how do you cite a thesis in chicago style

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Theses & Dissertations

Citing a published thesis, citing an unpublished thesis, citing a thesis in online database or repository.

• CMS 14.224: Theses and dissertations

Titles of unpublished works appear in "quotation marks"—not in italics . This treatment extends to theses and dissertations, which are otherwise cited like books.

The kind of thesis, the academic institution, and the date follow the title. Like the publication data of a book, these are enclosed in parentheses in a note but not in a bibliography.

If the document was consulted online, include a URL or, for documents retrieved from a commercial database, give the name of the database and, in parentheses, any identification number supplied or recommended by the database.

For dissertations issued on microfilm, see 14.120 . For published abstracts of dissertations, see 14.197 .

Note-Bibliography

First-name Last-name, "Title of Thesis: Subtitle," (Publisher, Year).

      Mihwa Choi, “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty,” PhD diss., (University of Chicago, 2008).

Short Note:

Last-name, "Title of Thesis."

Choi. “Contesting Imaginaires ."

Bibliography Entry:

Last-name, First-name. "Title of Thesis: Subtitle." Year.

Choi, Mihwa. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss. University      of Chicago, 2008.

Author-Date

Text Citation:

(Last-name Year)

(Mihwa 2008)

Reference Entry:

Last-name, First-name. Year. "Title of Thesis: Subtitle."

Choi, Mihwa. 2008. “Contesting  Imaginaires  in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.”  PhD diss.       University of Chicago.

Note -Bibliography

Note #. First-name Last-name, "Title of Thesis: Subtitle," Unpublished thesis type, University. Year.

Barry C. Hosking, "The Control of Gastro-intestinal Nematodes in Sheep with the Amino-acetonitrile Derivative, Monepantel with a Particular Focus on Australia and New Zealand," PhD diss., (Ghent University, 2010).

Note #. Last-name,"Title of Thesis."

Barry C. Hosking, "The Control of Gastro-intestinal Nematodes."

Bibliography:

Last-name, First-name. "Title of Thesis: Subtitle." Unpublished thesis type. University. Year.

Hosking, Barry C. "The Control of Gastro-intestinal Nematodes in Sheep with the Amino-acetonitrile Derivative, Monepantel with a Particular Focus on Australia and New Zealand." PhD diss., Ghent University, 2010.

(Hosking 2010)

Last-name, First-name.  Year.  "Title of Thesis: Subtitle." Unpublished thesis type. University.

Hosking, Barry C.    2010.  "The Control of Gastro-intestinal Nematodes in Sheep with the Amino-acetonitrile Derivative, Monepantel with a Particular Focus on Australia and New Zealand." PhD diss., Ghent University.

Note #. First-name Last-name, "Title of Thesis: Subtitle," Database Name (Identifier if given), Year, Internet address.

      12. Meredith Stewart, "An Investigation into Aspects of the Replication of Jembrana Disease Virus, " Australasian Digital Theses Program (WMU2005.1222), 2005, http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051222.104106.

Note #. Last-name, "Title of Thesis."

21. Stewart, "An Investigation into Aspects."

Last-name, First-name. "Title of Thesis: Subtitle." Database Name (Identifier if given), Year. Internet address.

Stewart, Meredith. "An Investigation into Aspects of the Replication of Jembrana Disease Virus ." Australasian Digital Theses Program (WMU2005.1222),  2005. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051222.104106.

(Stewart 2005)

Last-name, First-name. Year. "Title of Thesis: Subtitle."  Database Name  (Identifier if given), Internet address.

Stewart, Meredith. 2005. "An Investigation into Aspects of the Replication of Jembrana Disease Virus ." Australasian Digital Theses Program  (WMU2005.1222),    http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20051222.104106.

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• Writing Tips

How to Cite a Thesis or Dissertation in Chicago Author–Date Referencing

2-minute read

• 17th May 2020

Want to reference someone else’s thesis or dissertation in your own work ? This can be useful if you are working on an unusual topic where little research has been published or when you know someone who wrote their final master’s or PhD piece on the same topic you are studying.

As with any source, though, you’ll need to cite it properly. Check out our guide to find out how this works in Chicago author–date referencing.

How to Format In-text Citations

In author–date Chicago referencing , you cite a thesis or dissertation by giving the author’s surname and the date of completion in brackets. For instance, we could cite a source by “Carter” from 2001 like this:

Citing your sources is very important (Carter 2001).

If you’re quoting a thesis or dissertation, meanwhile, you should include the page number in your citation:

Place quotes “within quote marks” (Carter 2001, 65).

You will then give the full source information in your reference list.

Reference List Entry for a Thesis or Dissertation

In the reference list at the end of your paper, the basic format for a thesis or dissertation is:

Author Surname, First Name. Year of completion. “Title.” Type of paper, academic institution, year of completion. URL/database ID (if applicable).

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For instance, the entry for a master’s dissertation would look like this:

Carter, Susan. 2001. “Citing Sources.” Master’s diss., University of Learning.

For an online version of a document, make sure to add the URL, too:

Johnson, Luke. 2012. “The Joy of Writing.” PhD diss., University of Learning. http://www.uol.ac.uk/archive/phd/johnson-10122017-final.pdf.

If you’ve only referred to an abstract rather than a full dissertation or thesis, meanwhile, you can simply add this detail after the title:

Carter, Susan. 2001. “Citing Sources.” Abstract. Master’s diss., University of Learning.

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Citation Guide

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Chicago Notes & Bibliography (17th ed.): Citation Examples & Essential Rules

      For NPS theses, papers, and publications: to cite properly, follow the citation examples and apply the essential rules.

The  Chicago Manual of Style  leaves a great deal unspecified and up to interpretation. The NPS Citation Guide streamlines and simplifies  Chicago ’s guidance; your professors, coaches, and processors may interpret or explain  Chicago ’s guidelines slightly differently.  Ultimately, the responsibility for clear attribution of source material lies with you, the author.

• Chicago NB Example List of References

Citation Examples

Essential rules, accessed dates.

Only include date accessed if the source material has no date.

Author Names: Honorifics

Do not include honorifics (Dr., Col., Professor, etc.) when citing author names. Including these titles in the body of your document is acceptable.

Identifying Authors of Official Documents

For the National Security Strategy , cite the president as the author.

For other official documents , the author is the organization immediately responsible for creating the document. In the example below, the author is the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the publisher is the Department of the Navy.

In the example above, the author is NOT an umbrella organization, signatory, or any of the following:

• Chief of Naval Operations
• Deputy Chief of Naval Operations
• W. F. Moran
• Department of Defense
• Navy Pentagon
• R. P. Burke
• United States of America​

Do not include acronyms for organizations listed as authors in the List of References or footnotes:

• YES: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
• NO: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO or OCNO).
• NO: CNO or OCNO.

Bibliography vs. List of References

What is the difference between them.

• A List of References  includes all works cited in a text
• A Bibliography  lists all works cited  and consulted

The NPS Thesis Processing Office prefers a List of References for the following: 

• Capstone project report
• Dissertation

For papers, check with your professors for their preference.

Capitalization: Title Case vs. Sentence case

Note: Always format the information in your citations (titles, author names, etc.) according to the requirements of the citation style you are using, regardless of how it appears in the original source.

Country Names with Government Organizations

When naming government organizations, be consistent: for example, either Department of Defense or U.S. Department of Defense. If citing organizations from multiple countries, ensure that it is clear which organization is associated with which country—for example, Australian Department of Defence, South African Department of Defence, Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence, Singapore Ministry of Defence.

Figures / Images / Graphs

A citation is required if you did not wholly create the figure—i.e., if you used someone else's image or data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the figure are your own creation.

• If you use the figure exactly as it appears in the source, use “Source: ___.”
• If you alter the original figure or use someone else's image or data to create the figure, use “Adapted from ___.”

