Citing Sources: Chicago Citation Examples

Introduction:

The Chicago NB (Notes & Bibliography) system is often used in the humanities and provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through footnote or endnote citation in their writing and through bibliography pages. It also offers writers an outlet for commenting on those cited sources. The NB system is most commonly used in the discipline of history.

Footnotes and Endnotes:

In the NB system, you should include a note (endnote or footnote) each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote or through a paraphrase or summary. Footnotes will be added at the end of the page on which the source is referenced, and endnotes will be compiled at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire document.

In either case, a superscript number corresponding to a note with the bibliographic information for that source should be placed in the text following the end of the sentence or clause in which the source is referenced.

The first note for each source should include all relevant information about the source: author’s full name, source title, and facts of publication. If you cite the same source again, the note need only include the surname of the author, a shortened form of the title (if more than four words), and page number(s).

The footnote or endnote itself begins with the appropriate number followed by a period and then a space.

Bibliographies:

In the NB system, the bibliography provides an alphabetical list of all sources used in a given work. This page, most often titled Bibliography, is usually placed at the end of the work preceding the index. It should include all sources cited within the work and may sometimes include other relevant sources that were not cited but provide further reading.

Although bibliographic entries for various sources may be formatted differently, all included sources (books, articles, Web sites, etc.) are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name. If no author or editor is listed, the title or keyword by which the reader would search for the source may be used instead.

Common Elements

All entries in the bibliography will include the author (or editor, compiler, translator), title, and publication information.

Author’s Names

The author’s name is inverted in the bibliography, placing the last name first and separating the last name and first name with a comma; for example, John Smith becomes Smith, John. (If an author is not listed first, this applies to compilers, translators, etc.)

Titles

Titles of books and journals are italicized. Titles of articles, chapters, poems, etc. are placed in quotation marks.

Publication Information

The year of publication is listed after the publisher or journal name.

Punctuation

In a bibliography, all major elements are separated by periods.

General Guidelines:

• Margins should be set at no less than 1” and no greater than 1.5”. 
• Typeface should be something readable, such as Times New Roman or Palatino. 
• Font size should be no less than 10 pt. (preferably, 12 pt.). 
• Text should be consistently double-spaced, with the following exceptions: 
  • Block quotations, table titles, and figure captions should be single-spaced. 
    • A prose quotation of five or more lines should be blocked. 
    • A blocked quotation does not get enclosed in quotation marks.  
    • An extra line space should immediately precede and follow a blocked quotation. 
    • Blocked quotations should be indented .5” as a whole. 
• Notes and bibliographies should be singled-spaced internally; however, leave an extra line space between note and bibliographic entries. 
• Page numbers begin in the header of the first page of text with Arabic number 1. 
• Subheadings should be used for longer papers. 
  • CMS recommends you devise your own format but use consistency as your guide. 
• Put an extra line space before and after subheadings, and avoid ending them with periods. 

References:

• Label the first page of your back matter, and your comprehensive list of sources, “Bibliography” (for Notes and Bibliography style) or “References” (for Author Date style). 
• Leave two blank lines between “Bibliography” or “References” and your first entry. 
• Leave one blank line between remaining entries. 
• List entries in letter-by-letter alphabetical order according to the first word in each entry. 
• Authors:
  • Use “and,” not an ampersand, “&,” for multi-author entries. 
  • For two to three authors, write out all names. 
  • For four to ten authors, write out all names in the bibliography but only the first author’s name plus “et al.” in notes and parenthetical citations. 
  • When a source has no identifiable author, cite it by its title, both on the references page and in shortened form (up to four keywords from that title) in parenthetical citations throughout the text. 
• Write out publishers’ names in full. 
• Do not use access dates unless publication dates are unavailable.  
• If you cannot ascertain the publication date of a printed work, use the abbreviation “n.d.”
• Provide DOIs instead of URLs whenever possible
• ​​If you cannot name a specific page number when called for, you have other options: section (sec.), equation (eq.), volume (vol.), or note (n.). 

Footnotes:

• Note numbers should begin with “1” and follow consecutively throughout a given paper. 
• In the text, note numbers are superscripted. 
  • Note numbers should be placed at the end of the clause or sentence to which they refer and should be placed after any and all punctuation. 
  • In the notes themselves, note numbers are full-sized, not raised, and followed by a period (superscripting note numbers in the notes themselves is also acceptable). 
  • The first line of a footnote is indented .5” from the left margin. 
  • Subsequent lines within a footnote should be formatted flush left. 
  • Leave an extra line space between footnotes. 
  • Place commentary after documentation when a footnote contains both, separated by a period. 
    • In parenthetical citation, separate documentation from brief commentary with a semicolon. 
    • Do not repeat the hundreds digit in a page range if it does not change from the beginning to the end of the range. 

