Library

Chicago Author-Date System

Description

In the author-date system of the Chicago style, references to a work or parts of a work inside the text of a paper take the form of brief parenthetical citations. These refer to entries in a mandatory bibliography, or reference list, at the end of the work. Enough information must always be included in the parenthetical citation to identify a work uniquely in the reference list. (Note that this format is not identical to the author-date system preferred by the APA and should not be confused with the latter.)

The information below describes how to cite works within the text of a paper, as well as how to list all the works cited at the end. A "work" in this context means any source—in print, on the Web, or in some other medium—containing information that you used. Some examples are:

Citing Works in the Text

In the Chicago style author-date system, a parenthetical citation in the text uses the identical name and date as the corresponding entry in the reference list. Every work cited in the text must be included in the reference list. If a specific page is included in the text citation, it must be within any page range specified in the corresponding entry in the reference list.

Pattern:

(AuthorLastName Date)
(AuthorLastName Date, PagesChapterOrSection)

The name given in the parenthetical citation in the text is normally the last name of the author or authors. If the corresponding entry in the list of references begins with the last name of an editor, translator, or compiler of the work, or the name of a corporate author, that name would be cited in lieu of the author's last name.

When citing a specific portion of a work, or at the end of a direct quotation, follow the date in the text citation by a page number or a chapter or section title, separated by a comma and a space. For works such as journal articles, the page number may be preceded by a volume number and a colon. Insert the parenthetical citation in your text just before a punctuation mark, or following a textual reference to the author or the work.

In the Chicago author-date system, substantive comments—but not bibliographic citations—may be included in numbered notes at the bottom of the page. For details about inserting numbered footnotes, refer to the section describing the Chicago notes and bibliography system.

Single Authors

  • If the author's name appears in the text, or if the identical source was just cited in the same paragraph, include only the date and, if appropriate, any page number(s).

Litman (1983, 39) states that Academy Award nominations or winnings are significantly related to revenues. Krajewski's excellent book on the subject (2001) discusses this relationship in depth.

Even Kramer, the Museum's harshest critic, praised the new addition (1984).

  • Otherwise, include the author's name and a space before the date of publication.

Academy Award nominations or winnings are significantly related to revenues (Litman 1983, 39). An excellent book on this subject (Krajewski 2001) discusses the relationship in depth.

Even the Museum's harshest critic praised the new addition (Kramer 1984).

Multiple Authors

  • When citing a work by two or three authors, include the last names of all the authors. Use "and" rather than an ampersand (&) in the citation.

A recent study examines long-run price drifts following stock splits (Ikenberry, Rankine, and Stice 1996, chap. 4).

  • For a work with more than three authors, include only the last name of the first author followed by "et al." (meaning "and others") without italics.

Learning environments influence such behavior as childhood sociability (Whiting et al. 1975).

Homonymous Authors

  • When two or more works in the reference list have different authors with identical last names, the last name in a text citation must be preceded by an initial. Include multiple initials or even the full first names, if necessary, to identify a work uniquely in the reference list.

Landscape painting superseded history painting as the leading art form (C. Doershuk 2000, 5:112).

The new policies reflected the interests of both the collectors and the artists (J. Doershuk 1992, 39n2).

Identical Dates

  • If two or more works have the same publication date as well as the same author(s), append a letter (a, b, c, and so on) to the date to indicate the order of each work in the reference list. Such works will generally be ordered in the reference list alphabetically by title.

Battered women tend to have few social supports (O'Keefe 1997b).

Victims of peer harassment can have a variety of adjustment problems (O'Keefe 1997a, sec. 3).

  • When two or more works with more than three authors have the same publication date and start with the first last name, e.g., "Smith et al.," include the last names of the second and, if necessary, the third authors to distinguish the works.

Zoning rules dictate segregated land use, which has resulted in reliance on the automobile (Smith, Zipurski, et al. 1997).

The plan includes a variety of artistic features intended to reverse urban decay (Smith, Garcia, et al. 1997, 112-14).

Reprint and Modern Editions

  • When using a reprint or modern edition of an older work, you may cite either the original date of publication or the more recent date depending on the context. It is always safe to include both the older date and the newer date, separated by a slash. Use the same format in the corresponding entry in the reference list.

The limitations of the Jacobin position were the subject of a satirical novel (Hamilton 1800/2000).