Figure 1.    A Figure with a Citation in Chicago Notes and Bibliography Style 1

Footnote Examples

1  Source: Ged Griffin, “Managing Peacekeeping Communications,” Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning 3, no. 4 (2009): 325.

1  Adapted from Ged Griffin, “Managing Peacekeeping Communications,” Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning 3, no. 4 (2009): 325.

• Footnotes for figures follow the same rule for ibid. and shortened citations .
• For more details, see the Thesis Template .
• Thesis Template

Footnote Placement & Signal Phrases

Where in the sentence does my footnote go  .

• Single footnotes go at the end of a sentence, after the punctuation, like this. 1
• “If the sentence ends with a quotation, the quotation marks go outside the punctuation, then the footnote is placed after the quotation marks, like this.” 2
• Please do not insert any spaces before a footnote; please do put a space between a footnote and the beginning of the next sentence.

Multiple Citations in a Single Sentence  

When citing more than one source in a single sentence, there are two options :

• Place a single footnote at the end of the sentence, outside the punctuation, and include all citations in this one footnote, separated by semicolons. CMOS 14.57
• Place each footnote at the end of the clause containing the information it cites. CMOS 14.26

Never place more than one footnote at the end of a sentence. CMOS 14.28

In the paragraph below, the reference numbers are highlighted in yellow and the signal phrases are highlighted in blue . Note that the second sentence is common knowledge, whereas the final sentence does not need a citation because it is the opinion of the author. (See " How Often to Cite? ")

In a Journal of Restaurant Marketing article, restaurateur Shawna Jackson contends that a restaurant’s color scheme influences how hungry its patrons are. 1  Consider popular fast-food restaurants, which often use red and yellow in their advertising and décor.   According to a study by Roberta Chen and David Lopez , restaurant customers feel energized in red and yellow environments, which encourages them to order more food. 2   The same stud y indicates  that patrons felt relaxed in blue and purple environments, which causes them to “spend more time considering the menu options and eat at a slower pace.” 3 Although blue décor can give a restaurant a casual, laid-back feel, industry experts believe this color can negatively affect profit. 4 Accordingly, it is difficult to identify a popular restaurant chain that decorates with calmer hues.

* Note: no page number is necessary in footnote 1 because the sentence describes the source’s general argument rather than data or analysis from a specific location in the source.

1 Shawna Jackson, “Color’s Effect on Restaurant Patrons,” Journal of Restaurant Marketing 13, no. 4 (April 1999).

2 Roberta Chen and David Lopez, Color Me Hungry: How to Decorate Your Restaurant to Increase Profit and Patronage (New York: Routledge, 2009), 3.

3 Chen and Lopez, 29.

4 Jackson, “Color’s Effect on Restaurant Patrons,” 18; Chen and Lopez, Color Me Hungry , 74–76.

• Using Signal Phrases Effectively

How Often to Cite?

The  Chicago Manual of Style  advises that “footnotes should be placed where you need them. . . . Whenever you can imagine the reader asking ‘Says who’ you should add a note.” Clarity is your goal as a writer, and what constitutes clear attribution in any given context will depend to some extent on the particulars of your text. Nevertheless, the following are some reliable rules of thumb:

• Use a footnote (even if you also use a signal phrase) the first time you quote, paraphrase, or otherwise use material from a source in your paragraph.
• Always use footnotes for direct quotes.
• Use footnotes, signal phrases, or sentence flow to indicate ongoing use of this same material.
• Be sure to use a footnote again when drawing upon information from a  different  location in the source (see rules for including page numbers ).

Ibid. and Shortened Citations

Chicago prefers shorter citations, but ibid. is still allowed when the footnote is identical to the one right before it.  See  CMOS  14.34 .  Be consistent. Use either ibid. or shorter citations.

There are four forms of notes:  

• Full citation for first appearance.  Use when  introducing  a source (when citing it for the first time only).  
• When citing multiple sources with the same author  and  same title, include the date in the short citation to differentiate them.  
• Shorter citations must occur in an unbroken chain: if you switch to a different source, use a  short citation  to  reintroduce .  
• Ibid. (not preferred)

Example Footnotes List:

Missing info.

If any information is missing from a source (a journal with no volume number, for example), simply omit that information.  For sources consulted in hardcopy, omit the URL and any additional verbiage that introduces it. Anything retrieved online, however, MUST have a link. The only exception is journals retrieved from a subscription database such as ProQuest. 

Multiple Authors, et al.

• In the Bibliography / List of References, include all of them
• In the footnote, include all of them
• In the text, include all of them  
• In the footnote, list only the first author, followed by et al. (“and others”)
• In the text, list only the first author, followed by et al.  
• In the Bibliography / List of References, include only the first seven, followed by et al.
• In the footnote, list only the first author, followed by et al.
• In the text, list only the first author, followed by et al.

Page Numbers & Other Locators

In footnotes , the page number(s) is needed when

• Quoting – Always include
• Paraphrasing – Always include
• Summarizing – Include if summarizing a single continuous passage in a work

N:  Michael Pollan and Daisy Potatohead,  The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals  (New York: Penguin, 2006), 99–100.

S:  Pollan and Potatohead,  The Omnivore’s Dilemma , 100.

• If unsure, include the page number(s).
• No page number is needed in a footnote when you are referring to the source as a whole . For example: “George W. Bush’s Decision Points recounts pivotal moments during his time in office.”

If the source does not contain page numbers, often with electronic formats , include as much information as needed for the reader to locate the material. In citations especially of shorter electronic works presented as a single, searchable document, such locators may be unnecessary.

See CMOS 14.22: Page numbers and other locators . See also 14.160: Page or location numbers in electronic formats .  

In the list of references/bibliography For portions of larger documents, such as journal articles and book chapters , include the  page range.

B:  Haynes, Peter. “Al-Qaeda, Oil Dependence, and U.S. Foreign Policy.” In  Energy Security and Global Politics: The Militarization of Resource Management , edited by Daniel Moran and James A. Russell, 62–74. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Print vs. Online Sources

When citing a source retrieved online, use the "online" format even when you or someone else printed out the material. For example, if you print out a thesis or your advisor provides you with a printed thesis, it is still categorized as an online document.

Only cite as a print source when the material has been produced by a publisher in hard copy. For example, if you obtain a print journal or book from the library stacks, it is categorized as a printed source.

Secondary / Indirect Sources

An indirect source is a source that cites some other work that you discuss in your text.

Whenever possible, consult primary sources and your sources’ sources yourself. Upon investigation of the primary source, you may find you disagree with the indirect source author’s analysis or methods.

How to Incorporate Indirect Sources

The following passage incorporates a properly credited indirect source. The indirect source information is highlighted in yellow; the primary source information is highlighted in blue.

Walker describes Miguel Roig’s 1999 experiment , which correlates inadequate paraphrasing in student writing with poor reading comprehension. 1   Citing Roig’s data , Walker explains that “students do in fact possess skills necessary for paraphrasing but … may be impeded from applying those skills when dealing with rigorous text.” 2

Note:  Footnotes for indirect sources must cite both the primary and the indirect  source ; in the references list, include only the indirect source (the source you consulted—see example ).

For more information

See the TPO's " Citing Your Sources’ Sources " handout.

A citation is required if you did not wholly create the table—i.e., if you used someone else's data. A citation is not needed when all elements of the table are your own creation.

• If you use the table exactly as it appears in the source, use “Source: ___.”
• If you alter the original table or if you use someone else's data to create the table, use “Adapted from ___.”

Table 1.    A Table with a Citation in Chicago Notes and Bibliography Style 1

1  Source: Roberto Suro, “Changing Channels and Crisscrossing Culture: A Survey of Latinos on News Media,” Pew Research Center, April 19, 2004, https://www.pewhispanic.org/2004/04/19/changing-channels-and-crisscrossing-cultures/.

