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Citing Sources: Chicago Manual of Style

 The most important first step when creating a bibliographic citation is to correctly identify the type of source you are citing. Online sources often look and act similarly, but they are not all the same!

  • A book is a physical printed object you can hold in your hands.
  • An eBook is a digitized version of a book. You would access it through a website such as Project Gutenberg or Google Books, or on a platform like Kindle, Libby, or Sora. (Note: Even though books you access through databases such as eBook Central or Gale eBooks are called "eBooks", you need to treat them as works from a database, too. If using NoodleTools, select "database" first.)
  • A journal article is published in a scholarly or academic journal, and you probably found it in a database such as JSTOR or ProQuest Research Library. You might also find a journal article on the open web using Google Scholar. Journal articles have a rather narrow focus, and they will have publication titles and issue information in addition to article titles. Journals are published periodically (annually, quarterly, monthly, etc.).
  • A website is an online resource that you probably found using a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo. Most sources you will find on websites you will cite as a webpage.
  • A reference source could be in print or online. Often these look and feel like books, but they're cited a bit differently. You can tell you're looking at a reference source if it has relatively short entries on a variety of topics. The title may include words like "encyclopedia", "dictionary", or "atlas". 

All of these guidelines have exceptions, so if you're not sure what kind of source you have, ask!

Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition Examples of Bibliographic Form

Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition

Examples of Bibliographic Form

Entries should be alphabetical.  For each entry, all but the first line should be indented.

Book with one author:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of  publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Johnson, William. The Islamic World. New York: Vintage Books,1990.

Electronic book:

NOTE: These are the books you find on eBook Central.

Lastname, Firstname. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Name of database or URL.

Kerr, David A. World Christianity in Muslim Encounter. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2009.  eBook Central.

Reference Book:

NOTE: Not all reference books include an author for each article.  Do not confuse author with editor. 

Author of article Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Article.” In Title of Reference Book, edited by Firstname Lastname, first page number-last page number.  Volume number. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of  Publication.

Doran, Susan. "Church of England." In Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, edited by Jonathan Dewald, 494-499. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004.

Electronic Reference Book:

NOTE: Not all reference books include an author for each article.  Do not confuse author with editor. 

NOTE: These are the books that you find in the Gale eBooks.

Author of article Lastname Firstname. “Title of Article.” In Title of Reference Book, edited by Firstname Lastname, first page number-last page number.  Volume number. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Name of Database.

Doran, Susan. "Church of England." In Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, edited by Jonathan Dewald, 494-499. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Chapter in an edited book

Author of chapter lastname, Author of chapter firstname.  “Chapter title.”  In Book Title, edited by Editor firstname Editor lastname, first page number-last page number. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication.   

Pearson, Michael. “Connecting the Littorals: Cultural Brokers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean.” In Eyes Across the Water: Navigating the Indian Ocean, edited by Pamila Gupta, Isabel Hofmeyr, and Michael Pearson, 32-43.  Pretoria, Unisa Press, 2010.

Chapter in an electronic edited book

NOTE: These are the books you find on eBook Central.

Author of chapter lastname, Author of chapter firstname.  “Chapter title.”  In Book Title, edited by Editor firstname Editor lastname, first page number-last page number. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication.  Database.

Wong, Dorothy C.  “Ethnicity and Identity: Northern Nomads as Buddhist art patrons during the period of Northern and Southern dynasties.”  In Political Frontiers, Ethnic Boundaries and Human Geographies in Chinese History, edited by Nicola Di Cosmo and Don J. Wyatt, 80-118.  London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, 2005. eBook Central.

Journal Article from an Electronic Database (ProQuest and JSTOR)           

Lastname, Firstname. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume number, no. Issue Number (Date): first page number-last page number.  Database.

Drucker, Alison R. "The Influence of Western Women on the Anti-Footbinding Movement 1840-1911." Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 8, no. 3 (1981): 179-99. JSTOR.

