RELG 401 - Capstone Seminar: Chicago Manual

Chicago citation style is used primarily in the humanities, including art history, history, literature, and politics. It may also be used in the sciences and social sciences. Chicago style has two formats:

• Notes and Bibliography style is preferred by the humanities. Citations are provided in footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography
• Author-Date style is preferred by the sciences and social sciences. Sources are briefly cited within the text using parentheses, and the full details are provided in a works cited list.

In Chicago (Notes and Bibliography) style a note should be made anytime another work is directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.  A corresponding note is used at the end of the sentence or clause in which the reference is used. It should include the following elements:

• Author’s name as listed in the source
• Title of the work (book)
  • Article title, Journal title, and Issue information (Journal)
• Date of Publication
• Page number
• Use commas and parentheses to separate the elements

The first entry of the source should include full publication information; subsequent listings of the same source may be shortened to author’s last name, a shortened form of the title, and the page number of the cited passage.

Journal Article

1. Susanna W. Gold, "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair," Biography 35, no. 2 (2012): 318.

Book

2. J. B Morris, Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America (The University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 318.

In Chicago style the sources are listed alphabetically and include the following elements:

• Author’s name (Last name, first name)
• Title of the work (book)
  • Article title, journal title and issue information (Journal)
  • Page numbers of the article (Journal)
• Date of publication
• Use periods to separate the elements

Journal Article

Gold, Susanna W. "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair." Biography 35, no. 2 (2012) 318-341.

Book

Morris, J. B. Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America. The University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name, year of publication and page number of source cited when following the Chicago Author-Date style. Full bibliographic information for each in-test citation is provided in a reference list.

Examples of the In-text citations and the corresponding reference list for a journal article and book..

(Gold 2012, 318)

(Morris 2014, 6)

Reference List

Gold, Susanna W. "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair." Biography 35, no. 2 (2012) 318-341.

Morris, J. B. Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America. The University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

The 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style debuted in 2024. There are a few important updates to this recent edition:

• New guidance for multiple authors (CMOS 13.23; 13.107):
  • Up to six authors are now listed in a bibliography or reference list entry; if more than six, only the first three are listed, followed by “et al.” In a note or in an author-date text citation, up to two authors are now listed; if more than two, only the first is listed, followed by “et al.”
• Encouraging shortened citations rather than ibid. for repeated sources in notes (CMOS 13.37)
• Removing place of publication in book citations (CMOS 14.30)
• Removing month/season from journal article citations (CMOS 13.26)
• Discouraging 3 em-dashes in place of a repeated author name in the bibliography (CMOS 13.72; 13.113)
• Page range of an individually cited chapter within a book of essays no longer required (CMOS 14.8)
• Added guidance to citing AI-generated content (CMOS 14.112)

For a more comprehensive list of changes and clarifications within the 18th edition, see the CMOS "What's New in the 18th Edition" website.