Macdonald DeWitt Library at SUNY Ulster

Chicago Citation Style

This guide provides examples for creating citations using Chicago style.

Chicago Manual of Style has been updated

This guide has been updated for the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

About this guide

All examples provided in this guide are based on the official style guidelines outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Ed. 

Chicago Manual Style requires both footnotes and a bibliography. This is called NB (notes and bibliography). This guide provides examples for creating the footnote entries and bibliography entries.

See the information below about Bibliography and Footnotes for more detail on creating each. For specific examples, use the menu links.

Bibliography

•  List Bibliography entries with a hanging indent. 

•  Bibliography entries are in one alphabetical sequence arranged by the surname of the first author or by title if there is no author.  They are not classified by type of source.

•  Use the author's given names and surname as listed on the title page, not the cover. If there is more than one author, list them in the order used on the title page.

•  If the Bibliography includes two or more entries by the same author(s), list them alphabetically by title.

•  When the note entry includes a URL that must be divided between two lines, break it after a colon or a double slash or before a tilde (~), period, single slash, comma or hyphen. 

Footnotes

•  Note numbers in the text are set as superscript numbers.  At the bottom of the page, the note numbers are normally full size and followed by a period. Notes should be numbered consecutively, beginning with 1.  In most word processing programs, you can use the "footnote" feature to accomplish this formatting. 
 

•  The first note referring to a work should always be a full note.  Subsequent citations for that work can be shortened.  The concise form should include just enough information to remind readers of the full title or lead them to the bibliography, usually the last name of the author(s), the key words of the main title, and the page number.  

      E.g.  1. Salman Rushdie, The Ground beneath Her Feet (New York: Henry Holt, 1999), 25.                                                              
     2. Rushdie, The Ground beneath, 25.
 

•  When citing the same source in multiple footnotes one after the other, cite the source in full the first time, and then use the shortened citation for all subsequent citations until another source is cited.  Once a second source has been cited, the first source must again be cited in the footnote in full the next time it is referenced.  

      E.g.  1. Rushdie, The Ground beneath, 25.                                                              
               2. Rushdie, 28.
 

•  When the note entry includes a URL that must be divided between two lines, break it after a colon or a double slash or beforea tilde (~), period, single slash, comma or hyphen.