Skip to Main Content

Chicago A (Notes & bibliography)

Guide to the 17th edition

Basic elements

Footnote

Click on each of the elements below to learn about footnoting books and ebooks in Chicago 17 style.

The basic elements and formatting for the footnote are:

Footnote number. Given Name(s) Surname and Given Name(s) Surname, Title of Book: Subtitle, Edition (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Footnote number
  • In your footnotes, the reference numbers can either be in superscript (without a full-stop), or full-sized followed by a period (for example, 1.).
  • The first line of each footnote is indented.
Authors
  • List authors full given names in the order they appear, with their first names followed by surname.
  • Use the conjunction 'and' instead of the '&' symbol before the final author.
  • A comma appears between the last author and the book title.
Title of Book: Subtitle
  • Use headline case for the book title and subtitle (where minor words such as 'of' and 'the' do not start with a capital).
  • Format in italics.
Edition
  • When an edition other than the first is used, include the number or description of the edition after the book title (e.g. 2nd ed., or Rev. ed.).
  • Omit this information, including the comma after the title, if no edition information is to be included.
(City: Publisher, Year)
  • In the footnote, list the place of publication (city): publisher, and year of publication in brackets.
  • A colon appears between the city and the publisher's name.
  • A comma appears between the publisher and the year.
Pinpoint
  • In the pinpoint list any relevant page number(s) or sections you are referring to. E.g. 33-35, 401-2.
  • Do not include p. or pp. before the page numbers.
DOI link, database or URL
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference.
  • List the database name if accessed via a commercial database and there is no DOI.
  • List the URL if freely available on the web and there is no DOI.

Subsequent footnote

Subsequent citations of sources already given in full in an earlier footnote should be shortened wherever possible. Click on the elements below to see the requirements of shortened footnotes in Chicago 17 style.

The basic elements and formatting for the subsequent footnote entry are:

Footnote Number Surname and Surname, Short Title of Book, Pinpoint.

Footnote
  • In your footnotes, the reference numbers can either be in superscript (without a full-stop), or full-sized followed by a period (e.g. 1.).
  • The first line of each footnote is indented.
Authors
  • For subsequent citations, only the surnames of the authors are listed in the footnote.
  • For 4 or more authors, use the last name of the first author followed by "et al.".
Short Title of Book
  • When more than 4 words long, the title of the work is often shortened.
  • Don't use ibid, when repeating a citation in the next footnote.
  • In these instances omit the short title, and have the author's name(s) and pinpoint only.
  • The short title is formatted using italics.
Pinpoint
  • In the pinpoint, list the relevant page number(s). E.g 33-35, or 401-12.
  • Do not include p. or pp. before the page number(s).

Bibliography

Click on the elements below to learn about the basic requirements for your bibliography in Chicago 17 style.

The basic elements and formatting for the bibliographic entry are:

Surname, Given Name(s) and Given Name(s) Surname. Title of Book: Subtitle. Edition City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Authors
  • List authors full given names in the order they appear.
  • The first author's name is inverted with surname appearing first.
  • Use the conjunction 'and' instead of the '&' symbol before the final author.
  • A full stop appears between the last author and the book title.
Title of Book
  • Use capitalised headline-style for the book title (where minor words such as ‘of’, ‘and’ etc. do not start with a capital letter).
  • Title and subtitle are separated by a colon.
  • Format in italics.
Edition
  • When an edition other than the first is used, include the number or description of the edition after the book title. E.g. 2nd ed., or Rev. ed.
City: Publisher, Year
  • A colon appears between the place of publication (city) and the publisher.
  • The year of publication follows the publisher, preceded by a comma.
  • In your bibliography, this information is not surrounded by brackets.
DOI link, database or URL
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference.
  • If there is no DOI, and the source was accessed via a library database, list the database name.
  • Only add URLs for freely available books on the web without a DOI.

Book with 1 author

First footnote

No Given Name(s) Surname, Title of Book: Subtitle, Edition (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Examples:

1 Paul Guyer, Kant’s Impact on Moral Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024), 20, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199592456.001.0001.

2 Tamara Sonn, Islam : History, Religion, and Politics, 3rd ed. (West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2016), 105-8, Ebook Central.

Subsequent footnotes

3 Guyer, Kant's Impact, 32.

Bibliography

Surname, Given Name(s). Title of Book: Subtitle. Edition. City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Examples:

Guyer, Paul. Kant’s Impact on Moral Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199592456.001.0001.

Sonn, Tamara. Islam : History, Religion, and Politics. 3rd ed. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2016. Ebook Central.

Notes

  • Footnotes have commas between citation elements, while the bibliography uses full stops. 
  • Author's name is inverted (with surname first) for the bibliography but not for the footnotes.
  • If the author's given name is provided, use the full name. However, for authors who always use initials, full names should not be supplied, for example, T. S. Eliot.
  • Headline case is used for titles, except for minor words, for example, and, the, of.
  • Footnotes have the first line indented, while the bibliography has a hanging indent. 
  • Include all citation information, the first time a source appears in your document's footnotes. Subsequent footnotes of the same source include only the author’s surname, the article title, and the page number(s).
  • Chicago discourages the use of Ibid., when referring to a work in the immediately preceding footnote. In these instances, the article title can be excluded from the subsequent footnote.
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference. If no DOI, list the database name if accessed via a commercial database.  Add URLs for freely available books on the web, without a DOI.
  • If you used a physical book (rather than an ebook), omit the DOI link, Database Name or URL from the end of the reference.