General: 

Note (N):

 1. Firstname Lastname, Title of Book (Place of  publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Bibliography (B):

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

One Author:

N:

B:

Multiple Authors:

N:

B:

Translated Work:

N:

B:

Author and Editor:

N:

B:

Article, Chapter, Essay, Short Story, etc., in an Edited Collection:

N:

B:

Introduction in a Book:

N:

B:

Anonymous Works-Unknown Authorship:

Sources that have no known author or editor should be cited by title. Follow the basic format for "Footnote or Endnote" and "Corresponding Bibliographical Entry" that are exemplified above omitting author and/or editor names and beginning respective entries with the title of the source.

General:

Footnote/Endnote (N):

   1. Firstname Lastname, “Title of Web Page,” Publishing Organization or Name of Website in Italics, publication date and/or access date if available, URL.

Biliography (B):

Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Web Page.” Publishing Organization or Name of Website in Italics. Publication date and/or access date if available. URL.

Electronic Books:

Electronic books are cited exactly as their print counterparts with the addition of a media marker at the end of the citation. Note: Stable page numbers are not always available in electronic formats; therefore, you may, instead, include the number of chapter, section, or other easily recognizable locator.

N:

  1. Grant Ian Thrall, Land Use and Urban Form (New York: Methuen, 1987), http://www.rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Thrallbook/Land%20Use%20and%20Urban%20Form.pdf.

B:

Thrall, Grant Ian. Land Use and Urban Form. New York: Methuen, 1987. http://www.rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Thrallbook/Land%20Use%20and%20Urban%20Form.pdf.

Online Periodicals:

N:

  1. Kirsi Peltonen, Noora Ellonen, Helmer B. Larsen, and Karin Helweg-Larsen, “Parental Violence and Adolescent Mental Health,” European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 19, no. 11 (2010): 813-822, doi: 10.1007/s00787-010-0130-8.

B:

Peltonen, Kirsi, Noora Ellonen, Helmer B. Larsen, and Karin Helweg-Larsen. “Parental Violence and Adolescent Mental Health.” European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 19, no. 11 (2010): 813-822. doi: 10.1007/s00787-010-0130-8.

Web Page known Author and Date:

N:

  7. Mister Jalopy, “Effulgence of the North: Storefront Arctic Panorama in Los Angeles,” Dinosaurs and Robots, last modified January 30, 2009, http://www.dinosaursandrobots.com/2009/01/effulgence-of-north-storefront-arctic.html.

B:

Mister Jalopy. “Effulgence of the North: Storefront Arctic Panorama in Los Angeles.” Dinosaurs and Robots. Last modified January 30, 2009. http://www.dinosaursandrobots.com/2009/01/effulgence-of-north-storefront-arctic.html.

Web Page known Date unknown Author:

N:

  8. “Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government,” CNN.com, last modified January 30, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

B:

"Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government.” CNN.com. Last modified  January 30, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

Web Page unknown Date and Author:

N:

  9. “Band,” Casa de Calexio, accessed January 30, 2009, http://www.casadecalexico.com/band.

B:

“Band.” Casa de Calexio. Accessed January 30, 2009. http://www.casadecalexico.com/band.

Online Multimedia:

N:

  1. Firstname Lastname of Performer, Writer or Creator, Title of Text, indication of format/medium, running time, publication date, URL.

B:

Print Journals:

Notes and bibliographic entries for a journal include the following: author’s name, article title, journal title and issue information. Issue information refers to volume, issue number, month, year, and page numbers. For online works, retrieval information and the date of access are also included.

Author’s Name:
Notes include the author’s name as listed in the article. Bibliographic entries, however, invert the author’s name.

Article Title:
Both notes and bibliographies use quotation marks to set off the titles of articles within the journal.

Journal Title:
Journal titles may omit an initial “The” but should otherwise be given in full, capitalized (headline-style), and italicized.

Issue Information:
The volume number follows the journal title with no punctuation and is not italicized. The issue number (if it is given) is separated from the volume number with a comma and is preceded by “no.” The year appears in parenthesis after the volume number (or issue number if given). The year may be preceded by a specific date, month, or season if given. Page information follows the year. For notes, page number(s) refer only to the cited material; the bibliography includes the first and last pages of the article.

N:

B:

DVDs, Film, and Television:

General Model:

N:

   1. Firstname Lastname, Title of Work, Format, directed/performed by Firstname Lastname (Original release year; City: Studio/Distributor, Video release year.), Medium.

B:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Work. Format. Directed/Performed by Firstname Lastname.      Original Release Year. City: Studio/Distributor, Video release year. Medium.

        DVDs:

                    N:

                    B:

Film and Television:

N:

   1. Group, Composer or Performer, Title, Medium, Recording Company or Publisher, Catalog Number, Year of Release.

B:

Group, Composer or Performer. Title. Medium. Recording Company

OR

Publisher, Catalog Number. Year of Release.

Lectures and Presentations:

N:

   1. Paul Hanstedt, “This is Your Brain on Writing: The Implications of James Zull’s The Art of Changing the Brain for the Writing Classroom" (presentation, Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, March 11-14, 2009).

B:

Hanstedt, Paul. “This is Your Brain on Writing: The Implications of James Zull’s The Art of

      Changing the Brain for the Writing Classroom." Presentation at the Annual Convention of the

        Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, March 11-14,

        2009.