CMS Overview

This is a quick guide to The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) two documentation styles: the Notes-Bibliography System (NB), which is used by those in literature, history, and the arts, and the Author-Date System, which is nearly identical in content but slightly different in form and is preferred in the social/sciences.

Turabian

Students will also find it useful to consult Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations  (8th ed.), which presents what is commonly known as the "Turabian" citation style. This style follows the two CMS patterns of documentation but offers slight modifications suited to student texts.

Recommended Guides



Video Guides

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.

Need More CMS Notes & Bibliography Examples?

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.