How do I cite a journal article in Chicago style?

Notes-bibliography footnote: Author First Last, 'Article Title,' Journal Name volume, no. issue (Year): page. Bibliography: Author Last, First. 'Article Title.' Journal Name volume, no. issue (Year): page range. DOI or URL at the end when available. Author-date in-text: (Last Year, page). Reference list: Last, First. Year. 'Article Title.' Journal Name volume (issue): page range. DOI.

Chicago Format Guide

Q: What is Chicago style and when should I use it?

Chicago style refers to the citation and formatting guidelines in The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press. It is one of the most widely used academic citation systems in the United States and internationally. Chicago is the standard for history, literature, art history, philosophy, religious studies, and many social science disciplines. It offers two citation systems: notes-bibliography (used in humanities) and author-date (used in social and natural sciences). Your department or assignment brief determines which system applies.

Q: What is the difference between Chicago and Turabian?

Turabian is a student-adapted version of Chicago style. The citation rules are the same. Turabian adds student-specific guidance — title page format, thesis and dissertation submission requirements — that the Chicago Manual of Style does not cover in detail. If your guidelines say 'Chicago style,' Turabian is generally acceptable. If they say 'Turabian,' follow A Manual for Writers specifically.

Q: Chicago notes-bibliography or author-date — which do I use?

Your discipline decides. Notes-bibliography is for humanities: history, literature, art history, philosophy, religious studies, film studies. Author-date is for social sciences and natural sciences: sociology, political science, economics, education, linguistics. If your assignment guidelines are silent on the system, check what your department normally publishes, look at your course reading list formatting, or ask your instructor directly.

Q: How do Chicago footnotes work?

In notes-bibliography, a superscript number in your text corresponds to a note at the bottom of the page (footnote) or end of the document (endnote). The first note for a source gives full citation details. Every subsequent note for the same source uses a shortened form: Author Last Name, Shortened Title, page. Ibid. can be used only when the immediately preceding note — and only that note — is the same source.

Q: What is the difference between a Chicago footnote and a bibliography entry?

Same source, different format. Footnote: First Last, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), page. Bibliography: Last, First. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. Three required differences: (1) author name is reversed in the bibliography for alphabetisation; (2) commas and parentheses in footnotes become periods in the bibliography; (3) footnotes cite a specific page, the bibliography gives the full page range for articles and chapters.

Q: How do I format a Chicago bibliography?

The bibliography starts on a new page, headed 'Bibliography' (centred, no bold). Sources are listed alphabetically by the first author's last name. Use a hanging indent — first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches. Author names are reversed: Last, First. Periods separate major elements. Every source you cited in a footnote appears here.

Q: How do I cite a book in Chicago style?

In notes-bibliography — Footnote: Author First Last, Title of Book (Place: Publisher, Year), page. Bibliography: Author Last, First. Title of Book. Place: Publisher, Year. In author-date — In-text: (Last Year, page). Reference list: Last, First. Year. Title of Book. Place: Publisher. For edited books, add 'ed.' or 'eds.' after the editor's name.

Q: What edition of the Chicago Manual of Style is current?

The current edition is the 17th, published in 2017. It updated guidelines for digital sources, DOIs, social media citations, and removed the requirement to include a source's access date for most online sources with stable URLs or DOIs. The Chicago Manual of Style Online (chicagomanualofstyle.org) provides a subscription-based searchable version of the full text.

Q: How is Chicago different from APA and MLA?

Chicago offers two systems — notes-bibliography (with footnotes) and author-date (with parenthetical in-text citations). APA uses only author-date (Last, Year) and is standard in psychology, education, and social sciences. MLA uses a different parenthetical format (Last page) and a Works Cited list, and is standard in English literature and humanities in the US. The choice between them is determined by your discipline and department, not personal preference.

CHICAGO STYLE · NOTES-BIBLIOGRAPHY · AUTHOR-DATE · 17TH EDITION

Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date Systems Explained

Which system to use, how footnotes actually work, how the bibliography differs from a reference list, and how to format every source type students regularly cite — without the unnecessary detail you won’t use.

