Chicago author-date referencing

The Chicago Manual of Style sets out two referencing systems: footnotes and a bibliography, and an author-date system. The author-date style requires parenthetical in-text citations and a corresponding alphabetical reference list at the end of the paper (note that this is different from the bibliography in the footnote and bibliography system).

Check your assignment instructions regarding whether you should use footnotes and a bibliography, or the author-date system.

For further information on Chicago footnoting, or Chicago's author-date style, consult the Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) or The Chicago Manual of Style Online website: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

In this section

The reference list

• The reference list
• List format
• Author
• Year of publication
• Title
• Publication information
• Order of entries
• Books
  • Book
  • Books (later edition)
  • Online book or eBook
  • Chapter in an edited book
  • Edited book with editor in place of author
  • Online chapter in an edited book
• Journals
  • Journal article
  • Online journal article
  • Online journal article (with a DOI)
  • Online journal article (with a URL)
• News or magazine article
  • Online news or magazine article
• Web page
• Report
  • Report (online)
• Encyclopaedia or dictionary entry
  • Encyclopaedia or dictionary entry (online)
• Social media
• Video and audio
• Personal communications

Chicago (author-date) referencing elements

• Entries with the same author(s) and year of publication
• Reference within a source (secondary source)
• 2+ authors
• No author / group author
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
• No year of publication
• City of publication
• 2+ cities of publication
• No city of publication
• Publisher
• No page numbers
• No month or season, volume, or issue number

New to referencing? See the introduction to referencing.

 

The reference list appears at the end of the assignment, under the heading "References" or "Works Cited." It lists detailed information about each source that has been cited in the assignment. Every source mentioned in an in-text citation should be listed in the reference list. If a source doesn't have an in-text citation, it should not be listed here.

Example reference list:

References

Every entry in a Chicago reference list has a hanging indent. This means that every line after the first is moved a few spaces to the right. Single line spacing is used in the reference list (unlike the document body which generally has 1.5 to double line spacing) with an empty line between the each entry.

The entries are in alphabetical order according to the first author listed, or by the title if there is no author. See order of entries below for details.

Different types of sources have different formats, and everything about each entry (from the punctuation to the capitalisation of words) is strictly prescribed. Getting it exactly right takes some practise, but these pages should highlight some common pitfalls.

Punctuation is important in the reference list. Look at the examples and use the same punctuation (commas, full stops, and brackets).

Each entry has four basic parts:

• The name of the author
• The year of publication
• The title
• Further publication information

In the reference list, the surname (family name) of an author comes first, followed by the first name.

If there are several authors, only the first author's name is inverted to family name, first name. Each author is separated from the others with a comma, and there is an and (not &) before the final author:

If there is no individual author listed, list the organisation instead. If there is no identifiable author, then use the title of the reference in place of the author.

The year of publication appears (without brackets) after the author with full stops after the author and after the year of publication.

If there is no year, insert n.d. (meaning "no date") in both the in-text citation and reference list.

Generally, magazine and newspaper articles reference list entries give the date twice, with the second date providing more detail:

In the in-text citation, however, only the year is given.

Sometimes there is more than one reference with the same author and the same year. In these cases, a letter is added after the year to differentiate the entries. See entries with identical authors and years of publication for details.

All titles are written in title case (the first letter of major words, or words over three letters, are capitalised). Depending on what kind of source used, the names of titles may be in quotation marks (e.g., journal title, a chapter in an edited book, a newspaper or magazine article, a dissertation or thesis, a web page) or in italics (e.g., the title of a book, journal, magazine or newspaper).

Sometimes a reference will have two titles: the name of an article or entry, and the name of the whole work. For example, journals have a name, but each individual article also has a title. Edited books have both a book title and a chapter title. In these cases, the main title is written in italics, but the section (article or chapter) title is in double quotation marks.

The publication information depends on the type of source. For a book, it is the city of publication and the name of the publisher, separated with a colon. For a journal article, it is the name of the journal, the volume and/or issue number, and the page range of the article. For a website, it is the URL address.

If you're not sure which source type to use, see what type of source is this?

