Chicago Citation Guide - 17th Edition

Formatting

For a bibliography, invert the first author name (last name, first name) and then list all subsequent authors in proper order.

• Doe, John
• Doe, John and Jane Doe
• Doe John, Jane Doe, and Jim Smith

For a note, list all names in proper order:

• John Doe
• John Doe and Jane Doe
• John Doe, Jane Doe, and Jim Smith

Organizations

List organizations in proper order, capitalizing all important words. If you would like to use a common abbreviation, you may do so, provided you include the full name in parentheses.

• Modern Language Association
• University of Florida
• CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Suffixes and Titles

Do not include academic titles such as Dr. or Ph.D. Include Jr. or other name suffixes. Omit titles like King or Saint, as well as places ("of England").

• King, Martin Luther, Jr.
• Henry VIII

Pseudonyms

If pseudonyms are widely known, use them as the name. If you would like to include a real name, place in square brackets.

• Twain, Mark
• Galbraith, Robert [J.K. Rowling]

Newspapers with No Author

In a bibliography, if you are citing a newspaper article that does not list an author, put the name of the newspaper as the author. If a newswire (such as the Associated Press) is credited, use them as the author.

Associated Press. "Saudi Arabia: No Evidence Shows It Had a Hand in 9/11 Attack." New York Times, January 4, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/01/04/us/ap-us-sept-11-attacks-lawsuit.html.

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL). "Tablets to be X-Rayed Separately in New U.S. Airport Security Screening." July 27, 2017. NewsBank.

In a note, begin with the title:

          1. "Cars, Cars, Where to Put the Cars," Daytona Beach News, October 2011, US Newsstream.

Capitalization

Titles are listed in title case, where all important words are capitalized. Do not capitalize prepositions or articles unless they begin the title or subtitle.

• A History of the Mediterranean
• How to Cite in Chicago Style
• Of Human Bondage
• African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations 

Formatting

Format titles that stand alone in italics: 

• books
• journals
• newspapers
• government reports
• films
• blogs
• artwork

Format titles that are part of something bigger in "quotation marks":

• chapters in books
• essays, poems or stories in an anthology
• entries in a reference book
• articles in a journal, magazine, or newspaper
• songs
• Web pages
• videos uploaded to YouTube
• episodes of television or podcasts
• tweet

Titles of Magazines/Newspapers

Typically the initial The is dropped from a magazine or newspaper title:

• Atlantic
• Gainesville Sun
• New Yorker

If local newspapers do not include the city in the name, add it in parentheses. Well-known newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal do not need an addition:

• Chicago Tribune
• News Herald (Panama City, FL)
• Tampa Bay Times

Depending on the type of source you are citing, you may need different types of retrieval information. Examples include:

• Book - edition, place of publication, and publisher
• eBook - place of publication, publisher, and eBook edition
• Chapter or Entry in a Book - title, editor, page range, place of publication, and publisher for book
• Journal Article - journal title, volume, issue, page numbers, and DOI, URL, or database name
• Magazine/Newspaper Article - magazine/newspaper title, full date, and URL or database name
• Web page - website and URL

Publication Information

When including a place of publication, use only the city if it is well known. Include the two letter postal abbreviation for the state if the city is not well known. List only the first city.

• New York
• Boston
• Washington, DC
• New Haven, CT

Self-Published Books

If using a self-published book with no listed location, type Self-published as the location.

Online Journal Information

DOI

If an online journal article has a DOI, use that in the citation. Format the DOI as follows:

• https://doi.org/XXXXXXXX

DOIs can be found in the database record or on the first page of the article.

Nichols, Shaun. "Process Debunking and Ethics." Ethics 124, no. 4 (2014): 727–749. https://doi.org/10.1086/675877.

Permalink

If there is no DOI, look for a permalink to the article that can be shared. Typically this is called a permalink or Stable URL. If you have found an article through the database, you will usually not be able to copy the URL in the address bar.

Nichols, Shaun. "Process Debunking and Ethics." Ethics 124, no. 4 (2014): 727–749. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/675877.

Database Name

If you do not have a DOI or a permalink, instead include the name of the database in which you found the article.

Nichols, Shaun. 2014. "Process Debunking and Ethics." Ethics 124, no. 4 (2014): 727–749, JSTOR.

URL

For online resources, provide the URL. Do not use URL shorteners like Bit.ly or TinyURL.

No Date

For online resources with no date, provide an access date.

Micallef, Joseph V. "Origins of the July Crisis: Lighting the Fuse." Military.com. Accessed January 4, 2018. https://www.military.com/history/world-war-i-july-crisis.html.

          1. Joseph V. Micallef, "Origins of the July Crisis: Lighting the Fuse," Military.com, accessed January 4, 2018, https://www.military.com/history/world-war-i-july-crisis.html.

Not Yet Published

For items that are not yet published (sometimes found through the databases as pre-pub or in press articles), use the word forthcoming in the place of the date.

Bibliography Template

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal (forthcoming). DOI, permalink, or library database.

Note Template

          1. Author, "Title of Article," Title of Journal (forthcoming), DOI, permalink, or library database.