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Chicago/Turabian Style

Need help with formatting citations? Use this brief guide to Chicago/Turabian Style.

What is Chicago/Turabian Style?

Chicago is a documentation style that has been published by the Chicago University Press since 1906. This citation style incorporates rules of grammar and punctuation common in American English. Typically, Chicago 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 style 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.

Turabian style is based off of Chicago style, but simplified and intended for students writing research papers. Turabian also does not contain any information about publication. The Chicago Manual of Style is designed for individuals who are publishing, so it includes a great deal of information on formatting papers.

Which style should I use?

Always check with your instructor. However, in general, most of the guidelines that you find in the Turabian manual will also apply to the Chicago style.

Here's a quick overview of some of the new features of Chicago Style, 18th edition with the section number in parentheses.

Author Names:

  • Up to six authors are now listed in the bibliography. If the source has more than six authors, list only the first three in the bibliography entry, followed by “et al.” (13.78)
  • Up to two authors are now listed in footnotes. If the source has more than two authors, list only the first author in the footnote, followed by “et al.” (13.78)
  • Authors whose names follow Eastern order (family name first) rather than Western order (family name last) are not normally inverted in a bibliography or reference list. (13.75)

Bibliography:

  • No blank line is needed between entries in the Bibliography. (13.66, fig. 13.8)

Books:

  • Place of publication is no longer required in citations for books. (14.30)
  • However, if the book that you are citing was published before the year 1900, provide the City of Publication instead of the Publisher's Name in your citation. (14.31)
  • The page range for a cited chapter in an edited book is no longer required in a bibliography or reference list entry (though a page range is still required for most journal articles). (14.8)

Class Handouts, Presentations, and Readings:

  • Information about presentations is no longer enclosed in parentheses. (14.115)
  • Citations for papers or posters presented at meetings are normally only included in footnotes. (14.115)

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries (Reference Works):

  • CMOS 18th Ed. no longer recommends using the Latin abbreviation s.v. (“under the word”, plural s.vv.) in citations for encyclopedia and dictionary entries. Use the word “under” instead. (14.130)

Newspapers:

  • If the title of the newspaper is divided by a period, convert the period to a colon. If the result is unwieldy, use only the first part of the title (or the part that makes the most sense as a main title). (14.90)

Social Media:

  • Quote up to the first 280 characters of a social media post, including spaces and emojis. (14.106)
  • If citing a post on the social media platform X from before July 2023, format the name of this social media platform as: Twitter (now X). (14.106)

Videos & DVDs:

  • Citations for Films & DVDs no longer require the city where the distributor is located. (14.161)

Acknowledgement

This guide was created using content from the Columbia College Chicago Citation Guide. Many thanks to Columbia College librarians for their permission.