For other situations, use Chicago Manual of Style or ask your teacher or librarian.

Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition Examples of Footnote Form

To insert footnotes in Word or Google Docs, go to Insert-->Footnote.  

Footnotes will order themselves sequentially and will re-order themselves when you cut and paste sections of text.

Once you have cited a source once in your footnotes, you may subsequently use an abbreviated form (see below).

FULL FOOTNOTE FORM

Book with one author:

First name Last name, Title of Book (Place of  publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Example: William Johnson, The Islamic World (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 17.

Electronic book:

First name Last name, Title (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), pg. number, Name of database.

Example: Stephen R. Goodwin, World Christianity in Muslim Encounter : Essays in Memory of David A. Kerr Volume 2  (London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012), ProQuest Ebook Central.

Reference Book:

NOTE: Not all reference books include an author for each article.  Do not confuse author with editor.  Not all reference books have a volume number.

Author of article Firstname Lastname, “Title of Article,” in Title of Reference Book Volume number, ed. Firstname Lastname (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), pg. number.

Susan Doran, "Church of England," in Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World Vol. 1, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004), 495.

Electronic Reference Book:

NOTE: These are the books that you find in Gale eBooks.  Not all have page numbers, but most do.

Author of article Firstname Lastname, “Title of Article,” in Title of Reference Book Volume number, ed. Firstname Lastname (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), pg. number if applicable, Name of Database.

Susan Doran, "Church of England," in Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World Vol. 1, ed. Jonathan Dewald (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004), 495, Gale eBooks.

Chapter in an edited book

Author of chapter firstname Author of chapter lastname,  “Chapter title,” in Book Title, ed. Editor firstname Editor lastname (Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of publication), page numbers.  

Michael Pearson, “Connecting the Littorals: Cultural Brokers in the Early Modern Indian Ocean,” in Eyes Across the Water: Navigating the Indian Ocean, eds. Pamila Gupta, Isabel Hofmeyr, and Michael Pearson (Pretoria, Unisa Press, 2010), 36.  

Chapter in an electronic edited book

NOTE: These are the books you find on eBook Central.

Author of chapter firstname Author of chapter lastname, “Chapter title,”  in Book Title, ed. Editor firstname Editor lastname (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number, Database.

Dorothy C.  Wong, “Ethnicity and Identity: Northern Nomads as Buddhist art patrons during the period of Northern and Southern dynasties,” in Political Frontiers, Ethnic Boundaries and Human Geographies in Chinese History, ed. Nicola Di Cosmo and Don J. Wyatt (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, 2005), 89, eBook Central.

Journal Article from an Electronic Database (ProQuest and JSTOR)           

Firstname Lastname, “Title of Article,” Title of Journal Volume number, no. Issue Number (date): page number, Database.

Alison R. Drucker, "The Influence of Western Women on the Anti-Footbinding Movement 1840-1911," Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques 8, no. 3 (1981): 180, JSTOR.

For other situations, use Chicago Manual of Style or ask your teacher or librarian.

ABBREVIATED FOOTNOTE FORM:

After the first time you cite a source, you may subsequently use an abbreviated form of citation.  These should be formatted as follows:

Books with one author:

Author last name, Abbreviated Book Title, page number(s).

Lewis, China’s Cosmopolitan Empire, 32.

Electronic book:

Author Last Name, Abbreviated Book Title, page number(s).

Woo, Empress Wu, 25.

Reference book article:

Author last name [if available], “Abbreviated Reference Article Title,” in Book Title, page number(s).

“Buddhism: Buddhism in China,” in Encyclopedia of Asian History, 212.

Electronic Reference book article:

Author last name [if available], “Abbreviated Reference Article Title,” in Book Title, page number(s).

“Buddhism: Buddhism in China,” in Encyclopedia of Asian History, 212.

Article in a scholarly journal:

Author last name, “Abbreviated Article Title,” page number(s).

Northrup, “Da Gama and Africa,” 191.