1  Adapted from Roberto Suro, “Changing Channels and Crisscrossing Culture: A Survey of Latinos on News Media,” Pew Research Center, April 19, 2004, https://www.pewhispanic.org/2004/04/19/changing-channels-and-crisscrossing-cultures/.

• Footnotes for figures follow the same  rule for ibid. and shortened citations .
• For more details, see the  Thesis Template .

Translations and Works Not in English

For works with a translator, follow the format for edited books but substitute "trans." for "ed." in the notes and "translated" for "edited" in the references:  

N: Maxence Manqué, Old and Rejected Poems, trans. Pemily Hickinson (Scituate, MA: Narrow Fellow Press, 1989), 472.

S: Manqué, Old and Rejected Poems , 889.

B: Manqué,  Maxence. Old and Rejected Poems. Translated by Pemily Hickinson. Scituate, MA: Narrow Fellow Press, 1989.  

If you provide the translation to a non-English work, format the original title in sentence case , then give your translated title, also in sentence case, in square brackets immediately following. Note that the other formatting rules for titles—italics and quotation marks—remain the same:

N: Maxence Manqué, "L'esthétique de l'échec" [The aesthetics of failure], in É  viter les clichés et des autres clichés [Avoiding clichés and other clichés], ed. Hamish Sweeney (New Brunswick: Stew & Offspring, 1992), 5.

S: Manqué, "L'esthétique de l'échec," 11.

B: Manqué, Maxence. "L'esthétique de l'échec" [The aesthetics of failure]. In Éviter les clichés et des autres clichés [Avoiding clichés and other clichés], edited by Hamish Sweeney, 3–44. New Brunswick: Stew & Offspring, 1992.

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Go to Index

Author-Date: Sample Citations

Go to Notes and Bibliography: Sample Citations

The following examples illustrate the author-date system. Each example of a reference list entry is accompanied by an example of a corresponding in-text citation. For more details and many more examples, see chapter 15 of The Chicago Manual of Style . For examples of the same citations using the notes and bibliography system, follow the Notes and Bibliography link above.

Reference list entries (in alphabetical order)

Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life . New York: Simon & Schuster.

Smith, Zadie. 2016. Swing Time . New York: Penguin Press.

In-text citations

(Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12)

(Smith 2016, 315–16)

For more examples, see 1 5 . 40 – 45 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Chapter or other part of an edited book

In the reference list, include the page range for the chapter or part. In the text, cite specific pages.

Reference list entry

Thoreau, Henry David. 2016. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay , edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.

In-text citation

(Thoreau 2016, 177–78)

In some cases, you may want to cite the collection as a whole instead.

D’Agata, John, ed. 2016. The Making of the American Essay . Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.

(D’Agata 2016, 177–78)

For more details, see 15.36 and 15.42 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Translated book

Lahiri, Jhumpa. 2016.  In Other Words . Translated by Ann Goldstein. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

(Lahiri 2016, 146)

For books consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database in the reference list entry. For other types of e-books, name the format. If no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the text, if any (or simply omit).

Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice . New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle.

Borel, Brooke. 2016. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ProQuest Ebrary.

Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. 1987. The Founders’ Constitution . Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

Melville, Herman. 1851. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale . New York: Harper & Brothers. http://mel.hofstra.edu/moby-dick-the-whale-proofs.html.

(Austen 2007, chap. 3)

(Borel 2016, 92)

(Kurland and Lerner 1987, chap. 10, doc. 19)

(Melville 1851, 627)

Journal article

In the reference list, include the page range for the whole article. In the text, cite specific page numbers. For articles consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database in the reference list entry. Many journal articles list a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). A DOI forms a permanent URL that begins https://doi.org/. This URL is preferable to the URL that appears in your browser’s address bar.

Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. 2017. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

LaSalle, Peter. 2017. “Conundrum: A Story about Reading.” New England Review 38 (1): 95–109. Project MUSE.

Satterfield, Susan. 2016. “Livy and the Pax Deum .” Classical Philology 111, no. 2 (April): 165–76.

(Keng, Lin, and Orazem 2017, 9–10)

(LaSalle 2017, 95)

(Satterfield 2016, 170)

Journal articles often list many authors, especially in the sciences. If there are four or more authors, list up to ten in the reference list; in the text, list only the first, followed by et al . (“and others”). For more than ten authors (not shown here), list the first seven in the reference list, followed by et al.

Bay, Rachael A., Noah Rose, Rowan Barrett, Louis Bernatchez, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Jesse R. Lasky, Rachel B. Brem, Stephen R. Palumbi, and Peter Ralph. 2017. “Predicting Responses to Contemporary Environmental Change Using Evolutionary Response Architectures.” American Naturalist 189, no. 5 (May): 463–73. https://doi.org/10.1086/691233.

(Bay et al. 2017, 465)

For more examples, see 1 5 . 46–49 in The Chicago Manual of Style .

News or magazine article

Articles from newspapers or news sites, magazines, blogs, and the like are cited similarly. In the reference list, it can be helpful to repeat the year with sources that are cited also by month and day. Page numbers, if any, can be cited in the text but are omitted from a reference list entry. If you consulted the article online, include a URL or the name of the database.

Manjoo, Farhad. 2017. “Snap Makes a Bet on the Cultural Supremacy of the Camera.” New York Times , March 8, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/technology/snap-makes-a-bet-on-the-cultural-supremacy-of-the-camera.html.

Mead, Rebecca. 2017. “The Prophet of Dystopia.” New Yorker , April 17, 2017.

Pai, Tanya. 2017. “The Squishy, Sugary History of Peeps.” Vox , April 11, 2017. http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/11/15209084/peeps-easter.

Pegoraro, Rob. 2007. “Apple’s iPhone Is Sleek, Smart and Simple.” Washington Post , July 5, 2007. LexisNexis Academic.

(Manjoo 2017)

(Mead 2017, 43)

(Pegoraro 2007)

Readers’ comments are cited in the text but omitted from a reference list.

(Eduardo B [Los Angeles], March 9, 2017, comment on Manjoo 2017)

For more examples, see 15 . 49 (newspapers and magazines) and 1 5 . 51 (blogs) in The Chicago Manual of Style .

Book review

Kakutani, Michiko. 2016. “Friendship Takes a Path That Diverges.” Review of Swing Time , by Zadie Smith. New York Times , November 7, 2016.

(Kakutani 2016)

Stamper, Kory. 2017. “From ‘F-Bomb’ to ‘Photobomb,’ How the Dictionary Keeps Up with English.” Interview by Terry Gross. Fresh Air , NPR, April 19, 2017. Audio, 35:25. http://www.npr.org/2017/04/19/524618639/from-f-bomb-to-photobomb-how-the-dictionary-keeps-up-with-english.

(Stamper 2017)

Thesis or dissertation

Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. 2013. “ King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.

(Rutz 2013, 99–100)

Website content

It is often sufficient simply to describe web pages and other website content in the text (“As of May 1, 2017, Yale’s home page listed . . .”). If a more formal citation is needed, it may be styled like the examples below. For a source that does not list a date of publication or revision, use n.d. (for “no date”) in place of the year and include an access date.

Bouman, Katie. 2016. “How to Take a Picture of a Black Hole.” Filmed November 2016 at TEDxBeaconStreet, Brookline, MA. Video, 12:51. https://www.ted.com/talks/katie_bouman_what_does_a_black_hole_look_like.

Google. 2017. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified April 17, 2017. https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Yale University. n.d. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed May 1, 2017. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

(Bouman 2016)

(Google 2017)

(Yale University, n.d.)

For more examples, see 1 5 . 50–52 in The Chicago Manual of Style . For multimedia, including live performances, see 1 5 . 57 .

