Chicago or Turabian style is most used by the Business, History, and Fine Arts disciplines with Chicago style being published since 1906. There are two sub-styles within Chicago: notes-bibliography style and author-date style. Notes-bibliography is preferred by those in the humanities. Author-date style is preferred by those in the social, natural, and physical sciences. Please consult your instructor on their preferred method.
The Chicago and Turabian styles are largely the same. Kate L. Turabian designed her guide specifically for students and researchers when she worked as dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago for 30 years. Her Turabian guide is based on The Chicago Manual of Style and focuses on the rules most important for students’ papers and other research not intended for publication. If needing to cite specifically in the Turabian style, consult that manual.
Chicago Style 17th Ed. Resources and Examples
Video: Chicago Style: Journals
The author-date system is used by many in the physical, natural, and social sciences and is recommended by Chicago for works in those areas. Sources are cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by the author’s last (family) name, the publication date of the work cited, and a page number if needed. Full details appear in the reference list—usually titled “References” or “Works Cited”—in which the year of publication appears immediately after the author’s name.This arrangement makes it easy to follow a text citation to the corresponding full source in the reference list.
In-text example:
This prevarication provided an easy way to present to the public the ways in which their allies had abandoned them, but also acted as ministerial peace propaganda. (Hill, 251)
Reference list example:
Hill, B.W. “Oxford, Bolingbroke, and the Peace of Utrecht.” The Historical Journal 26, no.2.
In the notes-bibliography system favored by many writers in the humanities, bibliographic citations are provided in notes, preferably supplemented by a bibliography. The notes, whether footnotes or endnotes, are usually numbered and correspond to superscript note reference numbers in the text; in electronic formats, notes and note numbers are usually linked. Notes are styled much like running text, with authors’ names in normal order and the elements separated by commas or parentheses.
In-text example:
Article 4 stated that, in the case that Philip duc d’Anjou did not vacate the throne of Spain, “the Most Christian King and Contracting Princes and State shall take in concert the proper measure to assure the full effect of the convention.”9
Footnote Example:
9 R.B. Mowat, A History of European Diplomacy, 1451-1789 (London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1928), 169.
Bibliography Example:
Mowat, R.B. A History of European Diplomacy, 1451-1789. London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1928.
At the Mansfield Library
Electronic copy:
The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Seventeenth Edition.
Hardcopies at the Reference Desk:
The Chicago Manual of Style. Seventeenth Ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.
Turabian, Kate, et al. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Ninth Ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018.
Online Guide:
Guide for Turabian with sample citations.
OWL resources will help you learn to use the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) citation and format style. This section contains resources on in-text citations and the Bibliography page, as well as CMOS sample papers, slide presentations, and the CMOS classroom poster.
The Mansfield Library subscribes to RefWorks to make research and citation easier for you. RefWorks is a citation management tool that stores your electronic articles in one place for easy access, organization, citation and sharing. You can save web page content and metadata, create collections to organize or share documents and citations, and upload PDF and Office documents.
VIDEO - Learn how to use RefWorks by watching these short videos
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