Citation Guide: Chicago Style Basics

Unless the author/creator of a work is truly anonymous (see below), then a Chicago Style citation always begins with the name of the author/creator.  For footnotes, write out the author's name beginning with their first name and ending with their last name:

#. Philip Jenkins, Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 135.

Since your bibliography is alphabetized by the authors’ last name, your bibliographic entries will instead begin with the author’s last name COMMA first name middle name:

Jenkins, Philip. Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.

If the work had two authors, separate the names by the word "and."  For the bibliographic entry, only put the last name of the first author in front of their first name: 

John A. Buehrens and Rebecca Ann Parker, A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010), 41.

Buehrens, John A., and Rebecca Ann Parker.  A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-first Century.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2010.

An institution can sometimes be considered the author.  If the institution’s name begins with a, an, or the, alphabetize the name by the next word.

          #. Human Rights Watch, “China: Baseless Imprisonments Surge in Xinjiang,” February 24, 2021, https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/24/china-baseless-imprisonments-surge-xinjiang.

Human Rights Watch. “China: Baseless Imprisonments Surge in Xinjiang.” February 24, 2021. https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/24/china-baseless-imprisonments-surge-xinjiang.

If your bibliography includes multiple works by the same author, then list the works alphabetically by the first words of the title after any a, an, or the.  You should only write out the full name of the author for the first work; then, for every other entry, in place of the author's name, just type in five underscore lines followed by a period:

Wilbur, Earl Morse.  A History of Unitarianism.  2 vol.  Boston: Beacon Press, 1945.

_____.  Our Unitarian Heritage: An Introduction to the History of the Unitarian Movement. Boston: Beacon Press, 1925.

If a work was anonymously written, you can either start your citation with the title or, if there is an editor or translator, move their name (and role) to the place of the author.  If you begin with the title and the title begins with a, an, or the, alphabetize it under the next word.  Starting with the editor or translator’s name is a good idea if you are citing multiple editions of the same work.

          #. The Popol Vuh, trans. Michael Bazzett (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018), 6.

          #. Michael Bazzett, trans., The Popol Vuh (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018), 6.

The Popol Vuh.  Translated by Michael Bazzett.  Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018.

Bazzett, Michael, translator.  The Popol Vuh.  Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018.

The formatting for titles varies based on what sort of work it is:

• Italics: italicize the title of books, academic journal names, newspaper names, general websites, movies, album titles, etc.
• "In Quotation Marks:" put the titles of book chapters or journal, newspaper, book, web articles, songs, etc., in quotation marks
• In plain text: if the creator has given the work no true title or just a descriptive title, then put it in plain text.  This is most often the case for archival materials or untitled museum pieces.

Keep in mind that the work you are citing might have multiple titles.  Be on the look out for the title of the specific work itself, and, if necessary, the title of a broader container-work the specific work might be in (like a broader website or journal).  

In Chicago Style's Notes-Bibliography style, the main title of the created work always comes second in an entry, after the names of the author/creator(s).  However, if the creator is truly anonymous, then you skip the author element and put the title first.  In the bibliography, alphabetize the work under the title's first words after any a, an, or the:

          #. The Popol Vuh, trans. Michael Bazzett (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018), 6.

The Popol Vuh.  Translated by Michael Bazzett.  Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2018.

The name(s) of an editor or translator go after the title (including any volume number) and before the publisher.  In the bibliographic entry, write out "Edited by" or "Translated by," but in the footnote, abbreviate that to "ed." or "trans."

Footnote

#. Author’s firstname lastname, Title, trans. Firstname lastname (Place of publisher: Publisher, year), page numbers.

#. Jalal al-Din Rumi, The Masnavi, book one, trans. Jawid Mojaddedi (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 4-5.

#. Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, trans. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 20.

#. Tales in Praise of the Ari, trans. Aaron Klein and Jenny Machlowitz Klein, drawings by Moshe Raviv (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America), 13.

For the shortened footnote, it is not necessary to include the translator’s name unless you are comparing multiple translations:

#. Author’s lastname, Shortened Title, optional trans. lastname, page numbers.