Social media content

Citations of content shared through social media can usually be limited to the text (as in the first example below). If a more formal citation is needed, a reference list entry may be appropriate. In place of a title, quote up to the first 160 characters of the post. Comments are cited in reference to the original post.

Conan O’Brien’s tweet was characteristically deadpan: “In honor of Earth Day, I’m recycling my tweets” (@ConanOBrien, April 22, 2015).

Chicago Manual of Style. 2015. “Is the world ready for singular they? We thought so back in 1993.” Facebook, April 17, 2015. https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoManual/posts/10152906193679151.

Souza, Pete (@petesouza). 2016. “President Obama bids farewell to President Xi of China at the conclusion of the Nuclear Security Summit.” Instagram photo, April 1, 2016. https://www.instagram.com/p/BDrmfXTtNCt/.

(Chicago Manual of Style 2015)

(Souza 2016)

(Michele Truty, April 17, 2015, 1:09 p.m., comment on Chicago Manual of Style 2015)

Personal communication

Personal communications, including email and text messages and direct messages sent through social media, are usually cited in the text only; they are rarely included in a reference list.

(Sam Gomez, Facebook message to author, August 1, 2017)

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

General Format

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Since The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is primarily intended as a style guide for published works rather than class papers, these guidelines will be supplemented with information from, Kate L. Turabian’s Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (8th ed.), which is largely based on CMOS with some slight alterations.

To see a side-by-side comparison of the three most widely used citation styles, including a chart of all CMOS citation guidelines, see the Citation Style Chart.

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in CMOS.

A Note on Citations

Unlike many citation styles, CMOS gives writers two different methods for documenting sources: the Author-Date System and the Notes-Bibliography (NB) System.  As its name suggests, Author-Date uses parenthetical citations in the text to reference the source's author's last name and the year of publication. Each parenthetical citation corresponds to an entry on a References page that concludes the document. In these regards, Author-Date is very similar to, for instance, APA style.

By contrast, NB uses numbered footnotes in the text to direct the reader to a shortened citation at the bottom of the page. This corresponds to a fuller citation on a Bibliography page that concludes the document. Though the general principles of citation are the same here, the citations themselves are formatted differently from the way they appear in Author-Date.

If you are using CMOS for school or work, don't forget to ensure that you're using your organization's preferred citation method. For examples of these two different styles in action, see our CMOS sample papers:

Author-Date Sample Paper

NB Sample Paper

General CMOS Guidelines

• Text should be consistently double-spaced, except for block quotations, notes, bibliography entries, table titles, and figure captions.
• A prose quotation of five or more lines, or more than 100 words, should be blocked.
• CMOS recommends blocking two or more lines of poetry.
• A blocked quotation does not get enclosed in quotation marks.
• A blocked quotation must always begin a new line.
• Blocked quotations should be indented with the word processor’s indention tool.
• Page numbers begin in the header of the first page of text with Arabic number 1.
• For CMOS and Turabian’s recommendations, see “Headings,” below.

Supplemental Turabian Style Guidelines

• Margins should be set at no less than 1”.
• Typeface should be something readable, such as Times New Roman or Courier.
• Font size should be no less than 10 pt. (preferably, 12 pt.).

Major Paper Sections

• The title should be centered a third of the way down the page.
• Your name, class information, and the date should follow several lines later.
• For subtitles, end the title line with a colon and place the subtitle on the line below the title.
• Double-space each line of the title page.

CMOS Title Page

• Different practices apply for theses and dissertations (see Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, ad Dissertations [8 th ed.].
• Titles mentioned in the text, notes, or bibliography are capitalized “headline-style,” meaning first words of titles and subtitles and any important words thereafter should be capitalized.
• Book and periodical titles (titles of larger works) should be italicized.
• Article and chapter titles (titles of shorter works) should be enclosed in double quotation marks.
• The titles of most poems should be enclosed in double quotation marks, but the titles of very long poems should be italicized.
• Titles of plays should be italicized.
• For example, use lowercase terms to describe periods, except in the case of proper nouns (e.g., “the colonial period,” vs. “the Victorian era”).
• A prose quotation of five or more lines should be “blocked.” The block quotation should match the surrounding text, and it takes no quotation marks. To offset the block quote from surrounding text, indent the entire quotation using the word processor’s indentation tool. It is also possible to offset the block quotation by using a different or smaller font than the surrounding text.
• Label the first page of your back matter, your comprehensive list of sources, “Bibliography” (for Notes and Bibliography style) or “References” (for Author-Date style).
• Leave two blank lines between “Bibliography” or “References” and your first entry.
• Leave one blank line between remaining entries.
• List entries in letter-by-letter alphabetical order according to the first word in each entry, be that the author's name or the title of the piece..
• For two to three authors, write out all names.
• For four to ten authors, write out all names in the bibliography but only the first author’s name plus “et al.” in notes and parenthetical citations.
• When a source has no identifiable author, cite it by its title, both on the references page and in shortened form (up to four keywords from that title) in parenthetical citations throughout the text.
• Write out publishers’ names in full.
• Do not use access dates unless publication dates are unavailable.
• If you cannot ascertain the publication date of a printed work, use the abbreviation “n.d.”
• Provide DOIs instead of URLs whenever possible.
• If no DOI is available, provide a URL.
• If you cannot name a specific page number when called for, you have other options: section (sec.), equation (eq.), volume (vol.), or note (n.).

CMOS Bibliography Page

• Note numbers should begin with “1” and follow consecutively throughout a given paper.
• Note numbers are superscripted.
• Note numbers should be placed at the end of the clause or sentence to which they refer and should be placed after all punctuation, except for the dash.
• Note numbers are full-sized, not raised, and followed by a period (superscripting note numbers in the notes themselves is also acceptable).
• In parenthetical citation, separate documentation from brief commentary with a semicolon.
• Do not repeat the hundreds digit in a page range if it does not change from the beginning to the end of the range.

For more information on footnotes, please see CMOS NB Sample Paper .

While  The Chicago Manual of Style does not include a prescribed system for formatting headings and subheads, it makes several recommendations.

• Maintain consistency and parallel structure in headings and subheads.
• Use headline-style for purposes of capitalization.
• Subheadings should begin on a new line.
• Subheadings can be distinguished by font-size.
• Ensure that each level of hierarchy is clear and consistent.
• Levels of subheads can be differentiated by type style, use of boldface or italics, and placement on the page, usually either centered or flush left.
• Use no more than three levels of hierarchy.
• Avoid ending subheadings with periods.

Turabian has an optional system of five heading levels.

Turabian Subheading Plan

Here is an example of the five-level heading system:

CMOS Headings

Tables and Figures

• Position tables and figures as soon as possible after they are first referenced. If necessary, present them after the paragraph in which they are described.
• For figures, include a caption, or short explanation of the figure or illustration, directly after the figure number.
• Cite a source as you would for parenthetical citation, and include full information in an entry on your Bibliography or References page.
• Acknowledge reproduced or adapted sources appropriately (i.e., photo by; data adapted from; map by...).
• If a table includes data not acquired by the author of the text, include an unnumbered footnote. Introduce the note by the word Source(s) followed by a colon, then include the full source information, and end the note with a period.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in CMOS

On the new OWL site, contributors’ names and the last edited date are no longer listed at the top of every page. This means that most citations will now begin with the title of the resource, rather than the contributors' names.

Footnote or Endnote (N):

Corresponding Bibliographical Entry (B):

“Title of Resource.” List the OWL as Publishing Organization/Web Site Name . http://Web address for OWL resource.

“General Format.” The Purdue OWL. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/02/.

Author Date In-text Citation:

("General Format" 2017).

Author Date References Page Citation:

Year of Publication. “Title of Resource.” List the OWL as Publishing Organization/Web Site Name . http://Web address for OWL resource.