Listing Sources at the End

A text citation in the author-date system is merely a pointer to an entry in the reference list. The latter should be placed at the end of the article or book, preceding any index.

Order the references alphabetically by the last name of the first author. Because text citations refer to both the author and the publication date, in reference lists the date appears immediately after the name to make the entries easier to find. Therefore, works with the identical author(s) are alphabetized by the publication date rather then by the title.

  • Particularly in the natural sciences, authors' initials are often given rather than full first names. Titles are italicized and, except for journal names, capitalized like sentences.

Pacini, E., G. G. Franchi, and M. Hesse. 1985. The tapetum: Its form, function, and possible phylogeny in embryophyta. Plant Syst Evol 149:155-85.

  • A reference with one author precedes a reference with multiple authors starting with the same name. If two or more references with multiple authors have the same first author, order them by the last name of the second author, and so on.

Brooks, Daniel R. 1984. Principles and methods of phylogenetic systematics: A cladistics workbook. Lawrence: University of Kansas.

Brooks, Daniel R., and Deborah A. McLennan. 2002. The nature of diversity: An evolutionary voyage of discovery. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Brooks, Danial R., and C. O. Wiley. 1986. Evolution as entropy. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • For the second and subsequent entries by the same author(s), use a 3-em dash in place of the name of the author(s). (In Microsoft Word, for example, this can be achieved by holding down both the Alt and Ctrl keys and pressing the hyphen key three times on the numeric keypad.) The comma or period that would normally follow the author's name should be included after the 3-em dash.

Woodward, David. 1977. All American map: Wax engraving and its influence on cartography. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

———————, ed. 1987. Art and cartography: Six historical essays. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.


Examples by Type of Work

Books and Pamphlets

Pattern for the Entire Book or Pamphlet

AuthorALastName, AuthorAFirstName, and AuthorBFirstName AuthorBLastName. PublicationYear. Title of the book. Location: Publisher.

  • Italicize the title and subtitle, but if a word that would normally be italicized appears inside the title, do not italicize that word. Use sentence-style capitalization for titles: capitalize only the first word and any proper nouns. The authors' names are given as they appear on the title page, unless the editor requires initials be used instead of given names.

Text Citations:
(Suangtho and Lauridsen 1990)

(Walker and Taylor 1998)

Reference List:

Suangtho, V., and E. B. Lauridsen. 1990. Flowering and seed production in Tectona grandis L.f.: Report on the DANIDA Training Course on Tree Improvement Program. Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Walker, Janice R., and Todd Taylor. 1998. The Columbia Guide to Online Style. New York: Columbia University Press.

  • Give the names of editors, translators, or compilers after the title of the work, preceded by the abbreviation ed., eds., comp., comps., or trans. If the title page includes no author name, substitute the name of the editor, translator, or compiler followed by a comma and the corresponding abbreviation.

Text Citations:
(Kamrany and Day 1980)

(Menchu 1999)

(Sechzer et al. 1996, 243)

Reference List:

Kamrany, Nake M., and Richard H. Day, eds. 1980 Economic issues of the eighties. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

Menchu, Rigoberta. 1999. Crossing borders. Trans. and ed. Ann Wright. New York: Verso.

Sechzer, J. A., S. M. Pfaffilin, F. L. Denmark, A. Griffen, and S. J. Blumenthal, eds. 1996. Women and mental health. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

  • For editions other than the first, include the number or description of the edition after the title.

Text Citations:
(Strunk and White 2000, 3).

Reference List:

Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. 2000. The elements of style. 4th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon.

Pattern for One Part of the Book

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. PublicationYear. Title of the chapter. In Title of the book, ed. BookEditorFirstName BookEditorLastName, StartPage-EndPage. Location: Publisher.

  • Do not enclose the name of a chapter or other part of a book in quotation marks.

Text Citations:
(Wiens 1983)

Reference List:

Wiens, J. A. 1983. Avian community ecology: An iconoclastic view. In Perspectives in ornithology, ed. A. H. Brush and G. A. Clark Jr., 355-403. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  • Book titles and other terms that would normally be italicized should remain italicized when they appear inside a chapter title.

Text Citations:
(Natarajan 1994, 78).

Reference List:

Natarajan, Nalini. 1994. Women, nation, and narration in Midnight's Children. In Scattered hegemonies: Postmodernity and transnational feminist practices, ed. Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, 76-89. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.