Entries are alphabetised according to the first author's surname, or whatever else appears first in the entry. Small words like "A", "An" and "The" are ignored when alphabetising. You can use the sort text feature of Microsoft Word to do this quickly and easily.

If two authors have the same surname, alphabetise them according to their first name.

If there are two entries with identical authors, order them chronologically, earliest first.

If two different entries begin with the same author, then the entries that have only one author come before entries with 2+ authors. If two different 2+ author entries begin with the same author, alphabetise by the second author. If the second author is the same, use the third, and so forth.

If two entries have the same author/s and the same year of publication, see entries with same author/s and year of publication.

This section describes how to format different kinds of books in Chicago author-date style.

For a parenthetical book citation, give the author and date, followed by a comma then the locator reference (e.g., page, paragraph, section number) if necessary. This format for in-text citations applies to all kinds of books (e.g., translated, later editions, e-books).

In the reference list, invert the order of the first author's name (family name, first name). Any following authors' names are given in the usual order (first name, family name):

Reference list order: Author. Year. Book Title. City of publication: Publisher name.

Reference list order: Author. Year. Book Title. Edition. City of publication: Publisher name.

Some sources, particularly web pages, do not have page numbers indicated. Most of the time, it is enough just to cite the author and the year of publication.

If you must cite a specific part of an unpaginated electronic or online source (e.g., when quoting), add the section headings (sec. or §), chapter (chap.) or paragraph number (para. or ¶ ). These locating abbreviations are only used in the parenthetical citations and are not included in the reference list:

Reference list order: Author. Year. Book Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher. Format consulted, URL or DOI.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Chapter title." Book title, editor/s, chapter page range. City of publication: Publisher name.

For works that only cite the editor, the editor/s name is given in place of the author/s, followed by a comma then the abbreviation ed. (or eds. if more than one editor). Do not use ed. in parenthetical citations—simply give the editor's last name, with the year and page number (if necessary).

Reference list order: Editor/s. Year. Book Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Chapter Title." In Book Title, editor/s, page range. City of publication: Publisher name, page range of chapter. Format consulted, URL or DOI.

This section describes how to format different kinds of journal articles in Chicago author-date style.

For a parenthetical journal citation, give the author and date, followed by a comma then the page number/s if necessary. This format for in-text citations applies to all kinds of journals (e.g., print, online).

Note that in a parenthetical citation, the specific pages that have been referenced are given and in the reference list, the page range of the entire article is given.

The format of a journal article reference depends on what details are available. If the volume number, issue number and season or month is given, then the season or month is placed in parentheses, followed by a colon, then the article page range:

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Article Title." Journal Title volume number, issue number (month or season): article page range.

If only the volume number and issue number are given, then the issue number is placed in parentheses, followed by a colon, then the article page range:

If only the volume number is given, then the volume number is followed by a colon, then the article page range:

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Article Title." Journal Title volume number (issue number): article page range.

If only the issue number is given, then the issue number is followed by a comma, then the article page range:

If a URL with DOI is available (a URL that starts with https://doi.org/), use this in preference to a URL without a DOI.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Article Title". Journal Title volume number, issue number (month or season): article page range. DOI.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Article Title." Journal Title volume number, issue number (month or season): article page range. URL.

For a parenthetical news or magazine citation, give the author and date, followed by a comma then the page/s reference if necessary. This format for in-text citations applies to all kinds of magazine or news articles (e.g., print, online).

With news stories and magazine articles, often the article page range can be omitted from the reference list, as the article is sometimes interrupted by other material (e.g., advertising, other articles). The year of publication is repeated with the month and date.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Article Title." Title of Newspaper/Magazine. Detailed date of publication, page range (optional).

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Article Title." Title of Newspaper/Magazine. Detailed date of publication. URL or database name.

Web pages do not have page numbers, so this detail is omitted in parenthetical citations which generally only include the author/s name and date.

In the reference list, the year of publication is given immediately after the author/s and repeated in more detail as a last revised, updated, or modified date before the URL. 

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Title of specific web page." Title/description of site as a whole. Owner or sponsor of site. Publication/revision/modified, or access date. URL.

