Chicago Author-Date Citations Guide
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  • 12th July 2023

Chicago Author-Date Citations Guide

Note: This is an advanced guide to Chicago (CMoS) Author-Date Citations, useful for professional editors, academics, and students looking to bump up their grades with flawless referencing! If you’re new to Chicago and feel a little lost, check out our introduction to Chicago referencingFor extra help from Chicago experts, try our student proofreading services for free, or learn more about our editing services for businesses.

 

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) uses both a footnote and bibliography system and an author-date system to cite sources.

This guide is to the author-date approach. You can access the CMoS notes and bibliography guide here.

Variations

This guide includes all information related to CMoS 17th ed. The customer should use this (the most up-to-date) edition, but please watch out for any customer comments saying that they’re using an older one. 

You should also pay attention to the requested dialect (usually US, Australian, or UK English) and note:

  • Dialect will not change the spelling of words or use of punctuation in titles or direct quotations, which will depend upon the original work. If you suspect that there may have been an error, simply raise that as a query and suggest that the customer checks with the original. 
  • Anything that is specifically an element of the referencing system (e.g. positioning of commas and periods) should be consistent within the referencing. If it appears to be different from CMoS referencing style, then you should leave a comment to note this and suggest that the customer checks with the style preferences of their institution.
  • Words that might be used to describe the format of a source within the reference list (e.g., “catalog”) will follow the rules of the preferred dialect in the same way as the main narrative. 

In-Text Citations: The Basics

CMoS author-date uses in-text citations to credit a source. The most basic form is the author’s last name and year followed by a comma and page number(s). 

Type In-text citation
One author (Smith 2019, 13–15)
Two authors (Smith and Jones 2018, 123–156)
Three authors (Smith, Jones, and White 2020, 456–487)
Four or more authors (Smith et al. 2022, 12–13)

No date (n.d.)

If a source has no date, use “n.d.” in the citation and corresponding reference list entry. 

In-text citation Reference list entry
(Smith n.d., 12–15) Smith, John. n.d. …

Page numbers

Include a page number in the citation if a direct quote or paraphrasing is used in the text. Do not use “p.” in front of the page numbers. If a page range is needed, use an en dash. 

The citation for a direct quote or paraphrasing can go in two places: with the author name at the beginning of the citation or directly following the quote or paraphrasing. 

As Edward Tufte points out, “A graphical element may carry data information and also perform a design function usually left to non-data-ink” (2001, 139). As Edward Tufte (2001, 139) points out, “A graphical element may carry data information and also perform a design function usually left to non-data-ink.”

Repeating or subsequent citations

If the same source is referenced without another intervening citation and they are close to each other, the customer may use a shortened citation (only the page number) or ibid. (ibid., page number). CMoS recommends that, if you do use ibid., you should do so consistently. 

Avoid overusing either form. For example, the occasional ibid. or page number without the author name is appropriate in an extended discussion in a work of fiction, but you should make sure that it is clear to the reader which source you are citing.

Organization as author (reference list and in-text citations) 

Corporate (group/organizational) authors are given at the start of bibliographic entries even if the publisher is the same as the author. 

If a group/organization’s name is given as an acronym in in-text citations, the acronym should be used in the reference list as well (to make it easier to find), with the full name given in parentheses afterward. 

In-text citation Reference list entry
(NISO 2010)

NISO (National Information Standards Organization). 2010. Bibliographic References. ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005. Bethesda, MD: NISO, approved June 9, 2005; reaffirmed May 13, 2010.

Pseudonym authors 

If the author’s real name is not known, write [pseud.] following the pseudonym in the reference list ([pseud.] is usually omitted in in-text citations, however). If the author’s real name is known, write their real name in square brackets instead. 

In the case of common pseudonyms, you would usually omit the author’s real name, but it can be included if the customer wishes. 

