Chicago Notes and Bibliography Referencing Style
Reflects the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (2024)
Overview
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) has two citation systems: Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. This guide covers the Notes and Bibliography system, which is the system most commonly used across the humanities – including literature, history, art history, and related subjects. CMOS also offers an Author-Date system, which uses in-text parenthetical citations rather than footnotes and is more common in the sciences and social sciences; a brief comparison is given near the end of this guide. If you are unsure which system your course requires, check your course Moodle page or ask your instructor.
This guide reflects the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, published in 2024, which is the current edition. The full manual is available online to University of Glasgow students at The Chicago Manual of Style Online, and a free quick-reference citation guide is available at chicagomanualofstyle.org.
How footnotes work
In the Notes and Bibliography system, you insert a superscript number in your text immediately after any material you cite – whether you are quoting, paraphrasing, or summarising.1 This number corresponds to a numbered footnote at the bottom of the same page (or, if using endnotes, to an entry in a collected list before the bibliography).
- Full note. The first time you cite a source, give a full note with complete publication details.
- Shortened note. Every subsequent citation of the same source uses a shortened note – normally the author's surname, a short form of the title, and the page number.
- A bibliography at the end of your work lists every source cited in full, ordered alphabetically by author surname. Sources without an author are alphabetised by title.
Note: under CMOS 18, place of publication is no longer required in notes or bibliography entries – only the publisher and year. Examples below follow this current guidance. Page numbers given in the worked examples are illustrative, to demonstrate format, rather than verified citations to specific pages in those works.
Books (one author)
Full note:
Author's First name Surname, Italicised Title (Publisher, Year), page.
Example: Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble (Duke University Press, 2016), 24.
Shortened note:
Author's Surname, Short Title, page.
Example: Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 24.
Bibliography entry:
Surname, First name. Italicised Title. Publisher, Year.
Example: Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble. Duke University Press, 2016.
Note: in the bibliography, list the author's surname first so entries sort alphabetically.
E-books:
For an electronic edition, add the format, database name, or URL, and (if relevant) the access date.
Example: Katie Garner, Romantic Women Writers and Arthurian Legend: The Quest for Knowledge (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), accessed June 30, 2020, https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137597113.
Example: Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Penguin Classics, 2007), Kindle.
Example: Brooke Borel, The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking (University of Chicago Press, 2016), ProQuest Ebrary.
Books (multiple authors)
Two authors
Full note:
Author 1 First Surname and Author 2 First Surname, Italicised Title (Publisher, Year), page.
Example: Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (Simon & Schuster, 2015), 112.
Shortened note:
Example: Grazer and Fishman, A Curious Mind, 112.
Bibliography entry:
Author 1 Surname, First name, and Author 2 First name Surname. Italicised Title. Publisher, Year.
Example: Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Three or more authors
In a note, you may name the first author followed by “et al.” once a work has four or more authors. In the bibliography, list all authors (up to ten) in the order they appear on the source.
Full note (four or more authors):
Example: Sheryl Tatar Dasco et al., Managed Care Answer Book (Panel Publishers, 1995), 215.
Bibliography entry:
Example: Dasco, Sheryl Tatar, Clifford C. Dasco, Connie U. Brelhan, Kirk C. Harlow, Margaret S. Jaffee-Neer, Marilyn Rumsey, and Ellison H. Wittels. Managed Care Answer Book. Panel Publishers, 1995.
Chapter in an edited book
When citing a chapter written by a contributor to an edited collection, give details of the chapter in the note, but also include the book and its editor.
Full note:
Chapter Author's First name Surname, “Chapter Title,” in Italicised Book Title, ed. Editor's First name Surname (Publisher, Year), page.
Example: Henry David Thoreau, “Walking,” in The Making of the American Essay, ed. John D’Agata (Graywolf Press, 2016), 175.
Shortened note:
Example: Thoreau, “Walking,” 175.
Bibliography entry:
Chapter author's Surname, First name. “Chapter Title.” In Italicised Book Title, edited by Editor's First and Last names, page range. Publisher, Year.
Example: Thoreau, Henry David. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Graywolf Press, 2016.
Note: only the chapter author is cited in the body of your essay – not the book's editor.
Journal articles
Full note:
Author's First name Surname, “Title of Article,” Italicised Journal Title volume, no. issue (Year): page, URL or DOI.
Example: Shao-Hsun Keng, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem, “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality,” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 12, https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
Shortened note:
Example: Keng, Lin, and Orazem, “Expanding College Access in Taiwan,” 12.
Bibliography entry:
Author's Surname, First name, Author 2 First name Surname, and Author 3 First name Surname. “Title of Article.” Italicised Journal Title volume, no. issue (Additional date information): page range. URL or DOI.
Example: Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.
Websites
Where there is no obvious individual author, begin the citation with the corporate author or the webpage title.
Full note:
Author's First name Surname (or Corporate author), “Webpage Title,” Website Name, last modified Date (if available), accessed Date, URL.
Example: Google, “Privacy Policy,” Privacy & Terms, last modified April 17, 2017, accessed March 3, 2018, https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Example (no date available): Yale University, “About Yale: Yale Facts,” accessed May 1, 2017, https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.
Shortened note:
Example: Google, “Privacy Policy.”
Bibliography entry:
Author's Surname, First name (or Corporate author). “Webpage Title.” Website Name. Last modified Date (if available). Accessed Date. URL.
Example: Google. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified April 17, 2017. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The Chicago Manual of Style's own guidance treats generative AI output (for example, text from ChatGPT) similarly to personal communication for citation purposes. Because an AI conversation cannot be retrieved by another reader – even using the identical prompt – and any link the tool provides usually requires your own login credentials, Chicago recommends citing AI tools in a footnote or in-text, rather than in the bibliography.
The exception is when you can provide a publicly available link to the conversation (for example, via a sharing tool); in that case, a bibliography entry may be included. Without such a link, omit the bibliography entry.
It is also good academic practice to keep a record of your prompts and the AI's responses, even if you do not include them in your submission.
Footnote format:
AI Company Name, Tool Name, response to author, Month Date, Year.
Example: OpenAI, ChatGPT, response to author, September 14, 2026.
Example: Google, Bard, response to author, September 14, 2026.
Example: Anthropic, Claude Sonnet 4.6, response to author, September 14, 2026.
For more guidance regarding the use of generative AI, see Student Learning Development (SLD)'s AI guidance.