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Chicago Style: Basics

This guide is intended to help you learn what Chicago Style is and includes. This guide will help you cite sources and avoid plagiarism. The guide also includes examples of Chicago style and lead you to resources that can help you cite sources.

Hanging Indent

The bibliography entry text should be left-justified; if an entry is more than one line, indent the subsequent line(s) half an inch from the left margin. For more information, please see the CMOS 2.24: Format for bibliographies and reference lists.

NOTE: The library's webpage doesn't show the hanging indent in our examples. 

Books

Book by a Single Author

Reference List Format:

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. Year. Title of Work. Place of Publication: Publisher.

For Example:

Tomblin, Barbara Brooks. 2016. The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky.

Corresponding In-Text Citation:

(Tomblin 2016, 120-35)

See note ¹

 

Books by Two or Three Authors

Reference List Format:

AuthorLastNameA, AuthorFirstNameA, and AuthorFirstNameB AuthorLastNameB. Year. Title of Work. Place of Publication: Publisher.

OR

AuthorLastNameA, AuthorFirstNameA, AuthorFirstNameB AuthorLastNameB, and AuthorFirstNameC AuthorLastNameC. Year. Title of Work. Place of Publication: Publisher.

For Example:

Dooley, John, and Robert Emmett Curran. 2012. John Dooley's Civil War: An Irish American's Journey in the First Virginia Infantry Regiment. Knoxville: Univ Tennessee Press.

Corresponding In-Text Citation:

(Dooley and Curran 2012, 45).

 

Books by Four or More Authors

Reference List Format:

AuthorLastNameA, AuthorFirstNameA, AuthorFirstNameB AuthorLastNameB, AuthorFirstNameC AuthorLastNameC, AuthorFirstNameD AuthorLastNameD. Year. Title of Work. Place of Publication: Publisher.

For Example:

Folsom, George, Virginia Smith, Thomas Pepe, and Linda Bursns. 2017. History of Libraries. Manchester, NH: Shapiro Library Press.

Corresponding In-Text Citation:

(Folsom et al. 2017, 92-3)

 

Chapter of a Multiauthor Book

Reference List Format:

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. Year. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Work, edited by EditorFirstName EditorLastName, pages. Place of Publication: Publisher.

For Example:

Qullliam, Neil. 2016. “Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Oil.” In Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy: Conflict and Cooperation, edited by Neil Partrick, 30-51. London: I.B.Tauris.

Corresponding In-Text Citation:

(Qullliam 2016, 32)

 

Ebook

Reference List Format: 

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName. Year. Title of Work. Place of Publication: Publisher. URL or Database Name.

For Example: 

Lack, Caleb W., and Jacques Rousseau. 2016. Critical Thinking, Science, and Pseudoscience: Why We Can't Trust Our Brains. New York: Springer Publishing Company. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Corresponding In-Text Citation: 

(Lack and Rousseau 2016, 54)

 

¹ For more information on special circumstances please see 15.30: Multiple text references This link opens in a new window, 15.34: Author-date format for anonymous works (no listed author) This link opens in a new window, 15.36: Editor in place of author in text citations This link opens in a new window, 15.40: Reprint editions and modern editions—more than one date This link opens in a new window, 15.41: Multivolume works published over more than one year This link opens in a new window, 15.44: No date of publication in author-date references This link opens in a new window.