22–26 min read Undergraduate & Postgraduate Students Chicago 17th Edition 4,500+ words

Custom University Papers Academic Writing Team

Chicago style guidance based on The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (University of Chicago Press, 2017) and the University of Chicago Press’s own online style guidance at chicagomanualofstyle.org. Covers both the notes-bibliography and author-date systems, all common source types, and the formatting decisions that trip students up most.

Chicago style has two citation systems. Pick the wrong one and every citation in your paper is formatted incorrectly — not because the details are wrong, but because the structure is wrong for your discipline. That is the mistake most students make. They look up “Chicago citation format,” find a footnote template, and stop there. But if your department uses author-date, footnotes are the wrong approach entirely. This guide walks you through both systems — what each one looks like, which subjects use which, and how to format every common source type correctly.

Notes-Bibliography Author-Date Footnotes & Endnotes Bibliography Books & Chapters Journal Articles Websites & Online Sources DOIs & URLs Ibid. & Short Forms Chicago vs Turabian vs APA 17th Edition Common Errors

What This Guide Covers

What Chicago Style Is — and Where It Applies The Two Systems: Which One Applies to You Notes-Bibliography: Footnotes and Endnotes Bibliography Format Rules Author-Date: In-Text Citations and Reference List Books — All Variants Journal Articles Websites and Online Sources Ibid., Short Forms, and Subsequent Notes Special Cases: No Author, No Date, No Page Chicago vs Turabian vs APA vs MLA Common Errors That Cost Marks Frequently Asked Questions

What Chicago Style Is — and Where It Applies

Chicago style comes from The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press. The 17th edition, released in 2017, is the current standard. It is one of the most widely used academic citation systems — in the United States and beyond — and it covers two distinct citation systems under one roof. That is the detail most students miss.

Chicago is the default style in history, art history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, and many humanities disciplines. In social sciences — political science, sociology, education, economics — Chicago’s author-date system is used instead. Natural sciences sometimes use author-date too, though many science disciplines have their own style guides (APA, Vancouver, ACS) that take precedence.

The Source to Consult

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. University of Chicago Press, 2017. The full text is available via subscription at chicagomanualofstyle.org. Many university libraries also provide access through their online resources portal.

Two Systems

Notes-bibliography: humanities. Author-date: social and natural sciences. The two systems are not interchangeable. Using footnotes in a political science paper, or parenthetical citations in a history essay, is a structural error — not a stylistic preference.

17th Edition Updates

The 17th edition updated guidance on digital sources, DOIs, social media citations, and online-only publications. It dropped the requirement for access dates on most stable URLs and moved DOI formatting to the full URL style: https://doi.org/10.xxxx.

The Two Systems: Which One Applies to You

If your assignment guidelines do not name a system explicitly, check your department’s module handbook, look at how sources are cited in assigned readings, or ask your instructor. Guessing and getting it wrong costs more time than asking upfront.

System	Disciplines	In-Text Signal	End of Paper
Notes-Bibliography (N-B)	History, art history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, classics, film studies	Superscript number¹	Bibliography (alphabetical)
Author-Date (A-D)	Sociology, political science, economics, education, linguistics, some natural sciences	Parenthetical: (Smith 2021, 45)	Reference list (alphabetical)

Interdisciplinary Courses Are the Trouble Spot

A politics and history joint honours paper, an interdisciplinary social science module, or a course team that splits between departments — these are the scenarios where the system is not obvious. In those cases, check whether the assignment is submitted through a history department or a social science one. If still unclear, ask before starting. Using the wrong system is a formatting error, not a trivial one.

Notes-Bibliography: Footnotes and Endnotes

In notes-bibliography, citations are not in the text body. They are flagged with a superscript number — and the actual citation detail sits at the bottom of the page as a footnote, or at the end of the document as an endnote. Most instructors default to footnotes unless they specify otherwise.

The logic is straightforward. First time you cite a source: full note. Every time after that: short note. If the note directly above is the same source: Ibid. That is the whole system. The bibliography at the end lists every cited source in full, alphabetically, in a slightly different format from the footnotes.

Full Note — First Time You Cite a Source

Author First Last, Title of Work (Place: Publisher, Year), page number.
For articles: Author First Last, “Article Title,” Journal Name volume, no. issue (Year): page.
Give every detail — the reader needs enough to locate the source from this note alone.