Pattern for Electronic Books

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. PrintPublicationYear. Title of the book. PrintLocation: PrintPublisher. SourceURL (accessed LastAccessedMonth Day, Year).

  • For a book accessed online that was also published in print, include any available print publication information. Because information changes frequently on the World Wide Web, it is advisable to append the date when you last accessed this book online.

Text Citations:
(Meagher and Houston 1998)

Reference List:

Meagher, Margaret Mary, and Douglas B. Houston. 1998. Yellowstone and the biology of time: photographs across a century. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press; Boulder, CO: NetLibrary, 2000. http://www.netlibrary.com/ (accessed July 24, 2005).

  • Specify any newer edition or reissue that was used to prepare the electronic book, if this information is available. If the older or original date is of greatest importance, give it in text citations and include full publication information in the reference list. Both dates may be cited separated by a slash.

Text Citations:
(Freud 1913/2001)

Reference List:

Freud, Sigmond. 1913. Totem and taboo. Trans. first pub. 1950 by Routledge & Kegan Paul. Florence, KY: Routledge, 2001. http://www.ebrary.com/

up to top

Articles

Pattern for Print Journals:

AuthorALastName, AuthorAFirstName, and AuthorBFirstName AuthorBLastName. PublicationYear. Title of the article. Title of the Journal VolumeNum:StartPage-EndPage.

  • Do not enclose the article title in quotation marks. The first word and all other major words in the article title should be capitalized, as in a sentence. The journal title should be italicized and fully capitalized like a headline. Titles of journals in the sciences are often abbreviated, generally without punctuation.

Text Citations:
(Emlen 1997)

(Giraudeau, Mallet, and Chastang 1996)

(Pacini and Juniper 1983)

Reference List:

Emlen, S. T. 1997. When mothers prefer daughters over sons. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12:291-92.

Giraudeau, B., A. Mallet, and C. Chastang. 1996. Case influences on the intraclass correlation coefficient estimate. Biometrics 52:1492-97.

Pacini, E., and B. E. Juniper. 1983. The ultrastructure of the formation and development of the amoeboid tapetum in Arum italicum Miller. Protoplasma 177:116-29.

  • If the issue number is included, it should be enclosed in parentheses followed by a space. The issue number is not required if page numbers do not start over with each issue, or if a month or season is included in the date.

Text Citations:
(Allison 1999).

(Muldoon 1987)

Reference List:

Allison, G. W. 1999. The implications of experimental design for biodiversity manipulations. American Naturalist 153 (1): 26-45.

Muldoon, D. D. 1987. Daily life of the mountain rapper. Journal of the West 26 (October): 14-20.

  • For journals that use only issue numbers and no volumes, follow the journal title with a comma.

Text Citations:
(Meyerovitch 1959, 102-3)

Reference List:

Meyerovitch, Eva. 1959. The Gnostic manuscripts of Upper Egypt. Diogenes, no. 25:84-117.

Pattern for Online Journals

AuthorALastName, AuthorAFirstName, and AuthorBFirstName AuthorBLastName. PublicationYear. Title of the article. Title of the Journal VolumeNum:StartPage-EndPage. SourceURL (accessed LastAccessedMonth Day, Year).

  • Cite online journals just as you would cite a print journal, but append the URL where the work was found. Because information changes frequently on the World Wide Web, it is advisable to append the date when you last accessed the article online.

Text Citations:
(Testa and Kier 2000, 17)

Reference List:

Testa, B., and L. B. Kier. 2000. Emergence and dissolvence in the self-organisation of complex systems. Entropy 2, no. 1 (March): 1-25. http://www.mdpi.org/entropy/papers/e2010001.pdf (accessed February 12, 2003).

  • If page numbers are not available in the online version, add any descriptive locator that might be helpful to the reader.

Text Citations:
(Warr and Ellison 2000, under "The Consequences of Fear")

Reference List:

Warr, Mark, and Christopher G. Ellison. 2000. Rethinking social relations to crime: Personal and altruistic fear in family households." American Journal of Sociology 106, no. 3 (November): 551-78. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJS/ journal/issues/v106n3/050125/050125.html (accessed October 19, 2004).

