MC Library Research Guides: Cite Sources: Chicago Style

General Information on Chicago Style

Chicago is an editorial and citation style commonly used by book and journal publishers and is used in both humanities and science disciplines. It presents two basic documentation systems:

Author-Date References. Sources are briefly mentioned in the body of the publication, in parentheses, by author's last name and date of publication. Full bibliographic information is provided in a list of references. This system is mostly used in the physical, natural, and social sciences.
Notes and Bibliography. This system presents bibliographic information with footnotes, endnotes, and a bibliography. This style is preferred by in the humanities disciplines, including in literature, history, and the arts.

The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff Electronic resource, click to access
Call Number: Z253 .U69 2017 (All campus libraries, use link above for online access)
Student's Guide to Writing College Papers, Fifth Edition by Kate L. Turabian A guide to writing, editing, and publishing in the Chicago Style. Ask for this book at the Rockville Library's front desk.
Call Number: LB2369 .T82 2019
ISBN: 9780226494562
Publication Date: 2019-06-28
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Ninth Edition by Turabian et al. A guide to writing and citing with the Chicago style. Ask for a copy of this manual at the Germantown Library's front desk.
Call Number: LB2369 .T8 2018
ISBN: 9780226494425
Publication Date: 2018-04-16

Create In-Text Citations in Chicago Style

Author-Date System
Notes and Bibliography System

Sources are cited in the text using the author's last name, the publication date of the work cited, and a page number if needed. When citing the same work more than once in a row, include only the page number after the first time the publication is mentioned.

Example

The word caste originated with Portuguese sailors landing on the Indian subcontinent (Wilkerson 2020, 67-69). Author Isabel Wilkerson describes the Indian caste system and the American system of racism as "operating from the same instruction manual translated to fit their distinctive culture[s]" (75).

While the concept of a caste system may be unique to certain cultures, socioeconomic disparity is a broader phenomenon. For example, inequalities in healthy life expectancy are equally prevalent in England and the United States (Zaninotto et al. 2020), two countries with very different histories of race and class consciousness.

Full citations are listed at the end of the paper.

Author-Date References Examples Overview in the Chicago Manual of Style
Sample paper with Author-Date format From the Purdue Online Writing Lab's CMOS Formatting and Style Guide

Citations are provided in footnotes or endnotes. The notes are numbered using superscripts in the text, beginning with 1, and listed consecutively.

Example

The word caste originated with Portuguese sailors landing on the Indian subcontinent.¹ Wilkerson describes the Indian caste system and the American system of racism as, "operating from the same instruction manual translated to fit their distinctive culture[s]."²

While the concept of a caste system may be unique to certain cultures, socioeconomic disparity is a broader phenomenon. For example, inequalities in healthy life expectancy are equally prevalent in England and the United States,³ two countries with very different histories of race and class consciousness.

Full citations are listed at the bottom of a page (for footnotes) or at the end of a paper (for endnotes).

Example

1. Isabel Wilkerson, Caste : the Origins of Our Discontents, First edition. (New York: Random House, 2020), page 67-69.

2. Wilkerson, Caste, 75.

3. Zaninotto et al., “Socioeconomic Inequalities in Disability-Free Life Expectancy in Older People from England and the United States,” The Journals of Gerontology, no. 5 (2020): 906–913, https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glz266.

In addition to footnotes/endnotes, the Chicago Style guide recommends summarizing sources in a full bibliography at the end of the paper (see below for an example).

Notes Examples Basic Structure of a note from the Chicago Manual of Style
Sample paper with Notes and Bibliography format From the Purdue Online Writing Lab's CMOS Formatting and Style Guide.

Create a Reference List in Chicago Style

All papers formatted in Chicago Style can include a list of references at the end of the paper, in alphabetical order.

In the Author-Date system, the list is titled "References" and is required.
In the Notes & Bibliography system, the list is optional but encouraged. It is labeled "Bibliography.".

Here is a portion of a References/Bibliography page formatted in Chicago Style:

Example

Schwartz, Nelson D. “In New Age of Privilege, Not All Are in Same Boat.” The New York Times (New York, NY), April 24, 2016.

“Wealth Distribution in the U.S.: How Much Do the Top 10% Own?” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. April 6, 2021. Video, 1:08. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aONigLMAk3w.

Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: the Origins of Our Discontents. First edition. New York: Random House, 2020.

Zaninotto, Paola, George David Batty, Sari Stenholm, Ichiro Kawachi, Martin Hyde, Marcel Goldberg, Hugo Westerlund, Jussi Vahtera, and Jenny Head. “Socioeconomic Inequalities in Disability-Free Life Expectancy in Older People from England and the United States: A Cross-National Population-Based Study.” The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, no. 5 (2020): 906–913. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glz266.

Sample paper with Author-Date format From the Purdue Online Writing Lab's CMOS Formatting and Style Guide
Sample paper with Notes and Bibliography format From the Purdue Online Writing Lab's CMOS Formatting and Style Guide.

If there are multiple authors, list them all in the Reference/Bibliography section.

Example

Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: the Origins of Our Discontents. First edition. New York: Random House, 2020.

The presence of a URL indicates that the book was accessed online.

Example

Saez, Emmanuel. “Income and Wealth Inequality: Evidence and Policy Implications.” In United States Income, Wealth, Consumption, and Inequality, edited by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, 38-60. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. https://academic.oup.com/book/33506.

Cite Articles and Reports in Chicago Style

Journal Articles
Newspaper Articles

List all authors. If an article was accessed online, include the DOI with a web link.

Examples

Flanagan, Constance A., and Mariah Kornbluh. “How Unequal Is the United States? Adolescents’ Images of Social Stratification.” Child Development 90, no. 3 (2019): 957–969. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12954.

Newspapers, magazines, and journal articles are formatted the same way. Include the full date of publication for a newspaper article, if it is available.

Example

Schwartz, Nelson D. “In New Age of Privilege, Not All Are in Same Boat.” The New York Times (New York, NY), April 24, 2016.

Cite Websites, Streaming Media, and More in Chicago Style

Include the author names. If no author is listed, then start with the title of the page or site. Include the publication date, if it is available. If no publication date is available, list the date that the content was accessed.

Example

Semega, Jessica, and Melissa Kolar. “Increase in Income Inequality Driven by Real Declines in Income at the Bottom.” United States Census Bureau. September 13, 2022. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/09/income-inequality-increased.html.

Include the user's full name and social media handle. If there is no title, list the starting words of the post.

Example

Atkinson, Sarah (@SarahHatstand). “The legal profession is ahead of other sectors in having social mobility on the radar, and many firms perform well in our @SocialMobilityF Employer Index…,” Twitter, September 8, 2022. https://twitter.com/SarahHatstand/status/1567802025026396163.

If no author name is available, start with the title of the video/streaming media.

Example

“Wealth Distribution in the U.S.: How Much Do the Top 10% Own?” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. April 6, 2021. Video, 1:08. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aONigLMAk3w.