Short Note — Every Subsequent Citation of the Same Source

Author Last Name, Shortened Title, page number.
The shortened title should use the first few significant words of the full title — enough that the reader can connect it back to the bibliography entry. Do not invent a title; shorten the real one.

Ibid. — Immediately Preceding Note Only

If note 6 is Smith, and note 7 is also Smith on the same page: Ibid. If note 7 is Smith on a different page: Ibid., 47. If any other note appears between them, Ibid. does not apply. Use the short form instead. When in doubt, use the short form — it is always correct.

Substantive Notes — Commentary Alongside Citations

One feature of notes-bibliography that author-date lacks: you can add explanatory commentary, contextual remarks, or discursive asides inside a footnote. A note can say both “see Smith, 45” and then add a sentence clarifying why that source is relevant or where scholars disagree. This is standard practice in history writing.

Footnote Examples — Notes-Bibliography System // Full note — single-author book, first citation 1. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), 34. // Full note — journal article, first citation 2. Eric Hobsbawm, “The Social Function of the Past,” Past & Present 55 (1972): 3–17. // Full note — chapter in edited book 3. bell hooks, “Marginality as a Site of Resistance,” in Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures, ed. Russell Ferguson et al. (New York: New Museum, 1990), 341–43. // Short note — subsequent citation of Hartman 6. Hartman, Wayward Lives, 112. // Ibid. — same source and same page as note 6 7. Ibid. // Ibid. — same source, different page 8. Ibid., 156. // WRONG — name reversed in footnote 1. Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), 34. // Reversed name order (Last, First) is for the bibliography only. Footnotes use First Last. // WRONG — no page number in footnote 1. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019). // Footnotes for books must include the specific page being cited.

Bibliography Format Rules

The bibliography is not the same as a list of footnotes. The information is the same. The format is different. Students who copy their footnotes into the bibliography and reverse the author name are most of the way there — but there are other differences too.

How to Set Up the Bibliography

New page, headed “Bibliography” — centred, no bold, no colon
Alphabetical by first author’s last name
Hanging indent: first line flush left, second and subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches
Author name order reversed: Last, First
Periods between major elements — not commas
No note numbers (no “1.” or “2.” — that is the footnote format)
Articles: full page range, not a specific page
Every cited source appears here — once, alphabetically

Footnote vs. Bibliography — Same Source, Different Format

Footnote (first citation):

1. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments (New York: W. W. Norton, 2019), 34.

Bibliography entry:

Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. New York: W. W. Norton, 2019.

Name reversed. Commas replaced by periods. Parentheses around publication info gone. Specific page removed. These are required differences — not optional stylistic choices.

1Name Reversal — First Author Only

Only the first author’s name is reversed in the bibliography. For multi-author works: “Smith, John, and Mary Jones.” Not “Smith, John, and Jones, Mary.” The reversal is purely for alphabetisation — which is based on the lead author’s surname. Every author after the first keeps normal name order.

2Periods, Not Commas

Footnote: First Last, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), page. Notice the commas. Bibliography: Last, First. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. Notice the periods. The punctuation pattern is not cosmetic — it is how the format signals “this is a bibliography entry, not a footnote.”

3Page Range vs. Specific Page

Footnote for an article: …Journal Name 13, no. 2 (1986): 5. Just the page you are citing. Bibliography entry: …Journal Name 13, no. 2 (1986): 3–28. The full span of the article. The bibliography gives the reader enough to find the whole article; the footnote tells them exactly where your point is.

4What Goes in the Bibliography

Every source you cited in a footnote must appear in the bibliography. Sources you read but did not cite are not included unless your instructor asks for a separate “Works Consulted” list. Do not pad the bibliography with sources from your reading that did not make it into the paper — that is a common student error and markers notice it.

Author-Date: In-Text Citations and Reference List

Author-date does not use footnotes for citations. The citation is in the text, in parentheses: (Last Year, page). No superscript numbers. No footnotes. The reference list at the end looks similar to a bibliography but uses a different internal format — the year moves to the second position, right after the author name.

