The Chicago Manual of Style is used by some social science publications, in most historical journals, and by many academic and trade publishers. Chicago describes two basic methods for documentation:
Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide
Visit the Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide to learn about the style's different citation systems. You can also go directly to the Notes & Bibliography section or the Author-Date section if you already know which style you need to use. The guide has sample citations as well as explanations of how to format your work.
The Chicago Manual of Style by
Technologies may change, but the need for clear and accurate communication never goes out of style. That is why for more than one hundred years The Chicago Manual of Style has remained the definitive guide for anyone who works with words. In the seven years since the previous edition debuted, we have seen an extraordinary evolution in the way we create and share knowledge. This seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been prepared with an eye toward how we find, create, and cite information that readers are as likely to access from their pockets as from a bookshelf. It offers updated guidelines on electronic workflows and publication formats, tools for PDF annotation and citation management, web accessibility standards, and effective use of metadata, abstracts, and keywords. It recognizes the needs of those who are self-publishing or following open access or Creative Commons publishing models. The citation chapters reflect the ever-expanding universe of electronic sources--including social media posts and comments, private messages, and app content--and also offer updated guidelines on such issues as DOIs, time stamps, and e-book locators. Other improvements are independent of technological change. The chapter on grammar and usage includes an expanded glossary of problematic words and phrases and a new section on syntax as well as updated guidance on gender-neutral pronouns and bias-free language. Key sections on punctuation and basic citation style have been reorganized and clarified. To facilitate navigation, headings and paragraph titles have been revised and clarified throughout. And the bibliography has been updated and expanded to include the latest and best resources available. This edition continues to reflect expert insights gathered from Chicago's own staff and from an advisory board of publishing experts from across the profession. It also includes suggestions inspired by emails, calls, and even tweets from readers. No matter how much the means of communication change, The Chicago Manual of Style remains the ultimate resource for those who care about getting the details right.
Author Date Style
For the author-date system, each example of a reference list entry is accompanied by an example of a corresponding in-text citation. Below are a few examples of citations in the author-date style taken from the CMOS website. You can find more at the CMOS Author-Date page. For more details and many more examples, see chapter 15 of The Chicago Manual of Style.
Reference list entry
Smith, Zadie. 2016. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press.
In-text citation
(Smith 2016, 315–16)
Include a URL, the name of the database, or the ebook format in the reference list. You can put page numbers, chapter, or section title for the in-text citation if there is one.
Reference list entries (in alphabetical order)
Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle.
Melville, Herman. 1851. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers. http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.
In-text citations
(Austen 2007, chap. 3)
(Melville 1851, 627)
In the reference list, include the page range for the whole article within the journal. For the in-text citation, cite the specific page numbers you are referencing. For articles consulted online, include the DOI, or the name of the database, or the URL. For journal articles with four or more authors, list the first followed by et al. in the note, and list up to ten in the bibliography. For more than ten authors, list only the first seven in the bibliography, followed by et al.
Reference list entries (in alphabetical order)
Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. 2017. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
LaSalle, Peter. 2017. “Conundrum: A Story about Reading.” New England Review 38 (1): 95–109. Project MUSE.
Satterfield, Susan. 2016. “Livy and the Pax Deum.” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April): 165–76.
In-text citations
(Keng, Lin, and Orazem 2017, 9–10)
(LaSalle 2017, 95)
(Satterfield 2016, 170)
Notes and Bibliography Style
Below are a few examples of citations in the Notes and Bibliography style taken from the CMOS website. If you are citing the same source more than once, use the shortened note after the first time you use the regular note.
You can find more examples at the CMOS Notes Bibliography page. For more details and many more examples, see chapter 14 of The Chicago Manual of Style.
Note
1. Zadie Smith, Swing Time (New York: Penguin Press, 2016), 315–16.
Shortened note
2. Smith, Swing Time, 320.
Bibliography entry
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
Include a URL, the name of the database, or the ebook format in the note and bibliography. For notes, include page numbers if they are available. If not, you can also use a section title or a chapter. If not, leave it out.
Notes
1. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851), 627, http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.
2. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), chap. 3, Kindle.
Shortened notes
3. Melville, Moby-Dick, 722–23.
4. Austen, Pride and Prejudice, chap. 14.
Bibliography entries (in alphabetical order)
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.
In a note, cite the specific page numbers you are referencing. In the bibliography, include the page range for the whole article within the journal. For articles consulted online, include the DOI, or the name of the database, or the URL. For journal articles with four or more authors, list the first followed by et al. in the note, and list up to ten in the bibliography. For more than ten authors, list only the first seven in the bibliography, followed by et al.
Notes
1. Susan Satterfield, “Livy and the Pax Deum,” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April 2016): 170.
2. Shao-Hsun Keng, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem, “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality,” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 9–10, https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
3. Peter LaSalle, “Conundrum: A Story about Reading,” New England Review 38, no. 1 (2017): 95, Project MUSE.
Shortened notes
4. Satterfield, “Livy,” 172–73.
5. Keng, Lin, and Orazem, “Expanding College Access,” 23.
6. LaSalle, “Conundrum,” 101.
Bibliography entries (in alphabetical order)
Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
LaSalle, Peter. “Conundrum: A Story about Reading.” New England Review 38, no. 1 (2017): 95–109. Project MUSE.
Satterfield, Susan. “Livy and the Pax Deum.” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April 2016): 165–76.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Chicago Style Guide
The OWL Chicago style guide offers excellent resources for information on The Chicago Manual of Style method of document formatting and citation. This resource follows the 17th edition.
Examples of how to cite:
Sample Papers
Turabian Style
The Turabian citation guide presents information on citation and formatting in Turabian style, which is essentially the same as the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, with slight modifications for the needs of student writers.
Official Chicago style, in easy-to-use, printable PDF paper-writing tip sheets for students, teachers, and librarians. Guidelines come from Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (9th ed.) and are fully compatible with The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.).
Citation Generating Tools
These resources can help you format your bibliographies and references:
Most of the citations tools are updated regularly, but you can always explore the rest of citations research guide for more information on commonly-used styles.