Skip to Main Content

Chicago Style (18th ed.) - Notes & Bibliography Format

Guide and examples for citations in Notes-Bibliography CMOS.

General Structure of CMOS Citations

Basic Citation Anatomy:

In-Text (Footnote):
The first time you use a source, you'll use the full version of the footnote citation:

1. Barbara Erhlich White, "Renoir's Trip to Italy," Art Bulletin 51, no. 4 (1969): 341, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048651.

Every subsequent time you use a source, you'll use the shortened note form of the citation, which contains the author's last time, part of the source title, and whatever page number is relevant.

4. White, "Renoir's Trip," 347.

Bibliography:
Your bibliography citations will look very similar to your full-length footnotes and will be listed alphabetically according to the first word in each citation.

White, Barbara Ehrlich. "Renoir's Trip to Italy." Art Bulletin 51, no. 4 (1969): 333-51. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3048651.

 

Note: Ibid. (used for consecutive references to the same source) is no longer preferred, as of the 17th edition. You will use shortened notes for all footnote citations after your initial use of a source.