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Citing Sources

A guide to introduce how to cite your sources, avoid plagiarism, and use the right style guides to format your citations.

Citing Sources Using Chicago Style

Chicago Overview

Chicago Style is used in humanities, social sciences, and sciences disciplines. There are two different documentation styles in Chicago Style: the Notes-Bibliography system (NB), which uses footnotes, and the Author-Date system, which uses parenthetical citations within the text itself. These two styles are nearly identical in content, but different in form.

Citation guides and websites

Chicago Manual of Style: Notes and Bibliography

In Notes and Bibliography, you use both footnotes and a bibliography. You indicate that you've used a source by putting a small superscript number at the end of the sentence in your text for which you've cited a source. The numbers refer to footnotes at the bottom of the page.

When using footnotes, a Bibliography may also be required at the end of your paper. In some cases it may not. Check with your instructor.

Notes and Bibliography Examples

Note (in text), use superscript:

The global debt crisis is having a strong impact on women and children in developing nations.1 Supporting social structures continue to erode as workers must travel further for employment.

Footnote (at bottom of page):

1. Audrey Bronstein, The Triple Struggle: Latin American Peasant Women (Boston: South End Press, 1982).

Bibliography (at end of paper), if required by instructor:

Bronstein, Audrey. The Triple Struggle: Latin American Peasant Women. Boston: South End Press, 1982.

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Chicago Manual of Style: Author-Date

Author-Date is a parenthetical style where you include author's name, year publication, and page number (if citing specific passages) within the text of the paper. These allow your reader to find the full citation at the end of your paper in the Reference list.

Author-Date Examples

Book, single author:    

In-text
     The global debt crisis is having a strong impact on women and children in developing nations (Bronstein 1982).
     

Reference List
     Bronstein, Audrey. 1982. The triple struggle: Latin American peasant women. Boston, South End Press.

Book, with lead-in reference and page number:

In-text
     Keen argues that "the Web 2.0 revolution is really delivering superficial observations of the world around us" (2007, 16).

Reference List
     Keen, Andrew. 2007. The cult of the amateur: How today's internet is killing our culture. New York, Doubleday.

Book, lead-in references with no page number:

In-text
     Bronstein (1982) argues that the global debt crisis is having a strong impact on women and children in developing nations.

Reference List
     Bronstein, Audrey. 1982. The triple struggle: Latin American peasant women. Boston, South End Press.

 

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Sample Citations

CMOS documentation can be one of two styles:

  • Notes-Bibliography System (NB) - commonly used by those working in literature, history, and the arts.
  • Author-Date System - commonly used by those working in the social sciences.

Though the two systems both convey all of the important information about each source, they differ not only in terms of the way they direct readers to these sources, but also in terms of their formatting (e.g., the position of dates in citation entries).

View the figure below to see the formatting differences between Chicago citation styles.

Olendiy, V. "Chicago Citation Format" Quora, accessed April 4, 2023, https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-cite-a-website-in-a-Chicago-style.

Below are sample references for textual works. Additional reference examples for other formats is available on OWL.Purdue.edu

General template for a textual source

Notes-Bibliography

Notes
1. First and Last Name(s) of Author(s), "Title of shorter work," Title of Longer Work, Volume, no. (Year): page numbers.

Bibliography

Last Name, First Name and First Name Last Name of Author(s). "Title of shorter work." Title of Longer Work, Volume, no. (Year): page numbers. website or DOI.

Author-Date

Author Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. Year. "Title of shorter work." Title of Longer Work, Volume(Number): page numbers. website or DOI.

Article

NB Example: Baer, Hester, and Ryan Fred Long. "Transnational Cinema and the Mexican State in Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu Mamá También." South Central Review 21, no. 3 (2004): 150-168.

AD Example: Baer, Hester, and Ryan Fred Long. 2004. "Transnational Cinema and the Mexican State in Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu Mamá También." South Central Review 21(3): 150-168.

Book

NB Example: Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 2002.

AD Example: Angelou, Maya. 2002. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House.

