Chicago citation style

Introduction

The current version of the Chicago Manual of Style, the 18th edition (2024), is available online.

Copies of older versions of the full manual are available at the Vanier and Webster Libraries' Reference Desks and Reference Collections. The call number for the manual is Z 253 U69.

This guide provides some basic examples of the Chicago citation style. It is based on the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style published in 2017.

The Chicago Manual of Style has two basic systems for documentation of sources: (1) notes and bibliography and (2) author-date.

Notes and bibliography (N & B)
This system is used primarily by those writing in the humanities (literature, history, classics etc.) Sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each note corresponds to a superscript number within the text. Additionally, sources are listed in a separate bibliography. This system is able to accommodate a wider variety of sources than can the author-date system.

Author-date (T-R)
This system is more common in the sciences and social sciences (biology, anthropology, psychology etc.). Here, sources are cited parenthetically within the text, by author’s last name and year of publication. Each of these citations then match up with an entry in a reference list, where the full bibliographic information is included.

Both of these systems follow the same basic framework: author’s name (or editor, translator), title, publication information, year of publication. If the reference is from a passage in a book or journal article, page numbers for that passage or article are given.

For complete Chicago style citing information, please consult the full manual.