An in-text citation is used to point readers toward any source you quote, paraphrase or refer to in your writing. The Chicago Manual of Style has two options for in-text citations:
You should choose one of these two citation options and use it consistently throughout your text. The source details are listed in full in a bibliography or reference list at the end.
1. Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” 11.
Author-date style places citations directly in the text in parentheses. In-text citations include the author’s last name, the year of publication, and if applicable, a page number or page range:
(Johnson 2016, 23)
This style of Chicago in-text citation looks the same for every type of source.
When using author-date, you should always include a reference list with an entry corresponding to each citation. This provides the reader with full publication information to locate the source.
The author-date style gives you some flexibility in where you place your citations in the text.
Most commonly, you will put the citation at the end of the relevant sentence (before the period). You can also integrate it into the sentence. If you name the author in your sentence, you only need to include the date and page number in parentheses.
One researcher argues that “the data is unconvincing” (Johnson 2016, 138). Nevertheless, Smith (2017, 121) contends that the study makes “a compelling case” for this plan of action.
Multiple citations can also be combined within one set of parentheses using a semicolon.
Other researchers (Dale 2018, 75–81; Valentine 2018) have weighed in on the topic more recently.
In notes and bibliography style, your citations appear in either footnotes or endnotes.
To create a Chicago footnote or endnote reference, a superscript number is placed at the end of the clause or sentence that the citation applies to, after any punctuation (periods, quotation marks, parentheses). Your first citation is marked with a 1, your second with a 2, and so on.
Johnson argues that “the data is unconvincing.” 1 Nevertheless, Smith contends that the study makes “a compelling case” for this plan of action. 2
These superscript numbers correspond to numbered footnotes or endnotes containing the actual citation.
There are two types of note you can use in Chicago style: full and short.
You should usually use a full note the first time you cite each source. If you cite the same source more than once, use a short note for each subsequent citation. You may also use “ibid.” to repeat the citation from the previous note, but short notes are the more usual choice.
The rules of your specific institution may vary, requiring you to use one of the two note styles every time. It’s important to check with your instructor if you’re unsure.
This is what a full and short note for the same citation might look like:
1. Virginia Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” in Selected Essays, ed. David Bradshaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 11.
2. Woolf, “Modern Fiction”, 11.
This is an example of a full note, 1 and this is an example of a shortened note. 2
| 1. Courtney Gahan, “How to Paraphrase Sources,” Scribbr, April 18, 2018, https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/how-to-paraphrase/. |
| 2. Gahan, “How to Paraphrase Sources.” |
Notes: If the publication date is unknown, add the date you accessed the information (e.g accessed on March 12, 2019).
Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page they refer to, while endnotes appear in their own section at the end of the text, before the bibliography.
The citation looks exactly the same whether it appears in a footnote or an endnote. If you haven’t been told which one to use, the choice is a matter of personal preference. The important thing is to consistently use one or the other.
In both styles, when you cite a source with two or three authors, list the names in the order they appear in the original publication:
(Johnson and Smith 2017, 119)
1. Johnson, Smith, and Dale, “Literature Review,” 127–134.
When a source has four or more authors, use the term “et al.” after the first author’s name:
(Dale et al. 2016)
1. Dale et al., “Literature Review,” 127–134.
Sometimes, not all of the information you need for your citation will be available. Thankfully, there are ways to work around this in both styles.
Page numbers are not always necessary; if the source doesn’t have page numbers (e.g. a website), or if you’re referring to the general argument of a text instead of a specific passage, you can omit page numbers.
If a source has no page numbers but you still want to specify a particular part of the text, you can use other locators like paragraphs, chapters or headings instead – whatever markers the text provides:
(Johnson 2016, under “Results”)
1. Johnson, “Literature Review,” chap. 2.1.
If the source doesn’t have a stated publication date, you can write “n.d.” in place of the year:
1. Smith, Data Analysis (New York: Norton, n.d.), 293.
If no specific author is listed, you can refer to the organization that published the source:
1. Scribbr, “Chicago Style Citation.”