2017. “General Format.” The Purdue OWL . https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/02.

Citation guides

All you need to know about citations

How to cite a master's thesis in Chicago

To cite a master's thesis in a reference entry in Chicago style 17th edition include the following elements:

• Author(s) of the thesis: Give first the last name, then the name as presented in the source (e. g. Watson, John). For two authors, reverse only the first name, followed by ‘and’ and the second name in normal order (e. g. Watson, John, and John Watson). For more than seven authors, list the first seven names followed by et al.
• Title of the thesis: Give the title in quotation marks.
• Degree: Type of degree.
• University: Give the name of the institution.
• Year of publication: Give the year of publication as presented in the source.

Here is the basic format for a reference list entry of a master's thesis in Chicago style 17th edition:

Author(s) of the thesis . " Title of the thesis ." Degree , University , Year of publication .

Take a look at our reference list examples that demonstrate the Chicago style guidelines in action:

A psychology master's thesis with one author

Bauger, Lars . " Personality, Passion, Self-esteem and Psychological Well-being among Junior Elite Athletes in Norway ." Master's Thesis , University of Tromsø , 2011 .

A master's thesis with one author

Aube, Kyle Eric . " A Comparison of Water Main Failure Prediction Models in San Luis Obispo, CA ." Master's Thesis , Cal Poly , 2019 .

This citation style guide is based on the Chicago Manual of Style (17 th edition).

More useful guides

• Chicago Citation Quickguide
• How to Cite A Dissertation
• Citing and referencing: University theses and dissertations

More great BibGuru guides

• AMA: how to cite a magazine article
• APA: how to cite a newspaper article
• MLA: how to cite an undergraduate thesis

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How to Cite Sources in Chicago Manual of Style Format

Last Updated: January 9, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD . Megaera Lorenz is an Egyptologist and Writer with over 20 years of experience in public education. In 2017, she graduated with her PhD in Egyptology from The University of Chicago, where she served for several years as a content advisor and program facilitator for the Oriental Institute Museum’s Public Education office. She has also developed and taught Egyptology courses at The University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 121,639 times. Learn more...

The Chicago Manual of Style has 2 distinct citation formats: Author-Date, which uses in-text citations, and Notes-Bibliography (NB), which uses footnotes or endnotes. Author-Date citations are more commonly used in the sciences and social sciences, while the NB style is more standard for works in the arts, history, and humanities. [1] X Research source While both styles use similar formatting for bibliographies (NB) or reference lists (Author-Date), there are minor differences. Before choosing a style, talk to your instructor, editor, or publisher about which format you should use for your work.

Using Author-Date In-Text Citations

• For example: (Schmidt 1935).
• If you don't know the name of the author, use the name of the organization that published the text or a shortened version of the title in place of the author's name. For example: (Society for Psychical Research 1935) or (“Mystery of a Talking Wombat” 1935). [3] X Research source
• Don't include the author's name in parentheses if you've already mentioned it in the sentence with the citation. Instead, simply give the date (and page numbers, if applicable). For example: “John Schmidt (1935, 217-218) claimed that a talking wombat inhabited the walls of his Illinois farmhouse for over a decade.”

• For example: (Schmidt, Bjorn, and Prince 1941).

• For example: (Schmidt et al. 1937).

• For example: (J. Schmidt 1935), (V. Schmidt 1972).

• For example: (Schmidt 1935a), (Schmidt 1935b).
• Before assigning letters, alphabetize these sources by title (which is also how they will be listed in your bibliography). Assign the letters in order so that the first source is a, the second is b, and so on.

• For example: (Schmidt 1935; Bjorn 1946).

• For example: (Schmidt 1935, 217-310).
• If you are making a very general statement about the contents of your source, you don't have to include location information.
• Aside from page numbers, you can also specify other types of location information, such as chapter number, document number, or figure number. For example: (Prince 1932, chap. 15) or (Bjorn et al. 1946, doc. 27).

Making Notes in the Notes-Bibliography System

• For example: “Schmidt's daughter, Viola, was the first person to report the phenomena.” 1
• Footnotes and endnotes allow you to provide more complete citations than the parenthetical style used in the Author-Date system. You can also use these notes to provide additional information that you don't want to put in the main text. Both systems include a full reference list at the end, typically called a “Bibliography” in the NB system.
• Most word processing programs have tools to help you format footnotes and endnotes. For example, if you're using MS Word, you can insert notes into the text using the “references” tab.

• For example: 1. Viola Schmidt
• If there 2 to 3 authors, list them in the same order used in the publication, separated by commas. For example: 15. John Schmidt, Maureen Schmidt, and Harlan Prince
• For 4 or more authors, list only the name of the first author, followed by et al. [12] X Research source For example: 27. Njord Bjorn et al.

• For example, if you are citing an article: 1. John Schmidt, “Mystery of a Talking Wombat”
• For a book: 17. Njord Bjorn, My Experiences at Schmidt Farm
• If you're citing a chapter from an edited book, place the book title and the editor's name after the chapter title. For example: 24. Bella Baylish, “An Overview of Wombat Folklore,” in The Enigma of Jules the Wombat , ed. George Finch

• For example: 17. Njord Bjorn, My Experiences at Schmidt Farm (London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946)

• For example: 1. John Schmidt, “Mystery of a Talking Wombat,” Bulletin of the Illinois Society for Psychical Research 217, no. 2 (February 1935)
• The formatting is somewhat different for other types of periodical publications, such as an article in a newspaper or magazine. In these cases, the title of the periodical is followed by the month, day, and year of publication. For example: The Naperville Times , February 15, 1935.

• If you are citing a book or book chapter, put the page numbers or location information after a comma. For example: 17. Njord Bjorn, My Experiences at Schmidt Farm (London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946), chap. 15.
• If you are citing a journal article, put a colon before the page numbers. For example: 1. John Schmidt, “Mystery of a Talking Wombat,” Bulletin of the Illinois Society for Psychical Research 217, no. 2 (February 1935): 275-278.

• For example: 1. John Schmidt, “Mystery of a Talking Wombat,” Bulletin of the Illinois Society for Psychical Research 217, no. 2 (February 1935): 275-278, https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx.
• Some older or more obscure periodicals may not have DOIs. If you can't find one on the article or at crossref.org, just use the web address that you accessed to read the article.

• For example, if you are citing specific pages in a book, your full citation would look like this: 12. Njord Bjorn, My Experiences at Schmidt Farm (London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946), 21-22.
• For a more general citation (without page numbers): 12. Njord Bjorn, My Experiences at Schmidt Farm (London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946).

• For example: Baylish, “Wombat Folklore,” fig. 3.

Creating Your Reference List in Author-Date Style

• For example: Schmidt, John.
• If there are multiple authors, only invert the first and last names of the first author listed. For example: Schmidt, John, and Njord Bjorn.
• If there are 10 or fewer authors for a particular source, list the names of all the authors in the reference list entry. If there are more than 10 authors, list the first 7, followed by et al. [21] X Research source
• If you have multiple works by the same author, put them in chronological order. List the author's name only for the first entry, and then use 3 em-dashes followed by a period (———.) at the start of each following entry in place of the author's name. [22] X Research source
• For multiple works by the same author in the same year, distinguish each entry by adding a lowercase letter to the date (for example, 1935a, 1935b, and so on). Arrange these entries in alphabetical order by title.

• For example: Schmidt, John. 1935. “The Mystery of a Talking Wombat.”

• For example: Bjorn, Njord. 1946. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm . London: Not a Real Publisher.
• If the book is part of a multi-volume set, put the volume number after the title and before the publication information. Include the volume subtitle if there is one. E.g., Bjorn, Njord. 1946. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm . Vol. 2, The Investigation . London: Not a Real Publisher.
• You can also include information such as the name of a translator (if applicable) or the edition number after the title. For example: Bjorn, Njord. 1946. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm , 2nd ed. Translated by Richard Little. London: Not a Real Publisher. [25] X Research source

• For example: Baylish, Bella. 2018. “An Overview of Wombat Folklore.” In The Enigma of Jules the Wombat , edited by George Finch, 125-162. New York: J. Q. Abernathy and Sons.

