Chicago Manual of Style Notes/Bibliography

Chicago-style citations follow two formats:

• the notes and bibliography system and
• the author-date system.

It is important to check your assignment guidelines to determine which form of Chicago-style citations your professor wishes you to use. This guide covers the notes and bibliography system.

The notes and bibliography format is often used by scholars working in the humanities (history, literature, etc.). The notes and bibliography system is useful when a scholar needs to cite a variety of material such as books, journal articles, archival documents, and oral interviews. Unlike other citation models that embed citations into the text, Chicago-style citations use footnotes or endnotes to denote their citations. Footnotes and endnotes will often appear as a raised superscript number in the text.

A Complete Chicago Citation Entry

Every complete Chicago citation consists of two parts:

• Footnote or Endnote: a raised superscript number in the text that leads the reader to a full citation at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or at the end of the paper (endnotes).
• Reference Entry: a complete bibliographic citation listed alphabetically at the end of the paper in the reference list/bibliography.

Footnotes and Endnotes

Online journal article

Stephen Prince, “True Lies: Perceptual Realism, Digital Images, and Film Theory,” Film Quarterly 49, no. 3 (Spring 1996): 29, https://doi.org/10.2307/1213468.

Book with a single author

Barbara A. Shailor, The Medieval Book (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991), 102.

Book with multiple authors

Nancy Christie and Michael Gauvreau, Christian Churches and their Peoples, 1840–1965: A
Social History of Religion in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), 145.

Chapter in an edited book

Lindsey Dodd, “Small Fish, Big Pond: Using a Single Oral Narrative to Reveal Broader
Social Change,” in Understanding Memory as Source and Subject, ed. Joan Tumblety (New York: Routledge, 2013), 34.

Work by an organization

World Health Organization, Guideline: Nutritional Care and Support for Patients with
Tuberculosis (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2013), 22.

Website

Laura Goldfarb, “Clear Speech, Clear Mind,” Laurier Writing Centre (blog), last modified
April 26, 2019, https://laurierwriting.wordpress.com/2019/04/26/clear-speech-clear-mind/.

Film

Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg (Paramount Pictures, 1998),
https://www.netflix.com/watch/21878564.

News article

Jeffrey Jones, “Digital Carbon-Offset Platform Patch Attracts Support from Venture
Capitalists,” The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2021,
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-digital-carbon-offset-platform-patch-
attracts-support-from-venture/.

Reference List

For more information, you can consult the Online Writing Lab at Purdue and the CMS website. 

Writing Services, Wilfrid Laurier University, CC By-NC 2023