Situation	In-Text Format	Note
One author, paraphrase	`(Smith 2021)`	No comma between name and year. This is Chicago, not Harvard.
One author, direct quote	`(Smith 2021, 45)`	Comma before page number. No “p.” prefix.
Two authors	`(Smith and Jones 2021)`	Use “and” — not “&”.
Three or more authors	`(Smith et al. 2021)`	Et al. from the first in-text citation onward.
Narrative citation	Smith (2021) argues that…	Year immediately after the name in parentheses.
Two works, same parenthetical	`(Jones 2019; Smith 2021)`	Semicolon between works. Oldest to newest.
Same author, same year	`(Smith 2021a; Smith 2021b)`	Lowercase letter suffix. Match in reference list.
Organisation as author	`(WHO 2022)`	Abbreviation usable after first full citation.
No author	`(Shortened Title 2021)`	Italicise for standalone works; quote marks for articles.
No date	`(Smith n.d.)`	Chicago uses “n.d.” — not “no date.”

Chicago Author-Date Has No Comma Between Author and Year

If you have been trained in Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right style), you are used to writing (Smith, 2021) with a comma. Chicago author-date does not use that comma: it is (Smith 2021). It is a small difference but a consistent one. Every in-text citation in a Chicago author-date paper should follow this pattern. Check them all before submitting — it is an easy detail to miss when you have trained in a different style.

Author-Date Reference List — Year Position

In author-date, the year appears immediately after the author name — as the second element in the reference list entry. Last, First. Year. Title. Place: Publisher. This is structurally different from the notes-bibliography bibliography, where the year sits inside or at the end of publication details. Do not mix the two formats.

Substantive Notes in Author-Date

Author-date does not use footnotes for citations — but you can still use footnotes for explanatory commentary. A footnote can add context, a caveat, or a discursive aside. It just cannot function as the citation itself. Treat it like an annotation: use it to say something that does not belong in the main text, but do not put your citation details there.

Books — Single Author, Multiple Authors, Edited, Chapters, E-books

Books are the most frequently cited source type in humanities and social science papers. The structure is consistent across both systems — but the element order changes between them, and between footnotes and bibliography entries within notes-bibliography.

Book Examples — Notes-Bibliography System // Footnote — single author 1. Robin D. G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), 9. // Bibliography — same book Kelley, Robin D. G. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002. // Footnote — two authors 2. Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow, Contentious Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 44. // Bibliography — two authors (only first name reversed) Tilly, Charles, and Sidney Tarrow. Contentious Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. // Footnote — edited book 3. Avery Gordon and Christopher Newfield, eds., Mapping Multiculturalism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 7. // Footnote — chapter in an edited book 4. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 271–313. // Bibliography — same chapter Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 271–313. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988. // Bibliography — e-book with DOI Piketty, Thomas. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674369542.

Book Examples — Author-Date System // In-text — single author (Kelley 2002, 9) // Reference list — single author (year moves to second position) Kelley, Robin D. G. 2002. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press. // Reference list — chapter in edited book Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 271–313. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. // WRONG — year at end in author-date reference list Kelley, Robin D. G. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002. // This is N-B bibliography format. In author-date, the year comes second: after the author, before the title.

The Year Position Is the Clearest Structural Difference Between Systems

N-B bibliography: Last, First. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. Year at the end of publication info. Author-date reference list: Last, First. Year. Title. Place: Publisher. Year is the second element, right after the author. Mixing these two formats in a single reference list is one of the most common student errors when switching between styles. Check every entry consistently.

Journal Articles

The pattern for journals follows the same logic as books — but the volume-issue-year-page string has a specific format that confuses people. Get this right and it works the same way every time.

Volume, Issue, Year, and Pages — the Formula

Format: volume number, no. issue number (year): page(s). Example: 13, no. 2 (1986): 5–35. The word “no.” appears before the issue number. Do not write “vol.” before the volume — just the numeral. There is no comma between the volume numeral and “no.” In the bibliography, give the full page range of the article. In a footnote, give just the specific page you are citing.

DOIs — Use the Full URL Format

The 17th edition recommends presenting DOIs as full URLs: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. The older “doi:10.xxxx” format is no longer preferred. When a DOI is available, use it instead of a general URL. When no DOI exists, include the journal’s homepage URL or the database URL. For print-only articles, no URL is needed.

