A guide to the publishing process, grammar, usage, and citing sources in the Chicago style. This searchable online version includes the full contents of the 16th and 15th editions of the manual plus the Chicago Style Q&A.
Chicago Style (CMS)
History most commonly uses a citation style called the Chicago Style, or sometimes called Chicago/Turabian. The rules are currently governed by the Chicago Manual Style (CMS), 16th edition. There are generally two parts to Chicago Style: notes and bibliography.
Information on Notes
Unlike popular citation styles such as those produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA) or the American Psychological Association (APA), Chicago typically does not use in-text parenthetical citations. Instead, Chicago Style uses footnotes in-text, which usually appears immediately after a direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. In-text, the footnote is a number that can be inserted via Word. It corresponds to an actual bibliographic note either at the bottom of the page (footnote), or the end of a work (endnote).
Notes in Chicago style usually include the author’s last name, titles, publication information (publisher and location), date of publication, and page numbers. The information required depends on the nature of the resource. Chicago Style allows for a short note each additional time you cite the same source. A shortened note usually includes the author’s last name and a page number. If you cite the same source and same page again a note that directly follows the first, you may simply use the word Ibid. See below for formatting examples.
General Notes Format
1. First name Last name, Title (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.
Format when the Same Note immediately Follows
2. Ibid.
Subsequent Notes
5. Last name, page number.
Information on Bibliography
The bibliography appears at the end of your paper and it includes all the descriptive information about a resource. Like MLA and APA styles, you must start your bibliography on a new page, your citations must be arranged alphabetically by the citation’s first element (usually the authors name), your citations must be doubles-spaced, and each subsequent line of a citation must be indented. See below for format example.
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher,Year of publication.
Books with a Single Author
The necessary information to construct a citation includes the author's name, title, place of publication, the publisher, year, and pages.
Note
1. Paul Harvey, Through the Storm, Through the Night: A History of African American Christianity (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011), 131.
Bibliography
Harvey, Paul. Through the Storm, Through the Night: A History of African American Christianity. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011.
Books with more than One Author
The necessary information to construct a citation includes the both author's names, title, place of publication, the publisher, year, and pages.
Note
2. Theda Skocpol, Ariane Liazos, and Marshall Ganz, What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 47.
Bibliography
Skocpol, Theda, Ariane Liazos, and Marshall Ganz. What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African AmericanFraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial
Equality. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006.
Article, Chapter, or Short Story in an Edited Collection
The necessary information to construct a citation includes the author's name, article, chapter, or short story tile, book title, editors, place of publication, the publisher, year, and pages.
Note
3. Ernesto Sagas, “Black—but not Haitian: Color, Class, and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic,” in Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America eds. Kwame Dixon and John Burdick (Gainseville: University Press of Florida, 2012), 28.
Bibliography
Sagas, Ernesto. “Black—but not Haitian: Color, Class, and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic.” In Comparative Perspectives on Afro-Latin America. Edited
by Kwame Dixon and John Burdick, 323-344. Gainseville: University Press of Florida, 2012.
Print Journal Article
The necessary information for citations include author’s name, article title, journal title, volume number, issue number, date and page numbers.
Note
4. Amy C. Wilkins, “Puerto Rican Wannabes: Sexual Spectacle and the Marking of Race, Class, and Gender Boundaries,” Gender and Society 18, no. 1 (2004): 111.
Bibliography
Wilkins, Amy C. “Puerto Rican Wannabes: Sexual Spectacle and the Marking of Race, Class, and Gender Boundaries.” Gender and Society 18, no. 1
(2004): 103-121.
Electronic Journal Articles
Information necessary for citation includes author’s name, article title, journal title, volume number, issue number, date and page numbers, date of access, and retrieval information, and the DOI provided by the library database.
Note
5. William S. Osborne, “Curtains for Jim Crowe: Law, Race, and the Texas Railroads,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 105, no. 3 (2002): 402,accessed May 3, 2013, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239275.
Bibliography
Osborne, William S. “Curtains for Jim Crowe: Law, Race, and the Texas Railroads.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 105, no. 3 (2002): 393-427.
Accessed May 3, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239275.
Websites
Information necessary for citation includes names (authors or organization), titles, publishing information (if any), dates published, updated or created, date accessed, and URL.
Note
1.First name Last name, “Title of Web Page,” Publishing Organization or Name of Website in Italics, publication date and/or access date if available, URL.
Bibliography
Last name, First name. “Title of Web Page.” Publishing Organization or Name of Website in Italics. Publication date and/or access date if available. URL.
