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Citations & Plagiarism

Use this guide to find help and information on citation styles and avoiding plagiarism.

Chicago Manual of Style, Online

Chicago Style by format

The Chicago Manual of 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. 

The author-date system 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. From Chicago Manual of Style: Quick Citation Guide

EXAMPLES

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

 

Two + authors:
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf, 2007.

For four or more authors, list all of the authors in the bibliography; in the note, list only the first author, followed by et al. (“and others”):


Translator:
Lattimore, Richmond, trans. The Iliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
​

Book chapter:

Kelly, John D. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology

and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy

Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Please note that the following examples are taken from the Chicago Manual of Style in the Documentation 1 format for the notes and bibliography.  Please refer directly to the Manual if you have more questions.

 

14.175 Journals

 

Menjivar, Cecilia.  "Linimal Legality: Salvadoran and Guatemalan Immigrants' Lives in the United States."  American Journal of Sociology 111, no. 4 (2006): 999-1037.  doi:10.1086/499509.

 

Loften, Peter.  "Reverberations between Wordplay and Swordplay in Hamlet."  Aeolian Studies 2 (1989):12-29.

 

Abrams, Marshall.  "How Do Natural Selection and Random Drift Interact?"  Philosophy of Science 74 (December 2007): 666-79.  doi:10.1086/525612.

 

The bibliography should be arranged alphabetically and should contain every item cited in the document.  Feel free to Ask A Librarian for more help!

The Chicago Manual of Style requires that the database name be included in the reference list.  Below are some general examples taken from the manual.

 

14.271, 14.272  Databases

 

Howard, David H.  "Hospital Quality and Selective Contracting: Evidence from Kidny Transplantation."  Forum for Health Economics and Policy 11, no. 2 (2008).  PubMed Central (PMC2600561).

 

GenBack (for RP11-322N14 BAC [accession number AC017046]; accessed October 6, 2009).  http;//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/.

 

NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (object name IRAS f00400+4059; accessed October 6, 2009).  http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/.

 

Please refer to the manual, the links included in this guide or Ask A Librarian if you have any questions.

For books that come in many different formats, the Chicago Manual requires that you cite the format you consulted.  For more detailed information, please refer to the Chicago Manual of Style Online.  The following example is taken from the Chicago Manual of Style as a guide for citing e-books on e-reader devices.

 

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle edition.

Chicago NB: Notes-Bibliography

In the Notes and Bibliography system, you should include a note (endnote or footnote) each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary.

  • Footnotes are added at the end of the page on which the source is referenced, while endnotes are compiled at the end of each chapter or at the end of the entire document.

  • In the NB system, the footnote or endnote itself begins with the appropriate full-sized number, followed by a period and then a space.

    • A superscript number corresponding to a note, along with the bibliographic information for that source, should be placed in the text following the end of the sentence or clause in which the source is referenced.
    • If a work includes a bibliography, then it is not necessary to provide full publication details in notes.
    • If you cite the same source again, or if a bibliography is included in the work, the note only needs to include the surname of the author, a shortened form of the title (if more than four words), and the page number(s).
      • However, in a work that does not include a bibliography, it is recommended that the full citation be repeated when it is first used in a new chapter.
    • If you cite the same source two or more times consecutively, CMOS recommends using shortened citations.
      • In a work with a bibliography, the first reference should use a shortened citation which includes the author’s name, the source title, and the page number(s), and consecutive references to the same work may omit the source title and simply include the author and page number.
      • Although discouraged by CMOS, if you cite the same source and page number(s) from a single source two or more times consecutively, it is also possible to utilize the word “Ibid.,” ( from the Latin ibidem, which means “in the same place,”) as the corresponding note.
      • If you use the same source but draw from a different new page, the corresponding note should use “Ibid.” followed by a comma and the new page number(s).

In the NB system, the bibliography provides an alphabetical list of all sources used in a given work. This page, most often titled Bibliography, is usually placed at the end of the work preceding the index. It should include all sources cited within the work and may sometimes include other relevant sources that were not cited but provide further reading.

  • Although bibliographic entries for various sources may be formatted differently, all included sources (books, articles, websites, etc.) are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name. If no author or editor is listed, the title or, as a last resort, a descriptive phrase may be used.
  • Though useful, a bibliography is not required in works that provide full bibliographic information in the notes.

Common Elements

All entries in the bibliography will include the author (or editor, compiler, translator), title, and publication information.

  • Author Names
    • The author’s name is inverted in the bibliography, placing the last name first and separating the last name and first name with a comma; for example, John Smith becomes Smith, John.
  • Titles
    • Titles of books and journals are italicized.
    • Titles of articles, chapters, poems, etc. are placed in quotation marks.
  • Publication Information
    • The year of publication is listed after the publisher or journal name.
  • Punctuation
    • In a bibliography, all major elements are separated by periods.

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