Chicago Author-Date Referencing Style

Citation of sources in Chicago Author-Date style

This resource provides guidance in citation according to Chicago Author-Date style. The Chicago Manual of Style, currently in its 17th edition, has two citation styles: notes and bibliography and author-date. This style guide will give an overview of the author-date system. For notes and bibliography, see the previous page. Note that the manual is available online at The Chicago Manual of Style Online.

Overview

Chicago author-date style consists of in-text citations alongside a corresponding bibliography at the end of the text.

Parenthetical (indirect) citations:

If the author’s name does not form a natural part of your sentence, then the in-text citation should be provided at the end of the sentence in parentheses, using the following format: (Author's Surname publication year, page number ).

Example: Clearly, ‘the concept of the mind admits different connotations’ (Misra 2019, 2).

Narrative (direct) citations:

If the author’s name forms a natural part of your sentence, then the surname should be immediately followed by (year of publication, page number).

Example: Misra (2019, 2) notes that ‘the concept of the mind admits different connotations’.

Multiple authors:

If you want to reference multiple sources in the same sentence, then do so within a single parenthetical citation, placing them in alphabetical order and separating them with semicolons: (Author's surname year of publication; Author 2's surname year of publication; Author 3's surname year of publication).

Example: There is a positive correlation between meditation and stress reduction (Adams et al. 2019; Shumway and Shulman 2015; Westinghouse 2017).

Note: Use et al. for in-text citations of works with four or more authors.

Bibliography Basics:

The basic structure for the Chicago Author-Date bibliography is similar to the Harvard Referencing style: Author's Lastname, Firstname. Year of Publication. Italicised Title. Place of Publication: Publisher's name.

Example: Haraway, Donna. 2016. Staying with the Trouble. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Your reference list links with your in-text citations, enabling readers to easily trace the sources cited within your work. The reference list is a list of the documents from which any information has been taken and used in your work. Your reference list should be arranged alphabetically by authors' surnames. Sources without authors are arranged alphabetically by title within the same list.

These examples cover the most common types of sources, but you can find guidelines on how to reference different source types on the Chicago Manual of Style website.

Remember that there are two types of Chicago referencing styles, so make sure to check your course Moodle to see if you have been advised to use a specific type.

Books (one author)

Citation format:

Required information: (Author’s surname Year of publication, Page number)

Narrative example: Coira (2012, 13-21) identifies three main categories of eulogy.

Parenthetical example: The role of eulogy may vary, depending on the patron’s age and status (Coira 2012, 47).

Note: page numbers are required for paraphrasing specific information and/or pinpointing a quote. Use "Page-range" if citing multiple pages. E.g. (Coira 2012, 47-48)

Bibliography format:

Author's Lastname, Firstname. Year of Publication. Italicised Title. Place of Publication: Publisher's name.

Example: Haraway, Donna. 2016. Staying with the Trouble. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Note: Since the bibliography comes in alphabetical order, begin with the author’s last name instead of first name.

Further information:

If the book is an electronic copy use the following format:

Author's Lastname, Firstname. Year of Publication. Italicised Title. Place of Publication: Publisher's name. Accessed Access Date. URL, Database Name or Format

Example: Garner, Katie. 2017. Romantic women writers and Arthurian legend: The quest for knowledge. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Accessed June 30, 2020. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137597113

Example: Austen, Jane. 2007. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics. Kindle.

Example: Borel, Brooke. 2016. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ProQuest Ebrary.

Further information:

Books (multiple authors)

Citation format:

Required information (Two authors): (Author 1 Surname and Author 2 Surname Year of publication, Page number)

Narrative example: Clemens and Graham (2008) provide a meticulously researched introduction to medieval manuscript studies.

Parenthetical example: A thorough introduction to manuscript studies, however, ‘may not be introduced comprehensively until postgraduate level’ (Clemens and Graham 2008, 43).

Note: Provide page numbers if quoting or paraphrasing.

Required information (Four or more authors): (Author 1 Surname et al. Year of publication, Page number).

If a source has four or more authors, the name of the first author should be given, followed by the phrase "et al."

Parenthetical example: The SAMUELS project led to the development of the Historical Thesaurus semantic tagger (Alexander et al. 2015).