Book with 2 authors

First footnote

No Given Name(s) Surname and Given Name(s) Surname, Title of Book: Subtitle, Edition (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

1 J. Christiaan Beker and N. T. Wright, Paul: Narrative Or Apocalyptic (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2023), 78-82, Project Muse.

Subsequent footnotes

3 Beker and Wright, Paul, 132-5.

Bibliography

Surname, Given Name(s) and Given Name(s) Surname. Title of Book: Subtitle. Edition. City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

Beker, J. Christiaan, and N. T. Wright. Paul: Narrative Or Apocalyptic. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2023. Project Muse.

Notes

  • Footnotes have commas between citation elements, while the bibliography uses full stops. 
  • Author's name is inverted (with surname first) for the bibliography but not for the footnotes.
  • If the author's given name is provided, use the full name. However, for authors who always use initials, full names should not be supplied, for example, T. S. Eliot.
  • Headline case is used for titles, except for minor words (for example, and, the, of).
  • Footnotes have the first line indented, while the bibliography has a hanging indent. 
  • Include all citation information, the first time a source appears in your document's footnotes. Subsequent footnotes of the same source include only the author’s surname, the article title, and the page number(s).
  • Chicago discourages the use of Ibid., when referring to a work in the immediately preceding footnote. In these instances, the article title can be excluded from the subsequent footnote.
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference. If no DOI, list the database name if accessed via a commercial database.  Add URLs for freely available books on the web, without a DOI.
  • If you used a physical book (rather than an ebook), omit the DOI link, Database Name or URL from the end of the reference.

Book with 3 authors

First footnote

No Given Name(s) Surname, Given Name(s) Surname, and Given Name(s) Surname, Title of Book: Subtitle, Edition (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

1 Stanislas Breton, Joseph N. Ballan, and Ward Blanton, A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 141-7, Ebook Central.

Subsequent footnotes

3 Breton, Ballan and Blanton, A Radical Philosophy, 23.

Bibliography

Surname, Given Name(s), Given Name(s) Surname, and Given Name(s) Surname. Title of Book: Subtitle. Edition. City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

Breton, Stanislas, Joseph N. Ballan, and Ward Blanton. A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011. Ebook Central.

Notes

  • Footnotes have commas between citation elements, while the bibliography uses full stops. 
  • Author's name is inverted (with surname first) for the bibliography but not for the footnotes.
  • If the author's given name is provided, use the full name. However, for authors who always use initials, full names should not be supplied, for example, T. S. Eliot.
  • Headline case is used for titles, except for minor words (for example, and, the, of) 
  • Footnotes have the first line indented, while the bibliography has a hanging indent. 
  • Include all citation information, the first time a source appears in your document's footnotes. Subsequent footnotes of the same source include only the author’s surname, the article title, and the page number(s).
  • Chicago discourages the use of Ibid., when referring to a work in the immediately preceding footnote. In these instances, the article title can be excluded from the subsequent footnote.
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference. If no DOI, list the database name if accessed via a commercial database.  Add URLs for freely available books on the web, without a DOI.
  • If you used a physical book (rather than an ebook), omit the DOI link, Database Name or URL from the end of the reference.

Book with 4-10 authors

First footnote

No Given Name(s) Surname et al., Title of Book: Subtitle, Edition (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

1 Michael Haralambos et al., Sociology : Themes and Perspectives, 8th ed. (London: HarperCollins, 2013) 123-9.

Subsequent footnotes

3 Haralambos et al., Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, 8.

Bibliography

Surname, Given Name(s), Given Name(s) Surname, and Given Name(s) Surname. Title of Book: Subtitle. Edition. City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

Haralambos, Michael, Martin Holborn, Steve Chapman, and Stephen Moore. Sociology : Themes and Perspectives. 8th ed. London: HarperCollins, 2013.

Notes

  • For books with 4-10 authors, list all authors in bibliography citation. Only the first author followed by "et al.", is listed in the footnote entry.
  • Footnotes have commas between citation elements, while the bibliography uses full stops. 
  • Author's name is inverted (with surname first) for the bibliography but not for the footnotes.
  • If the author's given name is provided, use the full name. However, for authors who always use initials, full names should not be supplied, for example, T. S. Eliot.
  • Headline case is used for titles, except for minor words (for example, and, the, of).
  • Footnotes have the first line indented, while the bibliography has a hanging indent. 
  • Include all citation information, the first time a source appears in your document's footnotes. Subsequent footnotes of the same source include only the author’s surname, the article title, and the page number(s).
  • Chicago discourages the use of Ibid., when referring to a work in the immediately preceding footnote. In these instances, the article title can be excluded from the subsequent footnote.
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference. If no DOI, list the database name if accessed via a commercial database.  Add URLs for freely available books on the web, without a DOI.
  • If you used a physical book (rather than an ebook), omit the DOI link, Database Name or URL from the end of the reference.
  • For books with more than 10 authors, list the first seven authors in the bibliography, followed by "et al.".