• “Page range” refers to the page numbers for the entire article within the periodical. For example, your article may appear on pages 275-278 of the journal you are citing.
• For example: Schmidt, John. 1935. “Mystery of a Talking Wombat.” Bulletin of the Illinois Society for Psychical Research 217, no. 2 (February): 275-278. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx.
• If you're citing a periodical such as a newspaper or magazine, put the year date at the end of the citation as well as after the author's name. These citations typically do not include page ranges. For example: Whiffle, Ferdinand. 1935. “The Wombat of Schmidt Farm.” Naperville Times , February 15, 1935.

Writing Your Bibliography in Notes-Bibliography Style

• For example: Prince, Harlan.
• If the work has more than one author, invert the first author's name, but not those of subsequent authors. For example: Prince, Harlan, and Njord Bjorn.
• If your citation has 10 or fewer authors, list all of them in the bibliography entry. For works with more than 10 authors, list the first 7, followed by et al. [29] X Research source
• Arrange multiple works by the same author in alphabetical order by title. List the author's name for the first entry, but write 3 em-dashes followed by a period (———.) instead at the start of each following entry. [30] X Research source

• For example, if you are citing an article in a periodical or a chapter in a book: Schmidt, John. “The Mystery of a Talking Wombat.”
• If you are citing a book: Bjorn, Njord. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm .

• For example: Bjorn, Njord. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm . London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946.
• If the book has a volume number, write it after the title and before the publication information. If there's a volume subtitle, put it after the volume number. E.g., Bjorn, Njord. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm . Vol. 2, The Investigation . London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946.
• Additional information about the book, such as the name of a translator or the edition number, can also go after the title and before the publication information. For example: Bjorn, Njord. My Experiences at Schmidt Farm , 2nd ed. Translated by Richard Little. London: Not a Real Publisher, 1946. [33] X Research source

• For example: Baylish, Bella. “An Overview of Wombat Folklore.” In The Enigma of Jules the Wombat , edited by George Finch, 125-162. New York: J. Q. Abernathy and Sons, 2018.

• For example: Schmidt, John. “Mystery of a Talking Wombat.” Bulletin of the Illinois Society for Psychical Research 217, no. 2 (February 1935): 275-278. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxxx.
• If you're citing a periodical such as a newspaper or magazine, put the year date at the end of the citation without parentheses. For example: Whiffle, Ferdinand. “The Wombat of Schmidt Farm.” Naperville Times , February 15, 1935.

Expert Q&A

• If you need detailed information about citing a wide variety of types of sources in the Chicago style, consult The Chicago Manual of Style , 17th ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2017). You can also find The Chicago Manual of Style online at https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org , but you will need a subscription or trial membership to access all the content. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://libguides.williams.edu/citing/chicago-author-date
• ↑ https://libguides.williams.edu/citing/chicago-author-date#s-lg-box-12037252
• ↑ https://libguides.williams.edu/citing/chicago-author-date#s-lg-box-12037254
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html
• ↑ https://libguides.williams.edu/citing/chicago-notes#s-lg-box-10935692
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/chicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html
• ↑ http://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/129372
• ↑ https://liu.cwp.libguides.com/c.php?g=45846&p=291620
• ↑ https://libguides.tru.ca/c.php?g=194004&p=1277091
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html#cg-journal
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html#cg-journal

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Dissertation (thesis): how to cite in Chicago Style – notes and bibliography (17th ed.)?

Create a spot-on reference in chicago 17 and 16, general rules.

Citing dissertations, master's theses, etc. under the requirements of The Chicago Manual of Style is specific due to the particularities of this type of source. Thus, a bibliographic reference should include the university responsible for the preparation and defense of the work and the type of work. The title of the dissertation is put between quotation marks. Use the following templates for references:

Reference in a bibliography:

Author . " Title ." Work type , University , year . URL .

Author , " Title " ( work type , University , year ), number of the cited page , URL .

Short note:

Author , " Title ," number of the cited page .

For a dissertation published online, it is allowed to indicate the database from which it is available and its publication number in the database instead of the URL address.

To order and indicate correctly all reference elements, we recommend using our online reference generator .

Examples of references in a bibliography

Bolton, Emma Victoria. "The Barriers and Facilitators to Stopping Inappropriate Medicines ('Deprescribing') for Older People Living in Care Homes." PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2020. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/27649/ .

Alotaibi, Sarah. "A Biophysically-Based Skin Reflectance Model for Face Analysis." PhD thesis, University of York, 2019. White Rose eTheses Online.

Examples of notes

1. Emma Victoria Bolton, "The Barriers and Facilitators to Stopping Inappropriate Medicines ('Deprescribing') for Older People Living in Care Homes" (PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2020), 11, http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/27649/ .

2. Sarah Alotaibi, "A Biophysically-Based Skin Reflectance Model for Face Analysis" (PhD thesis, University of York, 2019), 41, White Rose eTheses Online.

3. Bolton, "Stopping Inappropriate Medicines ('Deprescribing')," 11.

4. Alotaibi, "Skin Reflectance Model," 42.

Other citation styles:

• What is APA Style (7th ed.)?
• Examples of bibliographic references in APA (7th ed.)
• APA 7 vs APA 6: key differences
• How to cite authors?
• How to format the references page with APA (7th ed.)?
• In-text citations
• Archival document
• Book chapter
• Conference paper
• Dictionary/encyclopedia/dictionary entry/encyclopedia article
• Dissertation (thesis)
• Journal article
• Newspaper article
• Press release
• Religious text
• Social media post
• Software / mobile app
• Video (online)
• Video game / computer game
• What is MLA Style (8th ed.)?
• Examples of references in works cited in MLA (8th ed.)
• How to format the works cited page in MLA (8th ed.)?
• What is Chicago Style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in Chicago Style – notes and bibliography (17th ed.)
• How to format the bibliography page?
• Notes and in-text citations
• Examples of bibliographic references in Chicago Style – author-date (17th ed.)
• What is Harvard referencing style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in Harvard style
• Online video
• What is IEEE Style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in IEEE Style
• How to format the references pages in IEEE Style?
• What is Vancouver Style?
• Examples of bibliographic references in Vancouver Style

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Chicago Style / How to Cite a Report in Chicago/Turabian

How to Cite a Report in Chicago/Turabian

Reports are a commonly cited type of resource and are usually published by government agencies, non-profit organizations, or corporations. In Chicago style, citations for reports are similar to citations for books, although their formatting may change slightly depending on the type of information available for a report. This guide will show you how to create notes-bibliography style citations for print and online reports using the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style .

Guide Overview

• Citing an online report
• Citing a print report
• Citing a report with the same author and publisher

Citing an Online Report

Chicago style online report citation structure:.

• First name Last name, Title of Work (Publisher City: Publisher, year of publication), URL.

Bibliography:

Last name, First name. Title of Work . Publisher City: Publisher, year of publication. URL.

Chicago Style Online Report Citation Example:

• Yulia Gorbunova, Laws of Attrition: Crackdown on Russia’s Civil Society After Putin’s Return to the Presidency (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013), https://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/04/24/laws-attrition.

Gorbunova, Yulia. Laws of Attrition: Crackdown on Russia’s Civil Society After Putin’s Return to the Presidency. New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/04/24/laws-attrition.

Note:  With this source, the report only specifies a publication country. To find the city of publication and other bibliographic data, search for the ISBN or publication title on a website like WorldCat.org (in this case, it is New York).

