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Research Guides

Citing Sources

This guide offers resources to help you document the sources you're citing in your research papers and projects.

Chicago Style Overview

The Chicago citation style is typically used by scholars within the fields Humanities and Social Sciences, particularly in disciplines of Classics, Fine Arts, History, Philosophy, and Theology.

Important Changes in the Chicago 18th ed. 

The complete list of changes and clarifications in the 18th edition is available on the Chicago Manual of Style website. Below is a list of the changes most relevant to student papers.

  • Up to six authors are now listed in a bibliography or reference list entry; if more than six, only the first three are listed, followed by “et al.” In a shortened note or an author-date text citation, up to two authors are now listed; if more than two, only the first is listed, followed by “et al.”
  • No longer include the month or season when citing a journal.
  • Chicago now prefers repeating the name of the author(s) rather than using a 3-em dash to stand in for repeated names in bibliographies or reference lists.
  • 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).
  • A place of publication is no longer required in citations of books.
  • Author-date reference list entries that include a month and day (as for a newspaper article) do not need to repeat the year with the month and day.

How to Format Your Paper

Chicago Style includes precise instructions on how to set up a professional manuscript (aka paper). This guide will provide simplified instructions for students. For complete details, use the official Chicago Manual of style. 

Chicago Style offers two different methods for formatting papers: Notes/Bibliography and Author/Date.

  • The Notes/Bibliography or NB format is most often used within the Humanities disciplines. This system uses numbers in the text that correspond to numbered footnotes or endnotes. Sources cited in the notes are also listed together in a separate bibliography at the end of the work.
  • The Author/Date or AD format is most often used within the Social Sciences disciplines. Instead of note numbers and notes, this system uses parenthetical references in the text that correspond directly to a list of sources at the end of the work.

Be sure to check with your course instructor, and pick one style to use consistently throughout your paper. If your professor mentions using Footnotes, they are referring the Notes/Bibliography format.

 

Chicago 18th Paper Templates

Use the templates below to format your papers in the appropriate Chicago style.

Note that some elements (like an appendix) are not necessary for certain papers. Omit pieces of the template when necessary and at the discretion of your instructor.