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Referencing style - Chicago: Author-Date Referencing Style

A guide to using the Chicago 17th referencing style for footnotes and reference lists.

Chicago 17th Author-Date References

This page provides examples of the Chicago Referencing Style Author-Date Referencing system.

This referencing style consists of two main elements:

1. In-text citations, consisting of the author surnames, together with the year of publication within the body of your work.

  • These details are placed  in brackets at the end of a sentence or a phrase in which the source is referenced.
  • They are a shortened way of acknowledging the source at the point you use it in your writing.

2. A Reference List at the end of your document (end-text) to list all the references that you have cited within your work. 

  • Some guiding principles for creating reference lists in Chicago Style are provided below. 

 

See our Author-Date Example Text to gain an overview of what this looks like in practice and for links to further information.

Browse our list of 'References by format' in this tab to learn how to format different types of information using the Chicago Author-Date referencing system. 

Principles for Creating Reference List Using Chicago Referencing

The reference list provides an alphabetical list of all sources used in a given work and is usually placed at the end of the work.

The same formatting advice for the creation of your bibliographic listing of references consulted at the end of your document can be used whether you are using the Chicago Notes or the Chicago Author-Date style.  

  • Arranged alphabetically by the first author’s last name. If no author or editor is listed, the title may be used instead.
  • Formatted with a hanging indent (instructions available here) and arranged alphabetically by author.
  • All entries in the reference list will include the author (or editor, compiler, translator), article title and/or publication title, publisher information or DOI, and the date of publication.  
  • The reference list may sometimes include other relevant sources that were not cited but provide further reading and act as an indication to the reader of the breadth and depth of an author's research.

 

Formatting Tips - Reference List

For more on the basic structure of a reference list consult Chapter 15 section 6 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition.

Author’s Names

  • The first listed author’s name is inverted, that is the the last name is listed first followed by a comma and the first name.

  • If the same person is cited as both author and editor of a work, the name is given in full for both roles.

Titles

  • Titles of books and journals are italicized. Titles of articles, chapters, poems, etc. are placed in quotation marks.

Publication Information

  • The year of publication is listed after the publisher or journal name.

Punctuation

  • In a bibliography, all major elements are separated by full stops.

Page ranges and URLs and other identifiers: 

  • Page range is required for book chapters and journal articles. 
  • DOI with the prefix https://doi.org/ is the preferred URL, if no DOI use a stable URL, if no stable URL include the database name.
  • Avoid shortening URLs using third-party service such as TinyURL, Bitly, or shortDOI. 

 

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