If there is no publication, revision or last modified date, put n.d. (meaning "no date") in the place of the year in both the reference list and parenthetical citation and give an access date.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Title of Document." Source type identifier. Place of publication if available, detailed date of publication (optional). City of publication: Publisher's name.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Title of Document." Source type identifier. Place of publication if available, date of publication. URL.

You should be cautious when citing encyclopaedias or dictionaries as they are generally not considered sufficiently academic to be a credible and robust source.

For parenthetical citations, give the author (or title of the source if the author is unknown) and year. If the reference is alphabetically arranged (as in a dictionary or encyclopaedia), the entry in the dictionary is cited rather than the page number and is preceded by s.v. (which is Latin for sub vero, "under the word"). If the reference is not alphabetically arranged, simply give the page number as you would in any other kind of book citation.

Reference list order: Encyclopaedia/Dictionary Title. Year.  Edition. s.v. "title of entry," author (if available). City of publication: Publisher.

You should be cautious when citing encyclopaedias or dictionaries as they are generally not considered sufficiently academic to be a credible and robust source.

For parenthetical citations, give the author (or title of the source if the author is unknown) and year. If the reference is alphabetically arranged (as in a dictionary or encyclopaedia), the entry in the dictionary is cited rather than the page number and is preceded by s.v. (which is Latin for sub vero, "under the word"). If the reference is not alphabetically arranged, simply give the page number as you would in any other kind of book citation.

When there is no publication, revision or last modified date, give an access date.

Reference list order: Encyclopaedia/Dictionary Title. Year. Edition. s.v. "title of entry," author (if available). Revision, last modified or access date. URL.

It is often sufficient to cite entire blogs and blog posts within the text without a reference list entry although some lecturers prefer in-text and reference list citations, so it is always best to check. In a parenthetical citation for a blog or social media post, give the author and year.

Reference list order: Author. Year. "Title of Post," Title of blog or post (source type), title of hosting site (if relevant). Detailed date of post. URL.

Reference to an entire blog should be made in text rather than in a reference list. The blog URL can be given in parentheses.

For other kinds of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook posts, it can be sufficient to cite in-text. If a post is referred to frequently, then it might be necessary to provide a reference list entry.

Reference list order: Name (may include screen name or handle). Year. "Post title- up to 160 words," host site, detailed date of post (may include time). URL.

Comments on social media postings are not included in the reference list and should be cited in-text in reference to the related post:

There is considerable flexibility in how to cite video and audio material. In-text, cite the author and date. In the reference list, give as much information as possible to make the source locatable for the reader.

Reference list order (include some or all of the following as relevant):

In a parenthetical citation, the terms personal communication (or pers. comm.), unpublished data, or a more specific description can be used after the full name of the person being cited. The date is given after the description of the communication. Reference list entries are not required as they are a source that cannot be located by the reader.

 

 

This section describes what to do when there are multiple or missing parts (elements) of a Chicago reference list or in-text citation:

• Entries with the same author/s and year of publication
• Reference within a source (secondary source)
• 2+ authors
• No author / group author
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
• No year of publication
• City of publication
• 2+ cities of publication
• No city of publication
• Publisher
• No page numbers
• No month or season, volume, or issue number

New to referencing? See the introduction to referencing.

In some rare cases, you may need to reference two different sources that have the same author and the same year of publication.

In the reference list, order the entries alphabetically, according to the first word of the title (ignore "A", "An", or "The"). Then assign a lower-case letter after the year to distinguish them. Use those same letters with the year in the in-text citation.

This letter also appears in the in-text citation:

Many academic books and journal articles quote earlier books or articles on the same topic. If you cannot access the original source (it is out of print, or unavailable through the library), you can cite the secondary source instead. In an in-text citation, use "quoted in…" to denote a secondary source. The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.) recommends mentioning the original author in the text, and giving the secondary source (where you found the original author) in the parenthetical citation and reference list:

When there are 2 or 3 authors, and (not &) is used before the final author's name. There is no comma between the author's name/s and the date. The page number (e.g., with a quote) can also be given, following a comma:

In the reference list, invert the order of the first author (family name, first name) followed by the other authors in normal order (first name, family name). The last author is separated from the preceding author with a comma and an and.

