LibGuides: Citation Styles: Chicago Style 17th

Introduction to The Chicago Style

This guide provides a brief summary of the rules of referencing sources for the 17th edition of The Chicago Style.

The Chicago Style 17th edition uses two types of format for referencing sources:

Author-Date system
Notes-Bibliography (NB) system

If you are unsure which format to use, you may ask your professor / supervisor.

For full details and more comprehensive examples, please consult this book.

Author-Date system

The Author-Date system is commonly used in the sciences and social sciences. Works that are cited in the text are in parentheses - author's last name and year of publication. Every in-text citation created will correspond to the entries in the reference list (found at the end of the document). These references are arrange alphabetically according to the authors' names.

The samples below illustrates the Author-Date system. For many other examples, please click here.

Guidelines	Examples
Books	Reference list Cockcroft, Robert and Susan Cockcroft. 2005. Persuading People: An Introduction to Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Hosseini, Khaled. 2007. The Kite Runner. London: Bloomsbury. In-text citations (Cockcroft and Cockcroft 2005, 60-65) (Hosseini 2007, 299–302)
Journals	Reference list Cho, Insu, Heejun Park, and Joseph Kichul Kim. 2014. "The relationship between motivation and information sharing about products and services on Facebook." Behaviour & Information Technology 34 (9): 858-868. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2014.988177. In-text citations (Cho, Park, and Kichul 2014, 3-4)
Newspaper article	Reference list Montague, Zach. 2021. "Biden Celebrates Progress Against Virus, but Acknowledges Hurdles Ahead." New York Times, July 4, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/us/politics/biden-independence-day-coronavirus.html?smid=url-share In-text citations (Montague, 2021)

Notes-Bibliography system

The Notes-Bibliography (NB) system is usually used in the humanities (e.g., literature, history and the arts) to give authors a systematic way of referencing their work using footnotes, endnotes and assisted by the use of a bibliography. NB uses numbered footnotes in the text to lead readers to a shortened citation found at the end of the document. Each note and subscript number in the text correlates with each other and matches to a fuller citation in the list of bibliography.

The samples below illustrates the NB styles. For many other examples, please click here.

Guidelines	Examples
Books	Notes 1. Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner (London: Bloomsbury, 2007), 99-100. *Bibliography entry* Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. London: Bloomsbury, 2007.
E-book	Notes 1. Han Byung Chul, The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017), chap. 3, EBSCOhost eBook Collection. *Bibliography entry* Han, Byung-Chul. The Scent of Time: A Philosophical Essay on the Art of Lingering. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2017. EBSCOhost eBook Collection.
Journals	Notes 1. Jennifer Lantrip and Jacquelyn Ray, "Faculty Perceptions and Usage of OER at Oregon Community Colleges." Community College Journal of Research and Practice (2020) 7-8, https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2020.1838967. Bibliography entry Lantrip, Jennifer, and Jacquelyn Ray. "Faculty Perceptions and Usage of OER at Oregon Community Colleges." Community College Journal of Research and Practice (2020): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2020.1838967.
Newspaper article	*Notes* 1. Cheryl Tan, "Steady queue at supermarkets, pharmacies for free oximeter on first day of collection," Straits Times, July 5, 2021, https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/steady-queue-at-supermarkets-pharmacies-for-free-oximeter-on-first-day-of-collection. Bibliography entry Tan, Cheryl. "Steady queue at supermarkets, pharmacies for free oximeter on first day of collection." Straits Times, July 5, 2021. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/steady-queue-at-supermarkets-pharmacies-for-free-oximeter-on-first-day-of-collection.

How to cite ChatGPT (Chicago Style)

The Chicago Manual of style has recommendations on how to cite AI tools. You need to credit ChatGPT when you reproduce its words within your own work, but that information should be put in the text or in a note—not in a bibliography or reference list.

For most types of writing, you may acknowledge the AI tool in your text (e.g., “The following recipe for pizza dough was generated by ChatGPT”).

Author-date

If you’re using author-date instead of notes, any information not in the text would be placed in a parenthetical text reference.

Example:
“(ChatGPT, July 7, 2023).”

But do not cite ChatGPT in a bibliography or reference list.

Notes and Bibliography

If you need a more formal citation—for example, for a student paper or for a research article—a numbered footnote or endnote :

FOOTNOTE FORM

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, July 7, 2023, Open AI, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

ChatGPT is the author of the content, and the date is the date the text was generated. OpenAI (the organization that developed ChatGPT) is then listed as the publisher or sponsor of the content.

If the prompt hasn’t been included in the text, it can be included in the note:

7. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make Shepherd's Pie,” July 7, 2023, Open AI.

IN-TEXT EXAMPLE

The following recipe for Shepherd’s Pie was generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT, July 7, 2023.

If you’ve edited the AI-generated text, you should say so in the text or at the end of the note (e.g., “edited for style and content”).

For details, please go to The Chicago Manual of Style Online: Citation, Documentation of Sources

Additional resources

The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff
Call Number: Z253.U58
ISBN: 9780226287058
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
Technologies may change, but the need for clear and accurate communication never goes out of style. That is why for more than one hundred years The Chicago Manual of Style has remained the definitive guide for anyone who works with words. In the seven years since the previous edition debuted, we have seen an extraordinary evolution in the way we create and share knowledge. This seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been prepared with an eye toward how we find, create, and cite information that readers are as likely to access from their pockets as from a bookshelf. It offers updated guidelines on electronic workflows and publication formats, tools for PDF annotation and citation management, web accessibility standards, and effective use of metadata, abstracts, and keywords. It recognizes the needs of those who are self-publishing or following open access or Creative Commons publishing models. The citation chapters reflect the ever-expanding universe of electronic sources--including social media posts and comments, private messages, and app content--and also offer updated guidelines on such issues as DOIs, time stamps, and e-book locators. Other improvements are independent of technological change. The chapter on grammar and usage includes an expanded glossary of problematic words and phrases and a new section on syntax as well as updated guidance on gender-neutral pronouns and bias-free language. Key sections on punctuation and basic citation style have been reorganized and clarified. To facilitate navigation, headings and paragraph titles have been revised and clarified throughout. And the bibliography has been updated and expanded to include the latest and best resources available. This edition continues to reflect expert insights gathered from Chicago's own staff and from an advisory board of publishing experts from across the profession. It also includes suggestions inspired by emails, calls, and even tweets from readers. No matter how much the means of communication change, The Chicago Manual of Style remains the ultimate resource for those who care about getting the details right.