#. Rumi, The Masnavi, 4-5.

#. Rumi, The Masnavi, trans. Mojaddedi, 4-5.

#. Rumi, The Masnavi of Rumi, trans. Williams, 2-3.

Bibliography

Author’s lastname, firstname. Title. Translated by firstname lastname.  Place of publisher: Publisher, year.

Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Masnavi. Book one. Translated by Jawid Mojaddedi.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Scholem, Gershom.  Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah.  Translated by R. J. Zwi Werblosky.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Tales in Praise of the Ari.  Translated by Aaron Klein and Jenny Machlowitz Klein, drawings by Moshe Raviv.  Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1970.

If the book you are citing is not a first edition, you must note what edition it is before the publication information in the full footnote and bibliographic entry.  It is important to do so because different editions can have different pagination and new information.  Abbreviate edition as ed. and use numbers instead of writing out different editions (i.e., 2nd and not second).

Footnote

          #. Author’s firstname lastname, Title, X ed. (Place of publisher: Publisher, date), page numbers.

          #. Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, rev. and expanded ed. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 435.

          #. Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa, 3rd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 86, 94-95, 106-107.

Unless you are citing from multiple editions of the same work, you do not need to include the edition number in the shortened footnote.  If you do need to note the edition to differentiate your shortened footnotes (if, for example, you are comparing and contrasting different editions of the same work in one paper), include the edition number as follows:

          #. Author’s lastname, Shortened Title, X ed., page numbers.

          #. Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, 1st ed., 335.

          #. Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, rev. ed., 372.

Note that in this case, it is good to note "1st ed." to differentiate the work from the other footnote.

Bibliography

Author’s lastname, firstname. Title. X ed. Place of publisher: Publisher, date.

Adler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in American Today. Rev. and expanded ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.

Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

If the book you are citing is broken into multiple volumes, you must note which volume you are specifically citing:

Footnote

#. Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, vol. 2, In Transylvania, England, and America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1945), 318.

Shortened footnote

#. Wilbur, A History, vol. 2, 318.

Bibliographic entry for a single volume

Wilbur, Earl Morse.  A History of Unitarianism.  Vol. 2, In Transylvania, England, and America.  Boston: Beacon Press, 1945.

Bibliographic entry for the complete set

Wilbur, Earl Morse.  A History of Unitarianism.  2 vol.  Boston: Beacon Press, 1945.

Academic journal articles are similarly published by volume and issue number, which you must note in your full footnotes and bibliographic entries.  For academic journal articles, note the volume number (just the number without v. or vol.) after the journal title, followed by a comma and then the issue number as no. #:

#. Ethan Doyle White, “The New Cultus of Antinous: Hadrian’s Deified Lover and Contemporary Queer Paganism,” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 20, no. 1 (August 2016): 33-36, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26417787.

White, Ethan Doyle. “The New Cultus of Antinous: Hadrian’s Deified Lover and Contemporary Queer Paganism.” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 20, no. 1 (August 2016): 32-59.  https://www.jstor.org/stable/26417787.

When citing books in Chicago Style, you are required to include the publisher's name, the location of the publisher, and the publication date in the format of City:Pubisher's Name, date.  For example:

• Boston: Beacon Press, 1986
• Mahweh, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005
• Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014

In footnotes, this information will be in parentheses; in a bibliographic entry, it will not be in parentheses and will end in a period.

The publisher's location is typically the city that appears with the name of the publisher.  For well-known cities like Chicago, New York, London, etc., you can just write in the city's name.  For less well-known cities or the names of cities that exits in multiple states or countries, include the state name and/or country.  When including the state or country name, an abbreviation (such as the two-letter postal code) is fine:

• Mahweh, NJ (because Mahweh is not a well-known city)
• Cambridge, MA (because there are also publishers in Cambridge, UK)

You should only include one place of publication.  Some large publishing houses will list many cities; these are usually their various offices.  If this is the case, just use the publisher's head location or whichever is closest to you.  Often nowadays, a publisher may be located in one city (say, New York) but the actual book might have been printed elsewhere (for example, China).  If this is the case, just stick to noting the publisher's location as opposed to where the book was actually printed.