Journal Article Examples — Both Systems // N-B footnote — print article 5. Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution,” Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (1988): 519. // N-B bibliography — same article Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution.” Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (1988): 519–531. // N-B footnote — online article with DOI 6. Achille Mbembe, “Necropolitics,” Public Culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 12. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11. // N-B bibliography — same Mbembe, Achille. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15, no. 1 (2003): 11–40. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11. // Author-date in-text (Mbembe 2003, 12) // Author-date reference list Mbembe, Achille. 2003. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15 (1): 11–40. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-15-1-11. // Note: author-date uses (1) for issue, not “no. 1” — a small but consistent difference // WRONG — journal name and article title formatting reversed Mbembe, Achille. Necropolitics. “Public Culture” 15, no. 1 (2003): 11–40. // Article titles go in “quotation marks.” Journal names are italicised. Never the reverse.

Author-Date Uses Parentheses for Issue Number, Not “no.”

In notes-bibliography, the issue number is written as: 15, no. 1. In author-date, it is: 15 (1). Same information, different punctuation convention. This is a small detail that is easy to get wrong when switching between systems. If your reference list uses author-date format throughout, make sure the journal volume-issue string matches author-date conventions, not notes-bibliography ones.

Websites and Online Sources

Online sources in Chicago follow the same principle as every other source type: give enough information that a reader can find the exact page you are citing. The practical problem is that websites often have no author, no publication date, and URLs that go dead. Work through the elements in order — author, title, site name, date, URL — using what is available and substituting where something is missing.

Element 1

Author or Organisation

Named person: Last, First (bibliography) or First Last (footnote). If no individual is named, use the organisation or institution. If neither is clear, begin with the page title.

Element 2

Page Title

“In quotation marks,” treated as an article title. The name of the broader website or publication follows in plain text after a period — it is not italicised unless it is an online journal or book.

Element 3

Publication Date

Month Day, Year when available. Year alone if that is all there is. If there is no date anywhere on the page: n.d. Include the access date when content may change or disappear.

Element 4

URL

Full URL — the actual address of the specific page, not the site homepage. If a DOI exists, use that instead of the URL. Do not shorten or hyperlink-anchor the URL.

Element 5

Access Date

The 17th edition no longer requires access dates for sources with stable DOIs or permanent URLs. Include “Accessed Month Day, Year” when the content is likely to change or when there is no publication date.

System Difference

Year Position

N-B: date appears near the URL at the end. Author-date: year appears immediately after the author name — same as books and articles. Do not swap these between systems.

Website Examples — Both Systems // N-B footnote — named organisation, no individual author 7. World Health Organization, “Social Determinants of Health,” accessed March 10, 2025, https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health. // N-B bibliography — same source World Health Organization. “Social Determinants of Health.” Accessed March 10, 2025. https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health. // Author-date in-text (World Health Organization 2023) // Author-date reference list World Health Organization. 2023. “Social Determinants of Health.” Accessed March 10, 2025. https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health. // N-B footnote — individual author, publication date available 8. Emily Badger, “How Redlining’s Racist Effects Lasted for Decades,” New York Times, August 24, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects-lasted-for-decades.html. // N-B bibliography — same Badger, Emily. “How Redlining’s Racist Effects Lasted for Decades.” New York Times, August 24, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects-lasted-for-decades.html.

Ibid., Short Forms, and Subsequent Notes

Once a source has been cited in full, every subsequent reference to it uses a shortened form. This is not optional — writing out the full note every time suggests unfamiliarity with the system, and it clutters the footnotes.

Wrong — Full Note Repeated Every Time

1. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives (New York: Norton, 2019), 34.

3. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives (New York: Norton, 2019), 89.

7. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives (New York: Norton, 2019), 134.

Repeating the full note after the first citation wastes space and signals that you do not know the short-form rule.

Correct — Short Form After First Full Note

1. Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives (New York: Norton, 2019), 34.

3. Hartman, Wayward Lives, 89.

7. Hartman, Wayward Lives, 134.

Short form: Last name, shortened title (italicised for a book), page. That is it.

Ibid. — The One Rule You Must Not Break

Ibid. means “the same as the immediately preceding note.” If note 9 cites Hartman and note 10 cites a different source, you cannot write Ibid. in note 11 to refer back to Hartman. Note 10 breaks the chain. Use the short form: Hartman, Wayward Lives, 134. When unsure whether Ibid. applies, use the short form — it is always correct. Ibid. is a convenience, not a requirement, and misusing it is a clear formatting error.