Citing a Print Report

Chicago style print report citation structure:.

• First name Last name, Title of Work (Publisher City: Publisher, year of publication).

Last name, First name. Title of Work . Publisher City: Publisher, year of publication.

Chicago Style Print Report Citation Example:

The main difference between the citation for an online report and a print report is that a URL will not be included for a print report.

• Turnitin, What’s Wrong with Wikipedia?: Evaluating the Sources Used by Students (Oakland: iParadigms, LLC, 2013).

Turnitin. What’s Wrong with Wikipedia?: Evaluating the Sources Used by Students . Oakland: iParadigms, LLC, 2013.

Citing a Report with the Same Author and Publisher

Often, for reports published by organizations, corporations, or government agencies, a specific author is not named. In this instance, you can usually treat the author and the publisher as the same entity. When citing a report where the author and the publisher are the same, the publisher’s name can be used in the author slot in addition to the publisher slot.

Chicago Style Report Citation Structure:

• Organization/Company Name, Title of Report , (Publisher City: Publisher, year of publication), URL.

Organization/Company name. Title of Report. Publisher City: Publisher, year of publication. URL.

Chicago Style Report Citation Example :

• Microsoft, Annual Report 2021 , (Redmond, WA: Microsoft, 2021), https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar21/index.html.

Microsoft. Annual Report 2021 . Redmond, WA: Microsoft, 2021. https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar21/index.html.

Note:  If the report was not written by the publisher and an author name still cannot be found, omit the author field and begin the citation with the title of the report instead. 

Chicago Formatting Guide

Chicago Formatting

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Musical Recording

Citation Examples

• Thesis or Dissertation
• Encyclopedia
• Sheet Music
• YouTube Video

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Chicago Manual of Style Format

Table of contents

• 1.1 Are Chicago Manual and Turabian the same?
• 2 What Are Two Primary Systems of the Chicago Manual of Style?
• 3 Citation Style Guide: General Formatting Rules in Chicago Manual Style
• 4.1 Style Guide on How to Apply Full and Shortened Footnotes
• 4.2 How to Cite Common Resources in the Chicago Manual?
• 5.1 The Importance of Using the Chicago Manual of Style in Academic Achievement

There are plenty of citation styles in an academic environment, but today, we will concentrate on the Chicago Style format. It is a widely used citation and formatting style, also known as the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS). This citation style was first published in 1906 to help people to make their texts more readable and structured. University students primarily used the Chicago writing style, but the system was later used in other areas as well. Commonly, it is used to create the right humanities, history, and social sciences format. In this article, we will provide you with an effective Chicago manual of style guide. We’ll also examine this system’s key features and applications in different science sections and discuss the main Chicago style rules.

History of Chicago Style in Academic Writing

The Chicago Manual of Style was developed by the University of Chicago Press. The material provides clear advice on how to format research articles, cite sources, and compile bibliography entries (Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition). One of the features of the Chicago manuscript style is its universal flexibility. Generally, recommendations developed by experts can be used in absolutely different fields of science. An example of how to cite (Chicago style) a source in a research paper:

• Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code (New York: Scholastic, 2004), 17-19.

This structuring (ibid Chicago style) has created an unspoken system of standards over time. Thus, students, teachers, and scholars worldwide can easily share their printed work thanks to the same formatting. At the same time, thanks to the use of a unified Chicago citation system, the papers have a clear and understandable structure. As the popularity of this approach grew, so did the changes in computer software. For example, the creators of Microsoft Office automated several guidelines, making it possible to use Chicago style citation with simple keyboard shortcuts in MS word.

Are Chicago Manual and Turabian the same?

Both citation styles adhere to the same principles of academic writing and citation. In fact, Chicago and Turabian style are similar, but they are not the same. Turabian originated as a variation of the Chicago style. It was named after Kate Turabian, who developed a simplified version of the Chicago style.

What Are Two Primary Systems of the Chicago Manual of Style?

The Chicago manual of style (CMOS) uses two systems for citing sources and formatting academic papers.

• “Author-date” system is particularly used in the natural and social sciences. According to Chicago style citations, one citation consists of the author’s surname and the year of publication. Example: Walkley, 2022.

The reference list is submitted at the end of the document. On the Chicago reference page sources are listed alphabetically by author’s surname. Each entry in the reference list includes full publication details such as the author’s name, title of the work, and publication information.

• The Notes-Bibliography system (Chicago bibliography) is mainly used in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy, art). Using this system, authors cite sources using full footnotes or endnotes, which appear in the text as superscript number or numbers.

The first citation of each particular source includes full publication details, and subsequent parenthetical citations may be abbreviated. According to the Chicago style bibliography entry, source details are filed, including the author’s name, the work’s title, publication information, and other important words or information. You should also understand what a bibliography in APA is.

By applying the Chicago style sources approach, multiple authors of research papers and other academic works create quality work without additional effort. Thanks to standardization, the material becomes easy to read and use. In addition, universities often give additional points for competent design.

Citation Style Guide: General Formatting Rules in Chicago Manual Style

The most common question is: what is Chicago style in text citation? However, the Chicago style title is just as important as the formatting of the entire document. Accordingly, the Chicago style guide applies to parenthetical citations, headings, font, and spacing. Below, we describe a few of the most important principles.

• Page Specifications. According to the Chicago format, page numbers should have margins (1 inch).
• Styling the document: Font and Space Bar. The Chicago Manual of Style doesn’t require a specific font or font size, so Times New Roman is usually used (size 12). The Chicago writing format also requires that all pages be numbered (top or bottom, usually in the upper right corner). The initial page can be numbered in an “invisible” font. Meanwhile, the main text should include double space, and each new paragraph should begin with a ½ inch indent. Each footnote and bibliography must be single spaced. You can also use a blank line in any part of your text if required.
• The Title Page should be an informative part of the entire document.

The title page (Chicago style) or the first page of the paper contains the student’s first and last name, the title of the academic paper, the teacher’s first and last name, the title of the topic, and the year. This information for the cover page may vary depending on the educational institution’s rules.

• Headline style and subheadings are also governed by the Chicago citation guidelines.

The heading is constructed according to the following principle: headline style capitalization is applied to the first and last words. The same applies to nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. For subheadings, only the first word or proper nouns are capitalized.

• Formatting of names and numbers. In Chicago style formatting, author date style mentions, and source titles are used as they appear in the source.
• Quotation. In the Chicago Manual of Style put quotes in quotation marks. Place a block quotation of at least several lines (4-5) in the block format without quotation marks.
• Reference List. Start a reference list on the new page and list references alphabetically.

The names of books, magazines, and newspapers are italicized. Dates are given in this order: month, day, and year (11-01-2020). Numbers from 1 to 99 are written in numerals, and from 99 onwards, in letters.

To summarize, what is Chicago style representing is a set of clear and simple rules. All of them are recommendatory. Nevertheless, students, teachers, and scientists point out the obvious advantages of using a standardized system.

Citing Different Types of Sources

Citing different types of sources in the Chicago manual style, particularly in the Notes and Bibliography style (NB) system, requires attention to detail and consistency. Here are some important points to consider when following the Chicago formatting style.

Style Guide on How to Apply Full and Shortened Footnotes

Footnote ─ additional information is added at the bottom of the page. The footnote usually includes the author’s name, publication title, publication information, date of publication, and page number(s) if it is the first time the source is being used. It is a really important part of academic writing, especially in CMS.

There are two concepts in Chicago style footnotes. When citing a source for the first time, complete information is usually given in the footnote. In this case, in addition to giving the authorship, you must provide additional information we mentioned before. However, the subsequent quotation can appear in the shortened footnotes (author, title, year).

How to Cite Common Resources in the Chicago Manual?

