Chicago Style Citation Guide for Graduate Students
By Dr. Patricia N., DNP, PhD in Nursing Science. Reviewed by Dr. Robert K.. 2025-12-20.
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Key takeaways
- Chicago offers two systems: Notes-Bibliography (humanities) and Author-Date (social sciences)
- Notes-Bibliography uses footnotes/endnotes plus a bibliography
- Author-Date uses parenthetical citations plus a reference list
- Don't mix elements from both systems
- Chicago uses headline-style capitalization for all titles
- Turabian style (for students) is based on Chicago but simplified
Understanding Chicago Style Systems
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), now in its 17th edition, is widely used in humanities disciplines including history, literature, philosophy, and the arts. It's also the basis for Turabian style, which is specifically designed for student papers, theses, and dissertations.
Chicago offers two citation systems: Notes-Bibliography (NB) and Author-Date (AD). The Notes-Bibliography system uses footnotes or endnotes with a bibliography, and is preferred in humanities. The Author-Date system uses parenthetical citations with a reference list, and is more common in social sciences. Your department or advisor will specify which system to use.
Understanding the distinction is crucial because the two systems format citations and bibliographic entries differently. Using the wrong system or mixing elements from both will result in formatting errors that your committee will flag.
Notes-Bibliography System
In the Notes-Bibliography system, you insert a superscript number at the end of a sentence or clause where you cite a source. This number corresponds to a footnote (at the bottom of the page) or endnote (at the end of the chapter or document) that provides the full citation.
First citation format for a book: Author First Last, Title of Book (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page number. Example: 1. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New York: New Press, 2010), 45.
Subsequent citations use a shortened format: Last Name, Shortened Title, page. Example: 2. Alexander, New Jim Crow, 78. If the same source is cited in consecutive notes, use 'Ibid.' (with page number if different).
The bibliography at the end of your document lists all sources alphabetically by author's last name, with slightly different formatting than the notes. Bibliography format inverts the first author's name: Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press, 2010.
Author-Date System
The Author-Date system uses parenthetical citations within the text, similar to APA style. In-text citations include the author's last name, publication year, and page number when applicable: (Alexander 2010, 45).
The reference list at the end of the document provides full publication details, formatted differently than the Notes-Bibliography bibliography. Reference list format: Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press.
Note the differences from NB bibliography format: the year follows the author name, and the entry structure differs slightly. Entries are alphabetized by author last name and sorted chronologically for multiple works by the same author.
Common Source Types in Chicago Style
For journal articles (NB): Author First Last, 'Article Title,' Journal Name volume, no. issue (Year): pages, DOI. For journal articles (AD): Author Last, First. Year. 'Article Title.' Journal Name volume (issue): pages. DOI.
For chapters in edited books (NB): Author First Last, 'Chapter Title,' in Book Title, ed. Editor First Last (Place: Publisher, Year), pages. For edited books (AD): Author Last, First. Year. 'Chapter Title.' In Book Title, edited by Editor First Last, pages. Place: Publisher.
For websites: include author (if available), page or article title, website name, publication or modification date, and URL. For dissertations and theses: treat like books but include 'PhD diss.' or 'master's thesis' and the university name.
Remember that Chicago style capitalizes titles in headline style (capitalize major words) throughout, unlike APA which uses sentence case for article and chapter titles.