Narrative example: Alexander et al. (2015) developed the HT semantic tagger as part of the SAMUELS project.

Bibliography format:

Required information (Two authors): Author 1 Surname, Author 1 First name, and Author 2 First name Surname. Publication year. Italicised Title. Place of Publication: Publisher's name.

Example: Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Required information (Three or more authors): Author 1 Surname, Author 1 First name, Author 2 First name Surname, and Author 3 First name Surname. Publication year. Italicised Title. Place of Publication: Publisher's name.

Example: Dasco, Sheryl Tatar, Clifford C. Dasco, Connie U. Brelhan, Kirk C. Harlow, Margaret S. Jaffee-Neer, Marilyn Rumsey, and Ellison H. Wittels. 1995. Managed Care Answer Book. New York: Panel Publishers.

Note: List all authors in the bibliography, even if there are three or more, retaining the order the names are presented in the original.

Chapter in an edited book

Citation format:

If you are referencing a book with chapters written by different authors, you need to give details of the chapter in-text and both the chapter and the book that the chapter is from in your bibliography.

Required information: (Surname of the chapter author Year of publication, Page number)

Parenthetical example: An earlier survey of the types and usage of elegy composed in Scots, Latin, and Gaelic further examines these stylistic differences (Martin and Mathis 2018).

Note: In the body of your essay you should only cite the author of the chapter you are referencing.

Bibliography format:

Required information: Surname of the chapter author, Chapter author's first name. Publication year. "Chapter title." In Italicised title of book, edited by Editor's First and Last names, Page numbers span. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example: Thoreau, Henry David. 2016. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.

Further information:

Journal articles

Citation format:

Required information: (Author’s surname Year of publication, Page number)

Parenthetical example: (Woolf 2017, 215)

Note: page numbers are required for paraphrasing specific information and/or pinpointing the quote

Bibliography format:

Required information: Author’s Surname, Author's First name. Publication year. "Title of article." Italicised Journal Title Volume number, no. issue number (Additional Date Information): page range of the article. URL/DOI

Example: Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. 2017. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

Example: Borgen, Alexandra. 2011. "Gender and Alcohol: The Swedish Press Debate." Journal of Gender Studies 20, no. 2 (June): 155-69.

Further information:

Websites

Citation format:

Required information: (Author’s surname publication date of website) or (Corporate author publication date of website).

Where there is no obvious author, begin citation with the webpage or site title.

Example: (Higley 2007)

Example: (National Library of Scotland 2020)

Note: do not include the URL of the website in your in-text citation. If you are citing specific information from a website that does not have page numbers, you do not need to include anything to indicate this in the in-text citation.

If the website does not have a publication date, use n.d to indicate this in your citation:

Example: (Yale University, n.d.)

Bibliography format:

Required information: Author’s surname, Author's first name. Publication year. "Webpage title." Website name. Last modified Date modified (if available). Accessed Date accessed. URL.

OR

Corporate author. Publication year. "Webpage title." Website name. Last modified Date modified (if available). Accessed Date accessed. URL.

Example: Google. 2017. “Privacy Policy.” Privacy & Terms. Last modified April 17, 2017. Accessed March 3, 2018. https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Example: Yale University. n.d. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed May 1, 2017. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

Further information:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

General guidance

When referencing generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, the current consensus is to reference the use of any AI software/tool as private correspondence. The reasons for this are as follows:

  • Like private correspondence, the prompts and responses you enter into and receive from AI are unique to you.
  • Like private correspondence, AI is a problematic source as it cannot be easily replicated and verified.
  • Like private correspondence, each prompt and response session with AI is time-bound, specific and unique to that moment in time.

Note: When using generative AI it is also good academic practice to keep a record of the input prompt(s) and output response(s), even if you do not include these in the submission itself.

For more guidance regarding the use of generative AI, see Student Learning Development (SLD)'s AI guidance.

Citation format:

Required information: (AI company name, Software/tool name response to author, Month Date, Year)

Example: (OpenAI, ChatGPT response to author, September 14, 2023)

Example: (Google, Bard response to author, September 14, 2023)

Bibliography/Referencing list format:

Because AI prompts and responses are treated as personal communications, they are not included in reference lists or bibliographies in Chicago referencing; they are cited in-text or as footnotes only.