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Citation: Chicago style: Overview

Chicago style - 16th edition

What's Chicago style?

The Chicago Manual of Style is often used to document sources for research papers. The purpose of documentation is to:

  • Identify (cite) other people’s ideas and information used within your essay or term paper.
  • Indicate the authors or sources of these in a Bibliography at the end of your paper.
Proper citation acknowledges the creators of each source and helps your readers find the original source if they would like more information. 

 

The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) recognizes two basic basic documentation systems: (1) Notes and Bibliography (used for papers in the humanities, e.g. literature, history, political science, and the arts) and (2) Author-Date (used  for papers in the physical, natural, and social sciences). . This guide is intended as a guideline for the Notes and Bibliography system only.

Chicago style ....more details

Chicago is a documentation sytle that has been published by the Chicago University Press since 1906. This citation style incorporates rules of grammar and punctuation common in American English. Typically, Chicago style presents two basic documentation systems: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date. Choosing between the two often depends on subject matter and the nature of sources cited, as each system is favored by different groups of scholars.

The notes and bibliography style is preferred by many in the humanities, including those in literature, history, and the arts. This style presents bibliographic information in notes and, often, a bibliography.

Material Type

Notes/Bibliography Style

A book in print

Note Style:  1. Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 99–100.

Duplicate Note:  2. Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma, 3. 

Bibliography: Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.

An article in a print journal

Note Style: 1. Joshua I. Weinstein, "The Market in Plato’s Republic," Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440.

Duplicate Note: 2. Weinstein, "Plato’s Republic," 452–53.

Bibliography: Weinstein, Joshua I. "The Market in Plato’s Republic." Classical Philology 104 (2009): 439–58.

An article in an electronic journal

Note Style: 1. Gueorgi Kossinets and Duncan J. Watts, “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network,” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 411, accessed February 28, 2010, doi:10.1086/599247.

Duplicate Note: Kossinets and Watts, “Origins of Homophily,” 439.

Bibliography: Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. doi:10.1086/599247.

A website

Note Style: 1.“Google Privacy Policy,” last modified March 11, 2009, http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

Duplicate Note: “Google Privacy Policy.”

Bibliography: Google. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified March 11, 2009. http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

 

The author-date style has long been used by those in the physical, natural, and social sciences. In this system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and date of publication. The short citations are amplified in a list of references, where full bibliographic information is provided.

 

Author/Date Style

In-text Citation

Bibliography

A book

(Pollan 2006, 99–100)

Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin.

An article in a print journal

(Weinstein 2009, 440)

Weinstein, Joshua I. 2009. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104:439–58.

An article in an electronic journal

(Kossinets and Watts 2009, 411)

Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. 2009. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology115:405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. doi:10.1086/599247.

A website

(Google 2009)

Google. 2009. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified March 11. http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

(Source: Official Chicago Manual website)

Online Chicago citation resources

Online Chicago style manual

This guide is based on the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style Online. Go to the link for further details:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

Free online citation managers

Online citation managers are an easy way to go to keep track of all of your references. Listed below are a few online citation management tools.

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