Some Departments Are Moving Away from Ibid.

A number of style guides and university departments now prefer shortened citations throughout — dropping Ibid. entirely. The 17th edition still permits it, but check your department’s preference. If your marking criteria or module handbook does not mention Ibid., using the short form consistently is a safe and always-acceptable approach.

Special Cases: No Author, No Date, No Page

No Author

Use the title in place of the author. In footnotes: start with the title (shortened if long). In author-date in-text: (Shortened Title Year) for standalone works; (“Shortened Title” Year) for articles. In the bibliography or reference list: alphabetise by the first significant word of the title — skip “A,” “An,” “The.” Do not write “Anonymous” unless that is literally how the work was published.

No Date

Use “n.d.” in both systems. Footnote: (n.d.). Bibliography year: n.d. Author-date in-text: (Smith n.d.). Reference list year slot: n.d. Before marking something as no date, check the page footer, URL structure, any “last updated” line, or the site’s sitemap metadata. Try the Wayback Machine if the page has been updated or taken down.

No Page Number

For direct quotes from sources with no page numbers, use a paragraph number (para. 3), a section heading (“under ‘Methodology'”), or a timestamp for audio/video (00:03:45). Author-date: (Smith 2021, para. 3). Footnote: Smith, “Title,” para. 3. Do not invent a page number or omit the locator entirely for a direct quote.

No Publisher or Place

Place of publication unknown: n.p. Publisher unknown: also n.p. (context clarifies which is missing), or write “no publisher” for clarity. For self-published works, the author is effectively the publisher. Genuinely obscure sources: check the library catalogue record, which often fills in publication details that are not on the cover.

Chicago vs Turabian vs APA vs MLA

Students are often assigned a style without being told why that style, or what the differences are. Here is what actually distinguishes them — not the fine formatting details, but the structural logic.

Style	Systems Available	Primary Disciplines	Key Characteristic
Chicago (17th ed.)	Notes-bibliography & Author-date	History, humanities, social sciences	Two systems; publisher-oriented guide; comprehensive
Turabian (9th ed.)	Notes-bibliography & Author-date	Same as Chicago — student adaptation	Adds thesis/dissertation formatting; student-specific guidance. See our Turabian citation guide.
APA (7th ed.)	Author-date only	Psychology, education, social sciences, nursing	(Author, Year, p. page) — comma between author and year; “p.” before page
MLA (9th ed.)	Author-page only	English literature, humanities (US context)	(Author page) in-text; Works Cited list; no year in parenthetical

Chicago vs APA — The In-Text Difference That Matters

Both can use author-date, but the format differs. Chicago: (Smith 2021, 45) — no comma, no “p.” APA: (Smith, 2021, p. 45) — comma after name, “p.” before page. These are small but consistent differences. Mixing them produces a hybrid format that satisfies neither style. Check which one your department requires and apply it uniformly.

Chicago vs Turabian — The Practical Difference

The citation rules are the same. Turabian adds student-facing guidance on title pages, paper formatting, and thesis submissions. If your guidelines say “Chicago,” Turabian is acceptable. If they say “Turabian,” use the manual — specifically for the formatting chapters. For citation format questions, the two manuals give the same answer.

Common Errors That Cost Marks

Using the Wrong System for Your Discipline

Footnotes in a sociology paper. Parenthetical citations in a history essay. Even if every individual citation is formatted correctly within that system, using the wrong system for the discipline is a structural error — and markers in subject departments notice it immediately.

Confirm the System Before You Start

Check the assignment brief. If it does not specify, look at how your department cites in published work or on the module reading list. Humanities: notes-bibliography. Social and natural sciences: author-date. One confirmation up front saves hours of reformatting.

Reversed Name in Footnotes

“1. Smith, John, Title…” — the reversed name format is for the bibliography only. Footnotes use First Last. This is one of the most common formatting errors in Chicago notes-bibliography papers.

First Last in Footnotes, Last First in Bibliography

The reversal in the bibliography exists for alphabetisation — the reader scans by surname. Footnotes are sequential notes, not an alphabetical list, so normal name order applies. Learn the distinction and apply it consistently.

Misusing Ibid.

