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Chicago (Turabian) Citation: Format, Rules, and Examples

Chicago (Turabian) Citation: Format, Rules, and Examples
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    Chicago Turabian Citation is the student-friendly version of The Chicago Manual of Style. It offers two systems: notes-bibliography, using numbered footnotes plus a bibliography, and author-date, using parenthetical citations plus a reference list. Choose one system and apply it consistently.

    Rules on this page follow The Chicago Manual of Style (18th edition, 2024) and Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers (9th edition), the standards used across history, the humanities, and many social sciences.

    What is the difference between Chicago and Turabian?

    Chicago and Turabian share the same core rules; Turabian is simply Kate Turabian’s condensed adaptation written for students and researchers rather than professional publishers. Both offer two documentation systems, and your discipline or instructor decides which you use.

    System How sources appear in text End-of-paper list Common in
    Notes-Bibliography (NB) Superscript number tied to a footnote or endnote Bibliography History, literature, arts
    Author-Date Parenthetical (Author Year, page) Reference list Sciences, social sciences

    Never mix the two. Notes-bibliography suits sources you discuss narratively; author-date suits data-driven writing where publication year matters most.

    How do you write Chicago footnotes?

    In notes-bibliography style, place a superscript number at the end of the sentence and give a matching numbered note at the foot of the page. The first note is full; every later citation of that source uses a shortened form with author surname, short title, and page.

    First note1. Jane Smith, The History of Cartography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019), 45.

    Shortened note2. Smith, History of Cartography, 88.

    Journal note3. Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104, no. 4 (2009): 440.

    Notes use commas and parentheses; bibliography entries use periods and invert the first author’s name. A note cites the exact page used, while the bibliography lists the full page range.

    What does a Chicago bibliography entry contain?

    A bibliography entry lists five core elements: author, title of the source, container and volume details, date, and a locator such as a DOI. The first author’s name is inverted, and periods separate the main parts.

    Chicago notes-bibliography entry for a journal article
    Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104, no. 4 (2009): 439–58. https://doi.org/10.1086/650979.
    • Author — surname first, then given name; period after.
    • Title — article title in quotation marks, headline case.
    • Source — italic journal name, volume, and issue number.
    • Date & pages — year in parentheses, then the page range.
    • DOI / URL — a DOI as a full https link ends the entry.

    Chicago citation examples (notes-bibliography)

    Below are copy-ready bibliography entries for the most-cited source types. Alphabetize your bibliography by author surname, use a hanging indent, and single-space each entry with a blank line between them.

    Book

    BibliographySmith, Jane. The History of Cartography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2019.

    Chapter in an edited book

    BibliographyRíos, Maria. “Borders and Maps.” In Spatial Histories, edited by Thomas Grant, 112–34. New York: Routledge, 2021.

    Journal article

    BibliographyWeinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104, no. 4 (2009): 439–58. https://doi.org/10.1086/650979.

    Website

    BibliographyGoogle. “Privacy Policy.” Last modified December 15, 2023. https://policies.google.com/privacy.

    Newspaper article

    BibliographyChen, David. “City Approves New Transit Plan.” New York Times, March 8, 2024.

    How does Chicago author-date citation work?

    Author-date style replaces footnotes with a parenthetical citation naming the author’s surname, publication year, and page. Full details go in an alphabetized reference list where the year moves directly after the author’s name.

    In textMarkets shape political order (Weinstein 2009, 440).

    Reference list, bookSmith, Jane. 2019. The History of Cartography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Reference list, journalWeinstein, Joshua I. 2009. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104 (4): 439–58. https://doi.org/10.1086/650979.

    Note that author-date drops the “no.” before the issue number and moves the year forward. Two works by one author in the same year get lettered suffixes, such as 2009a and 2009b.

    How accurate is this guide, and what are its limits?

    Every rule and example here reflects the published 18th edition of Chicago and Turabian’s 9th edition, verified against source formatting. Still, Chicago is deliberately flexible, and instructors often add their own requirements, so treat this as a strong default rather than an absolute.

    Edge cases fall outside a single page: multivolume works, archival manuscripts, legal citations, non-English titles, and social-media posts each have specialized patterns in the full manual. Machine-published DOIs and access dates also change, so confirm live links before submitting. When your instructor’s handout conflicts with a general rule, follow the handout, then use our generator to format the mechanical parts consistently.

    Chicago Turabian citation FAQ

    Quick answers to the questions students ask most about Chicago and Turabian formatting.