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Chicago Citation Guide - 18th Edition

Citing using Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition

Introduction to Chicago Style

The Chicago citation style is primarily used by disciplines in history and some humanities fields. The official guide is published by the University of Chicago Press:

Which Version?

Chicago uses two versions to cite sources. You will need to know which version is required for your class or assignment. If you are unsure, ask your professor.

Author-Date

Author-Date citations list the date second in the citation. To refer to information within a paper, it uses in-text citations.

Notes & Bibliography

Notes & Bibliography citations list the title second in the citation. To refer to information within a paper, it uses footnotes and endnotes.

Generated Citation Warnings

Caution

If you use machine-generated citations - from databases or online citation machines - make sure to check them carefully against the examples in this guide! They frequently contain errors and/or use outdated style guidelines.

Popular Citation Generators

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • You can create a free account to get additional features like saving and organizing citations

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, IEEE, AMA, and many more

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, legislation, dictionary entries, patents, and more

OTHER FEATURES

  • Automatic citations for books, journals & websites
  • Generates in-text citations from your reference list
  • Offers export to Word or Google Docs
  • Chrome extension and Google Docs add-ins available

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • If you want to save your project or be able to access it from any device, you'll have to create an account

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE, AMA, and many more

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, legislation, dictionary entries, patents, and more

OTHER FEATURES

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • If you want to save your project or be able to access it from any device, you'll have to create an account

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, Bluebook, etc. (7 total styles)

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, legislation, YouTube videos, and more (12 citation sources total) 

OTHER FEATURES

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account
  • You can create a free account to get additional features like saving and organizing citations

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, etc

OTHER FEATURES

  • Requires you to fill in all information for your source

FREE?

  • You can create citations for free without creating an account.
  • If you want to save your project or be able to access it from any device, you may need to create a Zotero account or download a Zotero plugin or add-on. These are also free.

CITATION STYLES

  • MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian, IEEE, AMA, and many more

TYPES OF SOURCES

  • Book, anthology, periodical, multimedia, communication, online only, legislation, dictionary entries, patents, and more

OTHER FEATURES

  • To add a source, paste or type its URL, ISBN, DOI, PMID, arXiv ID, or title into the search box. Manual entry of information is also supported.
  • You can copy and paste your reference list or works cited list to RTF or any word processing program.
  • You can also download a Chrome connector to be able to add references through your browser. Zotero also offers a number of plugins to help organize your research.

There are a LOT of options for citation generators. Some are free and some require that you create an account to access additional features such as storing unlimited citations.

How to choose?

  1. Does it offer the citation style you need? APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian
  2. Is the citation style edition the correct one? MLA 9th, APA 7th, etc.
  3. Are citations generated automatically or will you need to manually input the information?
  4. Will you need to create an account to access the features you want?
  5. Are the generated citations accurate?

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