) Style Guides: ASA This link opens in a new window
ASA is the citation style endorsed by the American Sociological Association. This resource offers examples for the general format of ASA research papers, in-text citations/references, and the References page.

Citation Management Tools

Zotero
Advantages:
- Very good support for HTML content. (Mendeley and Refworks are more PDF-centric.)
- Lets you take an unlimited number of notes on each item, create notes that aren’t attached to a specific item, and search and tag notes.
- Highlights and annotations on documents are synced across computers.
- Good support for group collaboration.
Disadvantages:
- Browser plugin is only available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.
- Highlighting and annotating documents relies on external tools (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Reader, macOS Preview).
Mendeley
Advantages:
- Lets you highlight and annotate PDFs inside the program, and syncs your highlights and annotations.
- Installed in campus computer labs.
- Some support for small group (up to 3 people) collaboration.
Disadvantages:
- Works best when you download the desktop program, although there is a Web interface.
- Weaker support than Zotero for searching, tagging, etc. your notes and annotations.