  • For an article accessed from a subscription electronic database, it is preferable to use the URL of the database's search page or home page (if known).

Text Citations:
(Thomas 1956, 77-78)

Reference List:

Thomas, Trevor M. 1956. Wales: Land of mines and quarries. Geographical Review 46 (1): 59-81. http:/www/jstor.org/ (accessed May 2, 2005).

Pattern for Other Print Serials:

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. PublicationYear. Title of the article. Title of the Serial. PublicationMonth Day, StartPage-EndPage.

  • For weekly or monthly magazines, the volume and issue numbers are usually omitted and only the date is used.

Text Citations:
(Ezzell 2000)

Reference List:

Ezzell, Carol. 2000. Care for a dying continent. Scientific American, May.

  • For newspaper articles, the section number or name may be given, but pages are generally omitted. Any edition information may be included after the date, preceded by a comma and space.

Text Citations:
(Trachtenberg 1994)

Reference List:

Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A. 1994. What's in a movie soundtrack? Catchy tunes and big business. Wall Street Journal, April 1, eastern edition, sec. B.

  • If a newspaper article is not signed, the name of the newspaper appears in place of the author. Such articles may be cited only in the text and omitted from the list of references.

Text Citations:
(New York Times 2002)

Reference List:

New York Times. 2002. In Texas, ad heats up race for governor. July 30.

Pattern for Online Serials

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. PublicationYear. Title of the article. Title of the Serial. PublicationMonth Day. SourceURL (accessed LastAccessedMonth Day, Year).

  • Cite online magazines, newspapers, and the like just as you would cite a print serial, but omit page numbers. Append the URL where the work was found. Because information changes frequently on the World Wide Web, it is advisable to append the date when you last accessed this serial online.

Text Citations:

(Reaves 2001)

Reference List:

Reaves, Jessica. 2001. A weighty issue: Ever-fatter kids." Interview with James Rosen. Time, March 14. http://www.time.com/ time/nation/article/ 0,8599,102443,00.html (accessed July 10, 2001).

  • For an article accessed from a subscription electronic database, it is preferable to use the URL of the database's search page or home page (if known).

Text Citations:
(Trachtenberg 1994)

Reference List:

Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A. 1994. What's in a movie soundtrack? Catchy tunes and big business. Wall Street Journal, April 1, eastern edition, sec. B. http://www.lexisnexis.com/ (accessed July 12, 2005).

up to top

Web Sites

Pattern for Documents

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. LastUpdatedYear. Title of the document or page. Title of the Internet site. VersionNumber. LastUpdatedMonth Day. SourceURL (LastAccessedMonth Day, Year).

  • Include as much of this information as is available and applicable to the site. Indicate the complete date when you last accessed the document on the Web. If different from the latter, also include the date the document was electronically published or last updated (the latter might be found near the bottom of the Web page).

Text Citations:

(Burka 1993)

(University of Chicago Library 2002)

Reference List:

Burka, Lauren P. 1993. A hypertext history of multi-user dimensions. MUD history. http://www.utopia.com/ talent/lpb/muddex/essay (accessed August 2, 1996).

University of Chicago Library. 2002. Italian woman writers. Release 1.2. http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/efts/IWW (accessed 14 August 2005).

  • For a posting to an email group, Web forum, or blog, give the complete date of the posting. Give the title of the thread or subject message line without quotation marks, followed by the name of the group, forum, or blog in italics. Unless it is obvious from the site's name, indicate the type of the site.

Text Citations:

(Simons 2000)

Reference List:

Simons, D. J. New resources for visual cognition. E-mail to Visual Cognition discussion group. July 14, 2000. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/visualcognition/message/31 (accessed October 12, 2004).

up to top

Theses and Proceedings

Pattern for Theses and Dissertations

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. YearDegreeGranted. Title of the thesis. TypeOfThesis, AcademicInstitutionName.

Text Citations:

(Schwarz 2000)

Reference List:

Schwarz, G. J. 2000. Multiwavelength analyses of classical carbon-oxygen novae (outbursts, binary stars). PhD diss., Arizona State Univ.

Pattern for Papers and Meeting Lectures

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. MeetingYear. Title of the presentation. TypeOfPresentation, SponsorName, Location, MeetingMonth Day.