Chicago style writing eliminates the option of not citing multiple sources. Thus, every pro essay writer should indicate where they got this information and then format it according to accepted standards. Here are some footnote examples so it becomes more clear for you how to cite in CMS:

Full Note: Author’s First Name Last Name, Book Title (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), Page Numbers.

Shortened Citation: Last Name, Shortened Title, Page Number.

Extra: When a specific chapter (or other titled part of a book) is cited in the notes in the Chicago Manual of Style, the author’s name is followed by the chapter title (or other part), followed by a period, followed by the book title.

• Journal Articles:

Full Note: Author’s First Name, Last Name, “Title of Journal Article,” Title of Journal, Volume Number, Issue Number (Year): Page Range.

Shortened Form: Last Name, “Shortened Title,” Page Numbers.

Note: In other styles, the access date for digital documents must also be mentioned. However, it is not recommended in Chicago style unless the source’s publication date or last revision can be located.

Full Note: Author’s First Name Last Name (if available), “The Website Name,” Title of Website or Publisher, Publication Date or Revision Date, digital object identifier (URL).

Short Note: Last Name (or the site’s name), “Shortened Title”.

• Newspaper Articles:

Full Note: Author’s First Name Last Name, “Title of Article,” Title of Newspaper, Volume and Issue Numbers (Month Day, Year) of an Article.

Short Note: Last Name, “Shortened Title”.

• Encyclopedia Entries:

Full Note: Author’s First Name Last Name, “Title of Entry,” Title of Encyclopedia, Edition (Year), s.v. “Entry Title.”

Short Note: Last Name, “Shortened Title,” s.v. “Entry Title”.

• Interviews:

Full Note: Interviewee’s First Name Last Name, Interviewer’s First Name Last Name, Date of Interview.

• Films or Videos:

Full Note: Title of Film or Video, Director’s First Name Last Name (Year; City: Publisher, Format).

Short Note: Shortened Title.

• Social Media Posts:

Full Note: Author’s First Name Last Name, “Content of Post,” Social Media Platform, Date, URL.

Short Note: Last Name, “Shortened Title.”

• Lectures or Presentations:

Full Note: Speaker’s First Name Last Name, “Title of Lecture,” Event, Location, Date.

Full Note: Artist’s First Name Last Name, Title of Artwork, Year, Medium, Location.

That is what Chicago style works cited templates look like. Sometimes, you also might need to use atypical sources. For example, you use an audio recording of a conversation with someone you know. In such a case, the full citation principle involves providing as much information about the same source as possible.

However, to cite it in a shorter version or mention it in the footnote at the bottom of the page is not really recommended in this case.

Extended Citation Style: Formatting Tables and Figures

In the Chicago style manual, you will also find information on how to work with tables and shapes. Such objects are also an important source of data transfer. Each table should have its name, specified by the principle of headings in Chicago style. Each column should have titles, any figure number should be also mentioned and any footnote citation should be placed below the table. If it is necessary to refer to a table, the name of the table and the page on which it is placed should also be mentioned.

Drawings and pictures (any images) are also subject to Chicago referencing. The author should indicate where this or that picture was taken. In general, citation of textual materials extends to visual objects. In the Chicago Manual of Style, tables and figures should be placed as close as possible to the text where they are referenced, either on the same page or the following page.

The Importance of Using the Chicago Manual of Style in Academic Achievement

Each academic paper benefits from adhering to Chicago style endnotes, ensuring parenthetical citation and scholarly credibility. Moreover, Chicago style annotation enhances understanding and research thoroughness, contributing to each paper’s quality. Sometimes, students perceive this approach as “too difficult.”

However, working with the Chicago Manual of style is worth trying at least once. And you will see from your example how much easier it becomes to work with large volumes of information. Thanks to CMS, everything in your work, from the title page to the reference list, will look structured and organized. As a result, your academic papers will become really deep and valuable from a scientific point of view.

Remember: not only the cover page (Chicago style) has a matter. Following Chicago manual style page formatting guidelines ensures consistency and readability in each document, fostering your academic success.

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Why you can taste more ethanol in a cold pint of beer or warm glass of baijiu

We all have our own preferred drinking temperatures for different alcoholic beverages, with people commonly enjoying beer or white wine chilled, red wine near room temperature, or baijiu (Chinese whisky) or sake warmed. Now, in a paper publishing in the journal Matter on May 1, researchers report that alcoholic beverages may taste more or less "ethanol-like" at different temperatures, and this may be explained by how water and ethanol form either chain-like or pyramid-shaped clusters at the molecular level.

"Two years ago, first author Xiaotao Yang and I were drinking beer together. He had just finished his doctorate degree thesis and asked me, 'what should we do next?'" says lead author and materials scientist Lei Jiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "At the time, I was a scientific committee member of one of the biggest Chinese alcoholic beverage companies, and I had the idea to ask the question 'why does Chinese baijiu have a very particular concentration of alcohol, either 38%-42%, 52%-53%, or 68%-75%?'"

"Then we decided, let's try something, so I put a drop of beer on my hand to see the contact angle," says Jiang.

Soon after, Jiang, Yang, and the rest of their team set off to the lab to measure the contact angle of a series of solutions with increasing concentrations of alcohol in water. Contact angle is a common measurement of a liquid's surface tension, and it also tells you how the molecules within the droplet are interacting with each other and with the surface below.

For example, water has a low contact angle on a surface like glass, and so a drop of it will appear "bead-like," where a drop of high alcohol concentration spirits will have a higher contact angle and will instead flatten and spread out.

They were surprised to find that the contact angle did not increase linearly with increasing alcohol concentration, but instead the plot showed an irregular series of plateaus as it increased. Additional experiments indicated that this was happening due to the formation of different clusters of ethanol and water in solution.

At low ethanol concentrations, the ethanol forms more pyramid-shaped structures around water molecules; however, when the concentration of ethanol is increased, the ethanol begins to arrange end to end as if in a chain.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that the plateaus that they observed disappeared or appeared when the solutions were cooled or heated, and that some of these trends could explain differences in how alcohol taste is perceived.

For example, 38%-42% and 52%-53% ethanol solutions -- like the ethanol concentrations in baijiu -- have distinct cluster structures at around room temperature, but this difference disappears at higher temperatures, like 40°C. This could explain why both professional and amateur tasters can distinguish these concentrations of baijiu at room temperature but not at high temperature. At higher temperatures, both concentrations have more chain-like structures and therefore a more "ethanol-like" taste.

"Although there is only 1% difference, the taste of baijiu at 51% and 52% is noticeably different; the taste of baijiu at 51% is similar to that of lower alcohol content, such as 38%-42%. So, in order to achieve the same taste at a lower alcohol content, the distribution of baijiu products ranges most within the 38%-42% and 52%-53% categories," says Jiang.

Similarly, professional testers observe a stronger "ethanol-like" taste in beer after it has been chilled. The results of these experiments show that there is a distinct enhancement in the chain-like structures at 5°C in 5% and 11% ethanol solutions.

"At low temperature, the tetrahedral (pyramid-shaped) clusters become the low concentration amount, and this is why we drink cold beer," says Jiang.

The researchers propose that this information could be leveraged by the alcoholic beverage industry to achieve an "ethanol-like" taste with the lowest ethanol concentration possible.

• Beer and Wine
• Extreme Survival
• Marine Biology
• Animal Learning and Intelligence
• Insects (including Butterflies)
• Mercury poisoning
• Black widow spider
• Molecular biology
• Coral bleaching
• Chinese food therapy

Story Source:

Materials provided by Cell Press . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Xiaotao Yang, Jia Zheng, Xianfeng Luo, Hongyan Xiao, Peijia Li, Xiaodong Luo, Ye Tian, Lei Jiang, Dong Zhao. Ethanol-water clusters determine the critical concentration of alcoholic beverages . Matter , 2024; 7 (5): 1724 DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2024.03.017

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