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Art Research Guide: Chicago Style Citations

A research guide covering all areas of art.

The two main citation styles in Chicago/Turabian are the Notes/Bibliography system (NB), which is used in literature, history, and the arts, and the Author/Date system, which is used in the natural and physical sciences, as well as in some social sciences. In both styles, the bibliography must include all works cited within the text, and may include other sources consulted but not actually cited within the text.

Author/Date Style Example Citations

Author/Date Style

In the author-date style, a parenthetical citation consisting of the author, date, and page number(s) is placed next to the reference in the text of the paper. There is no comma between the author’s last name(s) and the year of publication. The Reference list at the end of the paper provides a complete bibliographical citation for all sources cited with parenthetical citations. The Reference list can also include sources consulted for research, but not actually cited within the text. As in the Notes/Bibliography style, for reference list entries, begin the citation at the left margin and indent the second and all subsequent lines.

 

Book Examples:

Parenthetical citation: (Author’s last name Year of publication, Page number)

Parenthetical example: According to one scholar, “The railroads had made Chicago the most important meeting place between East and West” (Cronon 1991, 92-93).

Reference list format: (Author’s last name, Author’s first name. Year of Publication. Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example: Cronon, William. 1991. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W.W. Norton.

If the reference list contains more than one work by the same author, arrange the titles chronologically by date of publication. The second and subsequent works by the same author, use a long dash (6 hyphens) instead of the author’s last name, as in the following example:

McCullough, David G. 1992. Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster.

______. John Adams. 2001. New York: Simon & Schuster.

______. Mornings on Horseback. 2003. New York: Simon & Schuster.

 

Multiple authors:

Parenthetical citation: (Grazer and Fishman 2015, 190).

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

For a source with four or more authors, use et al. after the first author’s name in the parenthetical citation, but include all author names in the Reference list entry.

Example: (Hacek et al. 2015, 384).

       

Journal Article (Online):

Parenthetical citation: (Author’s Last Name Year of Publication, Page number(s)

Example: (Fernandez 2016, 872).

Reference Entry: Fernandez, Patricio A. 2016. “Practical Reasoning: Where the Action Is.” Ethics 126, no. 4 (July): 869-900. https://doi:org/10:1086/685998.

References

Notes/Bibliography (NB) Style Example Citations

Notes/Bibliography (NB) Style

In-text references are indicated with a superscript number at the end of the sentence. The number used corresponds to the footnote at the bottom of the page or to the corresponding numbered end note on the “Notes” page at the end of the paper. The first line of the footnote is indented and second and subsequent lines are flush left. 

The first footnote for a source should be a complete citation; subsequent footnotes to the same source can be abbreviated – author(s) last name only, brief form of title, and page number.

A short rule or line separates the text of the page from the footnotes at the bottom of the page (see example below).

 

Book examples:

Notes format:   Author’s first and last name, Title of Book: Subtitle of Book (Place of Publication: Publisher’s Name, Date of Publication), Page numbers. Use commas to separate elements of footnotes and capitalize all important words.

Example: According to one scholar, “The railroads had made Chicago the most important meeting place between East and West.”1

Note:

_______________________________

1. William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), 92-93.

Subsequent footnotes can refer to source by last name of author, abbreviated title, and page number(s) only:

2. Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, 383.

 

Bibliography format:      Author’s last name, Author’s first name. Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Place of publication, publisher, date. Use periods to separate elements in a bibliography. The first line of the bibliographic entry is flush left and second and subsequent lines are indented (hanging indention). Capitalize all important words.

Example: Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.

If the bibliography contains more than one work by the same author, arrange the entries alphabetically by title. For the second and subsequent works by the same author, use a long dash (6 hyphens) instead of the author’s last name, as in the following example:

McCullough, David G. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

______. Mornings on Horseback. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

______. Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. 

 

Multiple authors:

Note:    1. Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 190.

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

For works with four or more authors, use et al. after the first author’s last name, but include all author names in the bibliography.

Note example: 1. Gmuca et al., “Harp Seal Fur,” 160.

 

Journal Article (Online):

Notes format:    Author’s First and Last Name, “Title of Article: Subtitle of Article,” Title of Journal  Volume Number, Issue Number (Date of Publication): Page number(s), DOI or URL.

Note:  1. Patricio A. Fernandez, “Practical Reasoning: Where the Action Is,” Ethics 126, no. 4 (July 2016): 872, https://doi:org/10:1086/685998.

Bibliography format: Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. “Title of Article: Subtitle of Article.” Title of Journal Volume Number, Issue Number (Date of Publication): Page number(s). DOI or URL.

Bibliography: Fernandez, Patricio A. “Practical Reasoning: Where the Action Is.” Ethics 126, no. 4 (July 2016): 869-900. https://doi:org/10:1086/685998.