How to Cite Your Sources in the Chicago Manual of Style Format

Proper citations in research papers are essential, especially when you are writing papers in college or graduate school. One problem facing students is that different disciplines and different teachers will require different citation styles. Three of the most popular styles are The Chicago Manual of Style, Modern Language Assocation (MLA), or American Psychological Association. For this particular article, I will focus on The Chicago Manual of Style because it is what I am most familiar with as a writer of history. I will show you how to cite different kinds of books in your footnotes as well as bibliography using Chicago Style.

I will be using model footnotes in this article to help you along. Footnotes are citations that appear at the bottom of the page and are referenced by a small number (looking like an exponent) after the particular quote or piece of cited information. There are several different ways to cite books in Chicago style, based on what kind of work it is and who was responsible for writing it. In my examples, I will first show how you should cite the particular reference in your footnotes followed by how it should appear in your bibliography page at the end of your paper. So, here are the examples.

Book, One Author

To cite a book in a footnote in Chicago Style, you start with the Author's name followed by a comma, then the full title of the book either italicized or underlined. After the title you will put the following in parentheses: the place of publication followed by a colon, the publisher followed by a comma, and the year of publication. Close the parentheses and put a comma, followed by the page number where the passage was taken from. End with a period. Typically the first line of the footnote after its number is indented.

Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism: 1914-1945 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 211.

For your bibliographical entry, you will write the author's full name (last name first) followed by a period, the full title of the book either italicized or underlined followed by a period, the city of publication followed by a colon, the name of the publisher followed by a comma, and the date of publication followed by a period. Generally, in a Chicago Style bibliography, the first line is flushed left and subsequent lines are indented. So the main difference between the footnote and the bibliography entry is the presence or lack of parentheses, a lack of page numbers in the bibliography, and different indentation.

Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism: 1914-1945. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1995.

Book, Two or More Authors

In your footnotes, everything remains the same except for the bit about the authors. In this case you will list the authors in the same order as they appear on the title page, first name first, names separated by an "and."

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Freakonomics (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005), 155.

For the bibliographical entry, put the first-billed author's name first, with the last name first. All subsequent authors are listed first name first.

Levitt, Steven D, and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.

Book, translated

If you are citing a book that has been translated, you need to give credit to the translator. The translator's name is cited after the title of the book.

Lothar Gall, Bismarck, The White Revolutionary: 1871-1898, trans. J.A. Underwood (London: Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1986), 182.

For the bibliographical entry, use the phrase "translated by"

Gall, Lothar. Bismarck, The White Revolutionary: 1871-1898. Translated by J.A. Underwood. London: Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1986.

Chapter in an Edited Work

This is one of the most common sources you will be examining if you're writing college-level papers. The information you are citing is from an article written by an author, but appears in a collection edited by someone else. In this case, you need to cite both the title of the article with its author, as well as the title of the collection with its editor. The article title is bound by quotes and the collection title is written in italics or underlined.

Harold E.L. Prins, "Children of Gluskap: Wabanaki Indians on the Eve of the European Invasion," in American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Norumbega, ed. Emerson W. Baker. (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 98-99.

Here's the example of the bibliographical entry.

Prins, Harold E.L. "Children of Gluskap: Wabanaki Indians on the Eve of European Invasion." In American Beginnings: Exploration, Culture, and Cartography in the Land of Nroumbega, edited by Emerson W. Baker et al. Lincold and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

As you have probably noticed, I only included four examples of different books and how to cite them in the Chicago style. There are several other types, but these four are some of the most commonly-used sources when writing research papers. If you are interested in learning more about writing in the Chicago Style, I would highly recommend "A Pocket Guide to Writing in History" by Mary Lynn Rampolla. Best of luck with your writing with the Chicago Style!