Edited book

First footnote

No Editor's Given Name(s) Surname, ed., Title of Book: Subtitle (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Examples:

4 Jessica Lark, ed., Why Are We ‘Artists’?: 100 World Art Manifestos (Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 2017), 217-19.

Subsequent footnotes

7 Lark, Why Are We ‘Artists’?, 219.

Bibliography

Editor Last name, First name, ed(s). Title of Book. City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Examples:

Lark, Jessica, ed. Why Are We ‘Artists’?: 100 World Art Manifestos. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 2017.

Notes

  • If the editor's given name is provided, use the full name.
  • Words in the titles and subtitles are capitalised, except articles and prepositions.
  • If the book is not a first edition, place the edition number after the title of the book, for example, Book Title. 2nd ed.
  • The editor is inverted for the bibliography but not for the footnotes.
  • The second line of the bibliography entry is indented.
  • The first line of the footnote entry is indented.
  • The first footnote includes all of the publication information.
  • If you used a physical book (rather than an ebook), omit the DOI link or Database Name or URL from the end of the reference.
  • Subsequent footnotes of the same source include only the author’s surname, the book title, and the page number(s).

  • For multiple authors check the author layout table for in-text and bibliography format.

Encyclopedias & dictionaries

First Footnote

Full work

No Given Name(s) Surname and Given Name(s) Surname, Title of Reference Work, Edition (City: Name of Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI or Database Name or URL.

1 W. R. F. Browning, A Dictionary of the Bible, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), s.v. "Obed", https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199543984.001.0001.

Entry in work

No Entry Author's Given Name(s) Surname, "Entry Title," in Title of Reference Work, ed. Editor's Given Name(s) and Surname (City: Name of Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI or Database Name or URL.

2 Dale Tuggy, "Trinity," in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2016 ed., ed. Edward N. Zalta (Stanford University, 2015. Article published July 23, 2009; last modified March 18, 2016), para. 12, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/trinity/.

Bibliography

Full work

Entry Author's Surname, Given Name(s). Title. Edition. Location of Publication: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication. DOI or Database Name or URL.

Browning, W. R. F. A Dictionary of the Bible. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780199543984.001.0001.

Entry in work

Entry Author's Surname, Given Name(s). "Entry Title." In Title of Reference Work: Subtitle. Edition, edited by Editor Given Name(s) Surname. City: Publisher: Copyright Year. Article date published and modified. DOI or Database Name or URL.

Tuggy, Dale. "Trinity." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Spring 2016 ed., edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford University, 2015. Article published July 23, 2009; last modified March 18, 2016. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/trinity/.

Notes

  • Well known reference works, such as major dictionaries and encylopaedias, are not cited in the bibliography. They are cited in the footnotes only.
  • s.v. (sub verbo) means under the word, and is used in the pinpoint to point to works arranged alphabetically, rather than page numbers, for example, s.v. "Wadsworth, Jeremiah".
  • If there is no listed author, start the entry from the title.
  • The second line of the bibliography is indented.
  • The first line of the footnote entry is indented.
  • For multiple authors, check the author layout table for in-text and bibliography format.
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference. If no DOI, list the database name (if accessed via a commercial database).  Add URLs for freely available encyclopaedias/dictionaries on the web, without a DOI.

Translated Book

First footnote

No Author's Given Name(s) Surname, Title of Book: Subtitle, trans.Translator's Given Name(s) Surname (City: Publisher, Year), Pinpoint, DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

4 Walter Kasper, Theology and Church, trans. Margaret Kohl (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 159.

Subsequent footnotes

7 Kasper, Theology and Church, 160-2.

Bibliography

Author's Last name, First name. Title of Book: Subtitle. Translated by Translator's Given Name(s) Surname. City: Publisher, Year. DOI link or Database Name or URL.

Example:

Kasper, Walter. Theology and Church. Translated by Margaret Kohl. New York: Crossroad, 1989.

Notes

  • Translator and editor names appear after the Book title.
  • Words in the titles and subtitles are capitalised, except articles and prepositions.
  • If the book is not a first edition, place the edition number after the title of the book, for example, Book Title. 2nd ed.
  • The author is inverted for the bibliography but not for the footnotes.
  • The second line of the bibliography entry is indented.
  • The first line of the footnote entry is indented.
  • The first footnote includes all of the publication information.
  • Include a web link to the DOI at the end of the reference. If no DOI, list the database name (if accessed via a commercial database).  Add URLs for freely available books on the web, without a DOI.
  • If you used a physical book (rather than an ebook), omit the DOI link, Database Name or URL from the end of the reference.
  • Subsequent footnotes of the same source include only the author’s surname, the book title, and the page number(s).

  • For multiple authors check the author layout table for in-text and bibliography format.