A citation should always include some sort of date.  Typically, this is just a year, but for resources like newspaper or web articles, include as full a date as possible (i.e., day month, year).  Given that web articles, much more than print resources, can be edited, you should also include a "last updated" date if that differs from the original creation/post date.  Depending on the type of source, you may choose to include an "accessed" date for such electronic resources.

In Chicago Style, when paraphrasing or citing quotation, idea, or anything from a work that has page numbers, you must then note those page numbers in your footnote so that your reader can easily find the specific place in the work in which you found it.  In Chicago Style, you should just write out the page numbers without writing "page," "p.," "pp.," or "pgs."

That said, certain paginated works can be cited without page numbers.  When citing the Bible, the Qur'an, or another work with clearly defined chapter and verse numbers, you should instead just cite with the appropriate chapter:verse numbers. For online works on a scrolling webpage, you may decide to note where you are citing some via its paragraph (which you would abbreviate as para.).  When citing an encyclopedia, dictionary, or another such reference work, you typically would not include the page numbers, just the author (if there is a specific author), entry title, and title of the reference work.

A citation is meant to give the reader all of the information she needs to find and access the source being cited.  When citing an electronic resource, that means including the web address, otherwise known as the URL or Uniform Resource Locator.  Citing electronic resources can be tricky.  While many works on the internet are freely open to anyone, many others are only available to verified users with a login or users who pay to get access to something behind a paywall.  If you are citing a source that requires a login or is behind a paywall, you MUST use what is variously called a stable URL or permalink. While a stable URL/permalink will not necessarily give every reader access to the article or content, they will at least be directed to a page that shows that the article is indeed there.  If you instead put a non-stable URL, like the URL from the top browser bar, then a reader who types in or click on that link will not be directed to that article.

One specific type of stable URL is a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), a URL which is permanently linked to that object.  Anyone making online content can register their content with the DOI organization.  DOIs all begin https://www.doi.org or https://doi.org

Many article databases note a stable URL or include a tool for finding one.  On JSTOR, a stable URL and DOI can be found on the left side of the page when you click on an article.  On EBSCO Academic Search Complete, there is an option for obtaining a permalink at the bottom of the right-hand column; look for the chain-link icon.   Click on it and the permalink will appear above the article title.

Finally, note that in Chicago Style, you always must put in the full URL beginning with http:// or https://

Highlight the text you wish to format to hanging indentation, or get to where you want to start formatting that way.  Under the Home tab at the top, look for the Paragraph section of the menu:

Click on the tiny expand box in the bottom right corner: 

The menu below should appear. In the middle, under Indentation, there is a pull-down menu labelled Special.  Click on it, and select Hanging.  The box to the right, By, should automatically set to 0.5" or half an inch.

You can also format hanging indentations in Microsoft Word through the Ruler function.  Highlight the text you want to format that way or get to where you want to start formatting that way.  Then, if it is not already on, turn on the ruler function: click on View in the top menu, and check the box for Ruler, or else type in Show Ruler into the Tell me what you want to do search.  A ruler like this should appear at the top:

Look for the hourglass-shaped triangles and box on the left.  Click and hold on the box at the bottom of the hourglass, and slide it it half an inch to the right.  Then, click on the top downward-pointing triangle, and slide it half an inch back to the left, where it started.

Highlight the text you want to format that way or get to where you want to start formatting that way.  Then, if it is not already on, turn on the ruler function: click on View in the top menu, and select Show Ruler.  A ruler like this should appear at the top:

Look for the orange triangle and bar on the left.  Click and hold on the downward-pointing orange triangle, and slide it it half an inch to the right.  Then, click on the top little orange bar, and slide it half an inch back to the left, where it started.

Highlight the text you want to format that way or get to where you want to start formatting that way.  Then, if it is not already on, turn on the ruler function: click on View in the top menu, and select Show Ruler.  A ruler like this should appear at the top:

Look for the blue triangle and bar on the left.  Click and hold on the downward-pointing blue triangle, and slide it it half an inch to the right.  Then, click on the top little blue bar, and slide it half an inch back to the left, where it started.