Type In-text citation Reference list entry
Real name unknown (Alaska Muckraker 2008) Alaska Muckraker [pseud.]. 2008. “Palin Is Back at Work.” Mudflats: Tiptoeing through the Muck of Alaskan Politics (blog), December 5. https://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/palin-is-back-at-work/.
Widely known pseudonym (Eliot 1977) Eliot, George. 1977. Middlemarch. Norton Critical Editions. New York: Norton.
Widely known pseudonym with real name (if desired) (Jay-Z 2010) Jay-Z [Shawn Carter]. 2010. Decoded. New York: Spiegel & Grau.

Multiple Authors

 

  • In-citation, two authors: List both authors’ last names separated by “and.” 
  • In-citation, three authors: List all authors’ last names separated by commas and “and” before the third author. 
  • In-citation, four or more authors: List only the first author’s last name followed by et al. Do not italicize et al. in the in-text citation or reference list entry.
  • In the reference list, multiple authors: The first author’s name goes in last name, first name order. All following authors and contributors (e.g., editors, illustrators, translators) go in first and last name order.
  • In the reference list, many authors: In the reference list entry, list up to 10 authors. For sources with more than 10 authors, list the first 7, followed by et al. Do not italicize et al. in the in-text citation or reference list entry. 
Type In-text citation Reference list entry
Two authors (Last Name and Last Name Year, page numbers) First Author's Last Name, First Name, and Second Author's First Name Last Name. Year. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g. (Wykes and Gunter 2005) Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. 2005. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Three authors (Last Name, Last Name, and Last Name Year, page numbers) First Author's Last Name, First Name, Second Author's First Name Last Name, and Third Author's First Name Last Name. Year. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Place of publication: Publisher.
e.g. (Ledlow, Manrodt, and Schott 2017) Ledlow, Gerald R., Karl Manrodt, and David Schott. 2017. Health Care Supply Chain Management: Elements, Operations, and Strategies. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Four or more authors (1st Author Last Name et al. Year, page numbers) First Author's Last Name, First Name, Second Author's First Name Last Name, Third Author's First Name Last Name, and Fourth Author's First Name Last Name. Year. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition. Place of publication: Publisher.

NB: If a source has 10 or more authors, list the first 7 authors, followed by et al.
e.g. (Kroenke et al. 2019) Kroenke, David M. Randall J Boyle, Andrew Gemino, and Peter Tingling. 2019. Experiencing MIS. 5th Cdn ed. North York, ON: Pearson Canada.

Same Name, Same Year

If two authors share the same last name and have works from the same year, use their initials to differentiate them in in-text citations. 

In-text citation Reference list entry
(J. Comaroff 1993, 123–145)

Comaroff, Jean. 1993. Modernity and Its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

(B. Comaroff 1993, 167–182)

Comaroff, Bob. 1993. Of Revelation and Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Multiple Works, Same Author

If multiple entries are written by the same author, list them chronologically and use the 3-em dash to replace the author’s name after the first entry for that author. 

If multiple entries are written by the same author and are from the same year, use YYYYa, YYYYb, etc. to differentiate the works in the reference list and the in-text citations. Entries with the same author and year should be listed alphabetically according to the first main word in the title (i.e., ignore articles). 

NB: If two (or more) sources are by the same two (or more) authors, only use a, b, etc. if their names are in the same order for both sources. If the sources swap name orders, do not use a, b, etc.; treat them as normal.

In-text citation Reference list entry
(Fogel 2004b, 218)

Fogel, Robert William. 2004a. The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100: Europe, America, and the Third World. New York: Cambridge University Press.

(Fogel 2004a, 45–46)

———. 2004b. “Technophysio Evolution and the Measurement of Economic Growth.” Journal of Evolutionary Economics 14, no. 2 (June): 217–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-004-0188-x.

Citing Multiple Works

If two or more sources are cited in the same in-text citation, list them alphabetically by the first author and add a semicolon to separate them. 