Using Ibid. when any note appears between the current note and the previous citation of that source. Ibid. means the immediately preceding note. One intervening note breaks it. Using Ibid. across a gap is a clear formatting error.

Short Form When Ibid. Does Not Apply

Short form: Last, Shortened Title, page. Always correct — no exceptions. Use the short form whenever you are uncertain whether Ibid. applies. It is never wrong, whereas misapplied Ibid. always is.

Year Position Swapped Between Systems

“Smith, John. Title. Place: Publisher, 2021.” — this is N-B bibliography format. In an author-date reference list, the year comes second: “Smith, John. 2021. Title. Place: Publisher.” Mixing formats in a reference list is one of the most common errors when students switch between styles.

Year Second in Author-Date, Year Last in N-B Bibliography

Author-date: Last, First. Year. Title. Place: Publisher. N-B bibliography: Last, First. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. If you can remember just this one structural difference between the two systems, you avoid the most common reference list error.

Comma Between Author and Year in Author-Date

(Smith, 2021) is Harvard style. Chicago author-date is (Smith 2021). No comma. Students trained in Harvard referencing write this habitually. In Chicago, it is always wrong.

(Smith 2021) — No Comma in Chicago Author-Date

Check every in-text citation before submitting if you have written papers in Harvard before. The comma is not there in Chicago. Find-and-replace will not catch this one — you have to read through them.

Citations in Bibliography Without Matching Footnotes

Adding sources to the bibliography that were not cited in the footnotes. This looks like padding — and markers check for it. The bibliography in notes-bibliography lists sources you cited, not sources you read.

Bibliography = What You Cited

Every footnoted source gets a bibliography entry. Every bibliography entry should correspond to a footnote. If you want to acknowledge sources you consulted but did not cite, your instructor needs to specifically ask for a “Works Consulted” list — that is a separate section, not an extended bibliography.

Frequently Asked Questions About Chicago Format

What is Chicago style and when should I use it?

Chicago style is the citation system described in The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press. The current edition is the 17th (2017). It is widely used in history, art history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, and many social science disciplines. It offers two systems: notes-bibliography for humanities, and author-date for social and natural sciences. Your department or assignment brief determines which system to use — not your personal preference. The full text is available at chicagomanualofstyle.org (subscription) and through many university library databases.

What is the difference between Chicago and Turabian?

The citation rules are identical. Turabian is a student-oriented adaptation of Chicago, drawn from Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (9th edition, 2018). It adds guidance the Chicago Manual does not cover: how to format a student title page, how to handle thesis and dissertation submissions, and how to approach common student writing scenarios. If your guidelines say “Chicago style,” Turabian is generally acceptable. If they say “Turabian,” use A Manual for Writers directly — particularly its dissertation formatting chapters. For citation format questions, both manuals give the same answer. See also our dedicated Turabian citation guide for student-specific formatting detail.

Chicago notes-bibliography or author-date — which do I use?

Your discipline decides. Notes-bibliography is used in humanities: history, art history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, film studies. Author-date is used in social sciences and natural sciences: sociology, political science, economics, education, linguistics. If your assignment guidelines do not name a system, check what your department normally publishes, how citations are formatted in your module’s required readings, or ask your instructor. Using the wrong system is a structural formatting error. It is not a minor punctuation slip — it affects every citation in the paper.

How do Chicago footnotes work?

In notes-bibliography, a superscript number in your text flags a citation. The corresponding footnote at the bottom of the page gives the citation detail. First note for a source: full citation — author (First Last), title, publication info, page. Every subsequent note for that source: short form — Last, Shortened Title, page. If the note directly above is the same source, you can use Ibid. (same page) or Ibid., page (different page). The bibliography at the end lists all cited sources alphabetically in a slightly different format — reversed author name, periods between elements instead of commas, full page range for articles instead of specific page.

What is the difference between a Chicago footnote and a bibliography entry?

Same source, different format. Footnote: First Last, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), page. Bibliography: Last, First. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. Three required differences: (1) name order is reversed in the bibliography for alphabetisation; (2) commas and parentheses in footnotes become periods in the bibliography; (3) footnotes give a specific page, the bibliography gives the full page range for articles and chapters. These are not stylistic options — they are required format differences between the two components of the same system.