Text Citations:

(Nass 2000)

(D'Erasmo 2000)

Reference List:

Nass, C. 2000. Why researchers treat on-line journals like real people. Keynote address, annual meeting of the Council of Science Editors, San Antonio, TX, May 6-9.

O'Guinn, T. C. 1987. Touching greatness: Some aspects of star worship in contemporary consumption. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York.

up to top

Government Publications

The Chicago style uses many format variations for government and other pubic documents. While a few general examples are included below, many more examples—including those of legal documents—can be found in The Chicago Manual of Style, 17.290-17.356.

Pattern for Printed Documents

GovernmentDivisionName. BodyOrAgencyName. PublicationYear. Title of the Document. AuthorCompilerOrEditorName. ReportDescriptionOrNumber. PublisherIfNotBodyOrAgency. PageNumbersIfRelevant.

  • Include all the information needed to locate the document in a library catalog. While abbreviations are commonly used in text citations, they generally appear in reference lists only when needed to avoid duplicating a full name in a single entry. Date formats (except for quoted material) should be consistent throughout your paper. For example, the U.S. date format is used here even for a British document.

Text Citations:

(UN General Assembly 1954)

Reference List:

United Nations General Assembly. Ninth Session. Official Records. Supplement 19. 1954. Special UN fund for economic development: Final report. Prepared by Raymond Scheyven in pursuance of UN General Assembly Resolution 724B (VIII), A/2728.

  • Some details, such as the government body, may be omitted in notes where they are obvious in context. If a document is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, show this information only in the absence of more specific identifying data, such as the issuing body and document number.

Text Citations:

(Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 1956)

Reference List:

U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations. 1956. The mutual security act of 1956. 84th Cong., 2nd sess. S. Rep. 2273.

Pattern for Online Government Documents

GovernmentDivisionName. BodyOrAgencyName. PublicationYear. Title of document. AuthorCompilerOrEditorName. ReportNumber. PublisherIfNotBodyOrAgency. SourceURL (accessed LastAccessedMonth Day, Year).

  • Because some government documents may change frequently on the World Wide Web, it is advisable to append the date when you last accessed this document online.

Text Citations:

(U.S. Census Bureau 2000)

Reference List:

U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Health insurance coverage status and type of coverage by sex, race, and Hispanic origin, 1987 to 1999. Health Insurance Historical Table 1. http://www.census.gov/hhes/hlthins/historic/hihistt1.html (accessed accessed February 12, 2004).

up to top

Audiovisual Materials

Audiovisual materials would generally be referenced using the Chicago notes and bibliography system. Nevertheless, examples are given here of how such material could be cited using the author-date system.

Pattern for a Video Recording

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. PublicationYear. Title of the recording. MediaType. Directed by DirectorFirstName DirectorLastName. Location: Publisher.

  • Publication information generally resembles that for books, except that the type of medium is added after the title.

Text Citations:

(Handel 1988)

Reference List:

Handel, George Frederic. 1988. Messiah, selections. VHS. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Chorus, Robert Shaw. Batavia, OH: Video Treasures.

Pattern for a Music Recording

ComposerLastName, ComposerFirstName. ProductionOrCopyrightYear. Title of the recording. PerformerName, ConductorName. RecordLabelName. RecordingNumber. Medium.

  • Begin with the composer, the conductor, or the performer depending on the desired emphasis. Use ℗ for production date and © for copyright date.*

Text Citations:

(Mozart 1987)

(Bernstein 1979)

Reference List:

Bernstein, Leonard, dir. © 1979. Symphony no. 5, by Dmitri Shostakovich. New York Philharmonic. CBS IM 35845.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. ℗ 1987. Le nozze di Figaro. Vienna Philharmonic. Riccardo Multi. With Thomas Allen, Margaret Price, Jorma Hynninen, Ann Murray, Kurt Rydl, and the Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor. Original sound recording made by EMI Records Ltd. CDS 7 47978 8 (3 compact discs).

_______________
* In Microsoft Word, for example, these special date characters can be found by selecting Symbol from the Insert menu and then clicking the Symbols tab in the dialog that appears. To find the ℗ character, in the Symbol dialog box select "Arial Unicode MS" from the Font menu and "Letterlike Symbols" from the Subset menu. If your word processor does not support insertion of these special characters, you might type "(P)" and "(C) to represent them.

up to top

Page updated: September 29, 2005

 

contact us | staff | hours | ask now