Chicago (notes-bibliography) referencing elements

This page describes what to do when there are multiple or missing parts (elements) of a Chicago bibliography or footnote citation

In this section

• 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, season, volume, or issue number

The general format of footnote citations and bibliography entries are covered on those pages.

New to referencing? See the introduction to referencing.

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 a footnote 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 details of both the original source and the secondary source (where you found the original author) in the footnote citation and bibliography. Only the secondary source, however, is given in the bibliography:

When there are two or three authors, and is used before the final author's name. The page number follows a comma after a shortened form of the source title:

In the bibliography, invert the order of the first author (family name, first name) followed by the other authors in normal order (i.e., 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 a footnote citation. In the bibliography list, give all the authors:

A single author entry in the bibliography precedes a multi-author entry beginning with the same name in the bibliography.

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

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

In this case, use the group in the author position, both in the footnote citation and in the bibliography:

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.

The full title is used in the bibliography:

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") in the bibliography entry:

If the city of publication may not be known to the reader, 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/respondents/mwr/electronic-data-interchange/appendix-d-usps-state-abbreviations-and-fips-codes.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. or N.p. if after a full stop (to denote 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 for footnote citations and are not included in the bibliography:

Journals are formatted according to whether a volume, season (or month), or issue number is included in the citation. The volume number follows the title without any punctuation. The issue number, denoted by no, follows a comma after the volume number. The year, sometimes preceded by a season or month or exact date, is put in brackets after the issue number without intervening punctuation. The page range of the article usually follows the year and is preceded by a colon.

When only the year is available, put the year in brackets following the journal title without intervening punctuation. Give the page range preceded by a colon. If there is season, month, or exact date, this is included in the brackets along with the year:

When no volume number is given, the issue number follows a comma after the title:

When no issue number is given, the volume number follows the title without intervening punctuation, followed by the year in brackets:

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.

Page authorised by Director - Centre for Learner Success
Last updated on 17 April, 2020