American Sociological Association (ASA) style is generally used for papers in Sociology. It is based on and frequently refers to the Chicago Manual of Style.
The purpose of documentation or citation is to:
Identify (cite) other people’s ideas and information used within your essay or term paper.
Indicate the authors or sources of these in a References list at the end of your paper.
"The ASA Style Guide highlights and features guidelines for the most common situations encountered by authors and editors in the ASA journal publication process. It is designed to serve as the authoritative reference for writing, submitting, editing, and copy editing manuscripts for ASA journals."