The Chicago Manual of Style

Two Citation Styles

There are two Chicago citation styles:

  • Notes and Bibliography
  • Author-Date

Notes and Bibliography is used mostly in the humanities. Sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each citation corresponds to a superscript number in the text. The notes and bibliography style is more flexible than the author-date style.

Author-Date is used in the sciences and social sciences. In this style, the sources are cited in the text using the author name and the year of publication with a corresponding citation in the bibliography.

In-Text Citations

In Text Citation examples taken from Purdue Owl:

Notes and Bibliography

    1. Contributors’ Names, “Title of Resource,” List the OWL as Publishing Organization/Web Site Name in Italics, last edited date, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/13/.
    1. Jessica Clements, Elizabeth Angeli, Karen Schiller, S. C. Gooch, Laurie Pinkert, and Allen Brizee. “General Format,” The Purdue OWL, October 12, 2011, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/13/.

Author Date In-text Citation:

(Contributors’ Surnames year of publication, page or section number when available).
(Clements et al. 2011).

Examples of Bibliography Citations

The following are a list of citation examples. Remember, these are examples of only a few sources you may encounter in your research.

Journal Article

Note: Include the whole page range, include URL, name of the database and/or the DOI. The DOI is preferred over the URL. 

Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. "Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978-2015: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality." Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1086.690235.

Book with One Author

Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press: 2016.

E-Book

Note: Include URL or name of database. 

Borel, Brooke. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. Proquest Ebrary.

Online Video

Bouman, Katie. "How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole." Filmed November 2016 at TEDxBeaconStreet, Brookline, MA, Video, 12:51, https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouman_what_does_a_black_hole_look_like.

Essay in an Anthology (Book of Essays)

Smiley, Pamela. "Gender-lined Miscommunication in 'Hills like White Elephants." In Ernest Hemingway: Seven Decades of Criticism, edited by Linda Wagner-Martin, 81-94. Michigan State University Press, 1998.

Website

Yale University. "About Yale: Yale Facts." Accessed May 1, 2017. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

Citation Resources