How do I format a Chicago bibliography?

Start on a new page after your paper ends. Head it “Bibliography” — centred, no bold, no colon. List entries alphabetically by first author’s last name. Use a hanging indent: first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches. Reverse only the first author’s name: Last, First. Use periods between major elements. Include every source you cited in a footnote. Do not include sources you read but did not cite, unless your instructor specifically asks for a “Works Consulted” list.

How do I cite a book in Chicago style?

Notes-bibliography footnote: Author First Last, Title of Book (Place: Publisher, Year), page. Bibliography: Author Last, First. Title of Book. Place: Publisher, Year. For an edited book, add “eds.” after the editor names in the footnote (First Last, eds.) and “edited by First Last” in the bibliography. For a chapter within an edited book, give the chapter author and title first, then “in Book Title, ed. Editor Name (Place: Publisher, Year), page range.” Author-date follows the same information but puts the year second in the reference list entry: Last, First. Year. Title. Place: Publisher.

How do I cite a website in Chicago style?

N-B footnote: Author First Last, “Page Title,” Site Name, Month Day, Year, URL (accessed Month Day, Year if content may change). N-B bibliography: Author Last, First. “Page Title.” Site Name. Month Day, Year. URL. Author-date in-text: (Author Last Year). Reference list: Author Last, First. Year. “Page Title.” Site Name. Month Day, Year. URL. For no named author, use the organisation name or the page title. The 17th edition no longer requires an access date for sources with stable URLs or DOIs — but include one when content is subject to change or when there is no publication date.

What edition of the Chicago Manual of Style is current?

The 17th edition, published in 2017. It updated guidance on digital sources, DOIs (now formatted as full URLs: https://doi.org/), social media citations, and dropped the requirement for access dates on stable URLs. The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the searchable subscription version. Most university libraries provide access. If your institution’s guide references an earlier edition, the core citation rules are largely unchanged — the main differences are in digital source handling.

How is Chicago different from APA and MLA?

Chicago has two systems (notes-bibliography and author-date). APA uses only author-date, but with different punctuation: (Smith, 2021, p. 45) includes a comma after the author name and “p.” before the page — neither of which appears in Chicago author-date (Smith 2021, 45). MLA uses a different logic entirely — the parenthetical includes only author and page number (Smith 45), with no year — and produces a Works Cited list rather than a bibliography or reference list. The choice between them is made by your discipline and department, not personal preference. Using Harvard for a comparison, see our Harvard citation guide.

Chicago Citations Slowing You Down?

From footnote formatting and bibliography structure to full academic writing support across Chicago, Turabian, Harvard, APA, MLA, and OSCOLA — our specialist team helps students get citations right the first time.

Academic Writing Services Get Started

What It Actually Takes to Get Chicago Right

The students who lose marks on Chicago are mostly not the ones who ignored the formatting rules. They are the ones who found one template, applied it to every source type, and assumed one format covers all situations. It does not. A book footnote differs from a journal footnote. The bibliography entry differs from the footnote for the same source. The author-date reference list uses a different year position from the notes-bibliography bibliography.

Three things prevent most Chicago errors. First: confirm which system — notes-bibliography or author-date — before you write a single citation. Second: learn the structural differences between footnotes and bibliography entries if you are in notes-bibliography. They use the same information in different order with different punctuation, and you cannot treat them as interchangeable. Third: check your in-text signals against your bibliography or reference list before submitting. Every citation needs a matching entry. Every entry needs to have been cited.

Citation generators can handle basic structure. They do not know which Chicago system your department uses. They frequently mix up footnote and bibliography formatting. They miss access dates, misformat DOIs, and sometimes apply Harvard or APA conventions without flagging it. Use them to get a starting structure. Then verify the output against the 17th edition or your institution’s Chicago guide before submitting.

For structured support with Chicago citations, bibliography and reference list auditing, and broader academic writing support from undergraduate essays to postgraduate dissertations — our academic writing services, citation and referencing support, and proofreading and editing services cover every major referencing style.

Related Academic Writing Resources

Continue building your academic skills: academic writing services · essay writing · research paper writing · citation and referencing · Turabian citation guide · Harvard citation guide · APA lab report format · critical analysis papers · proofreading and editing · dissertation and thesis writing