Example: (Anderson 2012; Jones and Smith 2017; Wallock 2009)

If an in-text citation is citing multiple works by the same author, list the years following the author’s last name chronologically, separated by commas. If the citation gives multiple years and page numbers, list the page number after the year and following a comma and use a semicolon to separate that work from the next. See the examples below for clarification. 

Multiple years (Whittaker 1967, 1975; Wiens 1989a, 1989b)
Multiple years with page numbers (Wong 1999, 328; 2000, 475; Garcia 1998, 67)

What if There Isn’t an Author?

There is no corporate or individual author provided for your source, start the reference list entry with the title of the source (ordered alphabetically. In the in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title (up to four words including articles or prepositions). 

Works that have “Anonymous” listed as the author should be cited accordingly and listed in the reference list alphabetically. However, do not put “anonymous” for a source with no attributed author. 

Secondary Citations

Secondary sources are not encouraged but may be necessary if the original source is not available. In these cases, the source given in the reference list is the one that is quoted. In the in-text citation, you should mention the original work in the text itself and provide “(quoted in Author YYYY)” as the citation.

In-text citation Reference list entry
In Louis Zukofsky’s “Sincerity and Objectification,” from the February 1931 issue of Poetry magazine (quoted in Costello 1981) . . .

Costello, Bonnie. 1981. Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

The Reference List

CMoS author-date uses a reference list on a separate page at the end of a document. All works cited in the text should point to a full reference entry in the reference list. Exceptions to this include personal communications (e.g., emails and social media posts), well-known encyclopedias and dictionaries, and web pages. 

Reference List Formatting

The reference list should begin at the end of a document (before the index) and on a separate page. It should be titled “References” at the top of the page. 

The reference list should be single spaced and use hanging indents.

References in Detail

Reference list entries should be listed alphabetically by the first author’s last name, organization name, titles, descriptions in square brackets, or abbreviations (i.e., whatever the reference list entry begins with). 

The biggest difference between CMoS author-date and notes and bibliography is the placement of the date of a source (pay close attention to this detail). 

In author-date, the year of publication of a source directly follows the author’s(/s’) name(s) and is followed by a period. If a source lists a month and day/season (e.g., journal articles or online sources), this information should go later in the reference (see the example reference list entry for specific formatting guidelines). 

For sources with no date (n.d.), such as web pages, use an “Accessed” or “Modified” date in the entry (see the specific reference list entry for specific formatting guidelines). 

Basic Structure of a Reference Entry

  1. Author 
  2. Year 
  3. Title of Work 
  4. Other information (contributors, publisher, accessed dates, etc.) 

Author Names 

The first author listed in a source is written in Last Name, First Name order. All other authors and contributors’ names are written in First and Last Name order. 

“And” is used between two/the last two authors, not an ampersand

Dates 

If available, the year a source was written or published, as appropriate, should appear in all reference entries. 

If an accessed date or modification date is needed for a source (e.g., for an online source), it should go before the URL and should take the following form: Month Day, Year (e.g., Accessed April 24, 2023). 

Titles 

Titles are written in title case unless they are in a language other than English. 

Titles of large works are italicized. 

Short works, such as articles or chapters of a book, and unpublished works, such as working papers, use quotation marks. 

When to Use Abbreviations 

Noun forms such as editor, translator, volume, and edition are abbreviated in a reference entry, but verb forms (e.g., edited by, translated by) are spelled out. 

Common Abbreviations in CMoS
Editor(s) ed(s).
Translator trans.
Volume(s) vol(s).
Number no.
No date n.d.
Director dir.
Edition ed.
page(s) N/A

Punctuation 

Elements are separated by periods. See the examples for more specific formatting guidelines. 

Printed Media

Printed media references and in-text citations follow the basic CMoS formats outlined thus far in the guide.