Book Chapter

NB Example: Richard Rodriguez. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood." In The Best American Essays of the Century, edited by Joyce Carol Oats. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000.

AD Example: Richard Rodriguez. 2000. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood." In The Best American Essays of the Century, edited by Joyce Carol Oats, 447-466. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Conference Presentation

NB Example: Hanstedt, Paul. “This is Your Brain on Writing: The Implications of James Zull’s The Art of Changing the Brain for the Writing Classroom.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA, March 2009.

AD Example: Paul Hanstedt. 2009.  “This is Your Brain on Writing: The Implications of James Zull’s The Art of Changing the Brain for the Writing Classroom.” Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Francisco, CA.

Dissertation

NB Example: Choi, Mihwa. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss. University of Chicago, 2008.

AD Example: Choi, Mihwa. 2008. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss. University of Chicago.

Below are sample references for archival works. Additional reference examples for other formats is available on OWL.Purdue.edu

General template for a textual source

Notes-Bibliography

Notes
1. Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Collection number or identifier, box number, folder number, Collection Name, Name of Repository, Location of Repository. URL if applicable.

Bibliography

Last Name, First Name of author. Name of Collection. Name of Repository, Location of Repository.

Author-Date

Collection Name. Repository Name, Repository Location. URL.

Example

Gaye LeBaron Collection. Sonoma State University Library Archives & Special Collections, Rohnert Park, California. https://northbaydigital.sonoma.edu/digital/collection/Lebaron.

Below are sample references for audiovisual works. Additional reference examples for other formats is available on OWL.Purdue.edu

Artwork

Bibliography Example: Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, United States. https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889/

Film

Notes Example: 1. Joe Versus the Volcano, directed by John Patrick Shanley (1990; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2002), DVD.

Bibliography Example: Shanley, John Patrick, dir. Joe Versus the Volcano. 1990; Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2002. DVD.

Episode of a TV Show

Notes Example: 3. Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 2, episode 9, “The Measure of a Man,” directed by Robert Scheerer, written by Melinda M. Snodgrass, featuring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and Whoopi Goldberg, aired February 13, 1989, in broadcast syndication, Paramount, 2012, Blu-Ray.

Bibliography Example: Snodgrass, Melinda M, writer. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Season 2, episode 9, “The Measure of a Man.” Directed by Robert Scheerer, featuring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and Whoopi Goldberg. Aired February 13, 1989, in broadcast syndication. Paramount, 2012, Blu-Ray.

Podcast Episode

Notes Example: 1. Sean Cole and Ira Glass, “622: Who You Gonna Call?,” August 4, 2017, in This American Life, produced by WBEZ, podcast, MP3 audio, 1:00:27, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/622/who-you-gonna-call.

Bibliography Example: Cole, Sean and Ira Glass. “622: Who You Gonna Call?.” Produced by WBEZ. This American Life. August 4, 2017. Podcast, MP3 audio, 1:00:27. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/622/who-you-gonna-call.

Clip Art or Stock Image

Notes Example: 1. Denali National Park and Preserve, Lava, Flickr, 2013, photography, https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/

Bibliography Example: Denali National Park and Preserve, Lava, Flickr, 2013, photography, https://www.flickr.com/photos/denalinps/8639280606/

Below are sample references for online works. Additional reference examples for other formats is available on OWL.Purdue.edu

Social Media Post

Notes Example: 2. Bill Nye (@BillNye), “While I’m not much for skipping school, I sure am in favor of calling attention to the seriousness of climate change. Our students can see the problem…,” Twitter, March 14, 2019, https://twitter.com/BillNye/status/1106242216123486209.

Bibliography Example: Nye, Bill (@BillNye). “While I’m not much for skipping school, I sure am in favor of calling attention to the seriousness of climate change. Our students can see the problem….” Twitter, March 14, 2019. https://twitter.com/BillNye/status/1106242216123486209.

Webpage on a Website

Notes Example: 8. “Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government,” CNN online, January 30, 2009, http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.

Bibliography Example: "Illinois Governor Wants to 'Fumigate' State's Government.” CNN online. January 30, 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/illinois.governor.quinn/.