For four to ten authors, give the first author's name and replace the other names with et al. (an abbreviation of the Latin et alia, meaning "and others") in in-text citations. In the reference list, give all the authors.

If two different sources would become identical because the list of authors has been shortened with et al. (i.e., they have the same year and the same first author), add enough authors to the in-text citation to differentiate them.

In the reference list, a single author entry precedes a multi-author entry beginning with the same name.

For works with more than 10 authors, only the first seven should be listed in the reference list, followed by et al.

If no author is named, the source may be written by group or organisation title/name. This is often true for collaborative or official works from government departments, corporations, or other organisations.

In this case, use the group title/name in the author position, both in the in-text citation and in the reference list:

If there is no group author, the title should be moved to the author position. This method is often used for newspaper/magazine articles and encyclopædia entries with no identified author.

Up to four words of the title are used in the in-text citation. Unlike Chicago note and bibliography style, short forms for in-text references must include the first word of the title (excluding any articles):

The full title is used in the reference list:

Where an author is explicitly attributed to Anonymous, then this is cited:

EndNote fields: If you are using Endnote, insert a comma at the end of group/corporate authors in the Endnote library to ensure it is displayed correctly.
For information on and help with Endnote see:

• Endnote
• Endnote@Massey

The Digital Object Identifier is a unique number allocated to an online publication. It is often used to identify online journal articles and other online documents.

If an online document has a DOI, use it instead of the URL address:

The DOI will usually appear as part of the source's copyright information or online citation. You can also look up a DOI at http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/.

Years of publication can be found in many places.

• For books and other print publications, use the copyright date if possible.
• Massey Library's catalogue lists a year of publication for each book in its collection.
• Web pages sometimes display a "last updated" date; the year can be used for the year of publication.

If no year is available, use n.d. (meaning "no date"), both in the in-text citation and reference list. Note the comma after the author and before n.d. in the in-text citation:

Reference list entry:

If the city of publication is not well known or may be confused with another city of the same name, then the state or province code (if in the US) or country should be added. When the publisher's name includes the city, then the state code is not needed:

You can find the American two-letter state abbreviations at https://www.bls.gov/cew/cewedr10.htm

If more than one city of publication is listed, use the first one mentioned. Alternatively, if the source identifies a home office, use that city.

Cities of publication are usually found on the copyright page of a book (one of the first pages inside the front cover). Massey Library's catalogue lists cities of publication for each book in its collection.

When the place of publication is not known, the abbreviation n.p (meaning "no place") may be used before the publisher's name. If the place can be reasonably guessed, it may be given with a question mark in square brackets:

The publisher's name does not include legal or superfluous terms such as Inc., & Co., Pty., and Publishers. You should, however, keep Press and Books.

Some sources, particularly web pages, do not have page numbers indicated. Most of the time, it is enough just to cite the author and the year of publication.

If you must cite a specific part of an unpaginated electronic or online source (e.g., when quoting), add the section heading (sec. or §), chapter (chap.) or paragraph (para. or ¶) number. These locating abbreviations are only used in the parenthetical citations and are not included in the reference list:

Journals are formatted according to whether a volume, season (or month), or issue number is included in the citation.

When the month or season is not given, the issue number is placed in parentheses:

When no volume or issue number is given, the season or month is placed in parentheses and the page numbers are preceded by a colon:

When no month or season, or issue number is given, the volume number follows the journal title, without any punctuation and the page numbers are preceded by a colon:

When only the issue number is given and the volume and month or season are not available, the issue number is preceded and followed by commas and not enclosed in parentheses. A comma rather than a colon, precedes the page numbers:

References and further reading

 

Disclaimer

These pages are provided as a guide to proper referencing. Your course, department, school, or institute may prescribe specific conventions, and their recommendations supersede these instructions. If you have questions not covered here, check in the style guide listed above, ask your course coordinator, or ask at Academic Q+A.

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Last updated on 17 April, 2020