Source type In-text citation Reference list entry
Book (Last Name Year, page number)

Author Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher.

e.g. (Strayed 2012, 87–88)

Strayed, Cheryl. 2012. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Chapter of an edited book (Last Name Year, specific page number)

Author Last Name, First Name. Year. “Chapter of Book.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor First and Last Name, Page Range. Publisher Location: Publisher.

e.g. (Gould 1984, 310)

Gould, Glenn. 1984. “Streisand as Schwarzkopf.” In The Glenn Gould Reader, edited by Tim Page, 308–11. New York: Vintage Books.

Journal article (Last Name Year, page number)

Author Last Name, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Name of Journal volume no., issue no. # (Month/season): page range.

e.g. (Bagley 2015, 484–85)

Bagley, Benjamin. 2015. “Loving Someone in Particular.” Ethics 125, no. 2 (January): 477–507.

Audiovisual Media

Audiovisual media may have other contributors, such as performers, directions, composers, featured artists, etc. List other contributors’ roles using the abbreviation guidelines given earlier (i.e., nouns are abbreviated and verbs are written out).

Source type In-text citation Reference list entry
Movie/film (Last Name Year)

Director Last Name, First Name, dir. Release year. Film Title. Distributor details, year of edition cited. Format/URL

e.g. (Shankman 2007)

Shankman, Adam, dir. 2007. Hairspray. New York City, NY: New Line Cinema. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B01DDOQA44/.

TV episode (Last Name Year)

Last Name, First Name, role. Year. Name of TV Show. Season and Episode number, “Episode Title.” Featured contributors. Date and channel of first airing. Medium or URL.

e.g. (Morgan 2019)

Morgan, Peter, writer. 2019. The Crown. Season 3, episode 3, “Aberfan.” Directed by Benjamin Caron. Aired November 17 on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/watch/80215733.

Audio CD/LP (Last Name Year, location)

Artist Last Name, First Name, role. Date. “Title of Song.” Featured contributors. Song location, Publisher, format, additional information.

e.g. (Holiday 1958, track 1)

Holiday, Billie, vocalist. 1958. “I’m a Fool to Want You.” By Joel Herron, Frank Sinatra, and Jack Wolf. Recorded February 20, 1958, with Ray Ellis. Track 1 on Lady in Satin. Columbia CL 1157, 33⅓ rpm.

Online Sources

Online sources may require an accessed or modification date. If there is no date, use n.d. in place of the year. 

Keep in mind that website pages do not have to be listed in the reference list and can just be mentioned in the text. This is up to the discretion of the customer. Keep a consistent approach and follow the customer’s lead in this situation.

Source type In-text citation Reference list entry
Online journal article (Last Name Year, Page Numbers)

Author Last Name, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Name of Journal volume no., issue no. (Month/season): page range. DOI/URL/Database Name.


NB: DOI is preferred over URL, if available.
e.g. (Liu 2015, 312)

Liu, Jui-Ch’i. 2015. “Beholding the Feminine Sublime: Lee Miller’s War Photography.” Signs 40, no. 2 (Winter): 308–19. https://doi.org/10.1086/678242.

Website (Last Name /Organization Year)

Organization/Author Last Name, First Name. Year. “Title of Webpage.” Accessed Date. URL.

e.g. (Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, n.d.)

Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. n.d. “Balkan Romani.” Endangered Languages. Accessed April 6, 2016. http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/5342.

Online Video (Last Name Year)

Author Last Name, First Name. Year. “Title of Video.” Filmed Date at Filming Location. Video, Video Length. URL.

e.g. (Lyiscot 2014)

Lyiscott, Jamila. 2014. “3 Ways to Speak English.” Filmed February 2014 in New York, NY. TED video, 4:29. https://www.ted.com/talks/jamila_lyiscott_3_ways_to_speak_english.

eBook (online) (Author Last Name Year, Page Number)

NB: If no page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the text, if any (or simply omit).

Author Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher. URL/Database Name.

e.g. (Borel 2016)

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

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