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Citation Styles: Chicago/Turabian

An overview of different citation styles with links to outside resources.

Style Guides

About Chicago and Turabian

The Chicago citation style is designed for the professional world, more than for academics. Created by the university of Chicago, it is primarily used for citing sources in History, Humanities, Sciences & Social Sciences. The Turabian is a sort of short-hand or student version of Chicago that is more geared towards academia. 

One of the stand out features of this citation style is its footnotes.

Examples

When citing a scholarly journal, use the following formula for the footnote and the corresponding bibliographic entry (adapted from the 18th edition):

1. Author Name, "Article Title," Journal Title vol, no. x (pub year): page #

Author Name (last, first). "Article Title," Journal Title vol, no. x (pub year): page #

1. Stefan Riedener, "The Point of Promises," Ethics 132, no. 3 (2022):625.

Riedener, Stefan. "The Point of Promises." Ethics, no. 3 (2022): 621-43.

When citing a print book use the following formula for the footnote and corresponding bibliographic entry (from the 18th edition):

1. First name Last name, Title of Book (Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of publication.

1.  Ada Ferrer, Cuba: An American History (Scribner, 2021), 437.

Ferrer, Ada. Cuba: An American History. Scribner, 2021.

When citing an online source like a website, use the following formula for the footnote and the corresponding bibliographic entry (from the 18th edition):

1. Firstname Lastname, “Title of Web Page,” Name of Website, Publishing Organization, publication or revision date if available, access date if no other date is available, URL.

Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Web Page.” Name of Website. Publishing organization, publication or revision date if available. Access date if no other date is available. URL .

7. Carol Saller, "Formatting Text Messages in Fiction," CMOS Shop Talk, March 10, 2020, https://cmosshoptalk.com/2020/03/10/formatting-text-messages-in-fiction/.

Saller, Carol. "Formatting Text Messages in Fiction." CMOS Shop Talk, March 10, 2020. https://cmosshoptalk.com/2020/03/10/formatting-text-messages-in-fiction/.

Chicago and Turabian use two different systems only one of which uses in-text citations. The Bibliography and Notes system uses footnotes, endnotes, and a separate bibliography at the end of the paper and is what the examples of this guide show. The second system is the Author-Date system cites the sources briefly in the text and has a separate reference page with the full bibliographic information. The in-text citation usually follows this formula:

(Author's last name year of publication, page number if applicable)

(Ferrer 2021, 56).

Reference:

Ferrer, Ada. Cuba: An American History. Scribner, 2021.

The reference list is formatted the same as the bibliography in the Bibliography and Notes system.

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