Chicago Citation
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What you get with Chicago Citation
Chicago referencing is set out in The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press and current in its 18th edition (2024), which replaced the 17th edition of 2017. Chicago is unusual because it is not one style but two. Notes and bibliography places sources in numbered footnotes or endnotes and is standard in history, art history, theology, classics and much of the humanities. Author–date places a short parenthetical reference in the running text and is used across the social and physical sciences. Both are fully sanctioned by the manual, neither is more correct than the other, and mixing them is a common reason Chicago referencing comes back for correction. This page covers what actually differs between the two systems — note structure, shortened notes, ordering, capitalisation, DOIs and access dates — and how AMDEX Scholar Labs checks and corrects Chicago referencing you have already drafted.
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Which Chicago system should I use — notes and bibliography or author–date?
Use whichever system your department specifies, and where nothing is specified, follow the convention of your discipline. Notes and bibliography puts a superscript number in the text pointing to a footnote or endnote that carries the full source details, with an alphabetical bibliography at the end. Author–date puts the citation in the text as (Surname 2024, 88) and points to a reference list. The choice governs everything downstream: punctuation, where the year sits, whether you write a bibliography or a reference list, and how repeated citations are handled. Switching midway means rebuilding every note and re-sorting the end matter, so settle the question before the first citation goes in. If you are still weighing systems, see how the main referencing styles compare.
- Notes and bibliography: superscript note numbers, footnotes or endnotes, bibliography
- Author–date: parenthetical (Surname year, page), reference list
- One system per submission — never both
How do I format a Chicago footnote, and what changes in a shortened note?
A first, full note gives the author in natural order, then the title, then publication details in parentheses, then the specific page. It reads: 1. Firstname Surname, Title of the Book (Publisher, 2024), 214. The 18th edition no longer requires a place of publication for books published since 1900, so Place: Publisher is optional and survives mainly in older guides. Every later citation of that same source takes the shortened form: surname, a short title of four words or fewer, and the page — 7. Surname, Short Title, 302. A note and a bibliography entry are punctuated differently: notes use commas and parenthesised publication details, while a bibliography entry inverts the author's name, uses full stops, and drops the parentheses. One note can carry several sources cited in the same sentence.
Do I still use ibid. in Chicago 18th edition?
No — Chicago prefers the shortened note in place of ibid. The 17th edition already discouraged it, and the 18th holds that position: when you cite a source again, repeat the surname, short title and page. Where the same work was cited in the immediately preceding note, the 18th edition allows a further-shortened form — surname and page only, with the title omitted — and that is the mechanism that replaces ibid. The shortened form survives editing, because inserting a new note does not silently break it. If your course guide expressly permits ibid. for consecutive references, follow your guide, but do not mix the two habits in one document. When ibid. is used it is set in roman, not italics, and op. cit. and loc. cit. are not current Chicago practice.
How does a Chicago bibliography differ from an author–date reference list?
Both are alphabetical by author surname with a hanging indent; the difference is where the year sits and how repeated authors are ordered. A bibliography entry runs: Surname, Firstname. Title of the Book. Publisher, 2024. An author–date reference list moves the year forward, directly after the author: Surname, Firstname. 2024. Title of the Book. Publisher. Under the 18th edition a place of publication is optional for books published since 1900, so add one only if your course guide asks. Several works by the same author are ordered alphabetically by title in a bibliography, but chronologically, earliest first, in an author–date reference list. Repeat the author's name in full each time: the 18th edition prefers this and no longer recommends the three-em dash that older guides used in its place.
- Bibliography: Surname, Firstname. Title. Publisher, year.
- Reference list: Surname, Firstname. Year. Title. Publisher.
- Same author, several works: by title in a bibliography, by year in a reference list
How should DOIs, URLs and access dates appear in Chicago?
Give a DOI wherever one exists, written as a full https://doi.org/ link, and fall back to a stable URL only when there is no DOI. Chicago treats the DOI as the preferred permanent identifier for journal articles and many ebooks, and it goes at the end of the entry, after the page range. Access dates are not routine: include one only where the source carries no publication or revision date, or where your department or publisher requires them. For a source held behind a subscription database, name the database rather than pasting a session-specific link, and leave long URLs unbroken rather than inserting hyphens. This is a real point of difference from APA referencing, which handles retrieval dates on its own terms.
How does AMDEX Scholar Labs support Chicago referencing?
We work on referencing you have already drafted, checking each note and entry against the 18th edition rather than the 17th — which is where most current mismatches sit: author thresholds, prepositions in titles and the three-em dash. We flag where the two systems have been mixed, correct note punctuation, shortened forms, ordering and capitalisation, and explain the rule behind each change so the next chapter takes less time. Where a source is incomplete we say what is missing — a page range, a publisher, a DOI — rather than filling the gap with a guess. Chicago formatting is also part of our essay editing and proofreading work, since footnotes interact with the sentences around them. Send a sample of your notes and the referencing guide your course links to through contact us.
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Chicago Citation: common questions
Chicago calls its default capitalisation title case — the 18th edition retired the older term headline style — and it applies in both systems for English-language titles. Capitalise the first and last words and all major words. Lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, to in infinitives, and prepositions of four letters or fewer; from the 18th edition, prepositions of five letters or more are capitalised, so Evil Under the Sun and Much Ado About Nothing. Prepositions used adverbially or adjectivally are capitalised regardless. Sentence case is used for titles in most other languages.
Under the 18th edition, a note lists up to two authors in full; for three or more, give the first author's name followed by et al. A bibliography or reference list lists up to six authors in full; for more than six, list the first three and then et al. Author–date in-text citations follow the note threshold, so (Surname et al. 2024, 61) applies from three authors upward, not four. These figures changed at the 18th edition, so older guides and templates give higher numbers.
Not always in principle, but usually in practice. Chicago allows full notes to stand alone where sources are few and each is given in full at first mention, which is why some short papers omit the bibliography. Most coursework and every thesis will expect one anyway, so check what your course requires before leaving it out. The author–date system is different: a reference list is not optional there, because the parenthetical citation cannot supply full publication details on its own.
Turabian is the student adaptation of Chicago. Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations comes from the same press and presents the same two systems, adding guidance aimed at coursework rather than publishing — title pages, margins, headings and tables. The current 9th edition (2018) tracks the 17th edition of Chicago, not the 18th, so the two now differ on author thresholds, prepositions in titles, the place of publication and the three-em dash. Follow the manual your course names, in the edition it links to.
The superscript number goes after the punctuation mark, not before it — after a full stop, comma, or closing quotation mark. The one exception is the dash, where the number precedes it. Place the number at the end of the clause or sentence the source supports rather than immediately after the author's name, unless you need to attach it to a specific quotation. Numbers run consecutively through a chapter or article and restart with each new chapter.
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