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Referencing style - Chicago: Notes and Bibliography (Footnote) Referencing Style

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

Chicago Referencing Style Notes and Bibliography System

The Chicago Referencing Style Notes and Bibliography system (sometimes referred to as Chicago Footnote) requires that each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote or through a paraphrase or summary you must cite your source by using a  Footnote. Notes are always listed together in sequential order at the end of the page on which the references appears. 

1. Within your text place a note number for each reference you cite.

  • Note number should begin with 1 and continuue consecutively throughout your paper. 
  • In the text note numbers are superscripted and placed at the end of the sentence the citation relates to. 

2. Add a footnote on each page which corresponds to the note number used within text to indicated your reference. Notes are always listed together in sequential order at the end of the page on which the references appears. 

  • Use full note number formats (not raised) in your footnote, rather than the superscript corresponding number used in text. 
  • The footnote comprises a complete bibliographic 'note' which includes author, title and publicaiton details, in a specific order. 
  • You can used shortened footnotes for subsequent notes related to the same work, using accepted Chicago Style conventions. 

3. Create a bibliography at the end of your document listing all the works that you have cited and any other works you have consulted.

  • The bibliography should be arranged alphabetically by author, then title, and other publication details.
  • The year of publication appears last Chicago style. 
  • Chicago Referencing Style - notation and author date - use the similar formatting of the end text references. However a major difference is the location of the publication date. 
    • For notation style it appears at the end of the reference citation. 
    • For author-date style it appears at after the author information. 

See our Notes and Bibliography (Footnotes) Style Example Text to gain an overview of what this looks like in practice and for links to further information.

Browse our list of different information types below or listed in this tab to learn how to format notes using the Chicago Footnote system. 

Notes (footnotes) explained

Each time you use a source, whether through a direct quote or through a paraphrase or summary you must cite your source by using a Note. Notes are always listed together in sequential order at the end of the page on which the reference appears. 

Each foot note citation consists of two parts: a superscript number within the text following the end of the sentence or clause in which the source is referenced and a corresponding full-sized number at the start of the footnote with details of the source. 

Text

Example text.1 Example text. 2
Footnote
  1.     Erica Gies, Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge (University of Chicago Press, 2022), 8, 27.
  2.     Gies, Water Always Wins, 209.10

 

The first Note for each source should include all relevant information about the source: author’s full name, source title, and facts of publication. The bibliograhy at the end of your document will contain all of the citation information in full, whereas the note can contains a shorter citation.

If you cite the same source consequentively you can use a further shortened note citation, as per the example above. 

See Chapter 13 of The Chicago Manual of Style -Online (17th Ed.) for an overview of Notes and Bibliography conventions. 

Notes V's Bibliography

When using Chicago Notes Style, the full details of the reference cited are provided both as a note on the page within the text where it appears and at the end of your paper, in a alphabetically listed bibliography.  

This graph below aims to summarise the key differences between the full notes and full bibliographic citations. 

Notes vs Bibliography

Notes

Bibliographies

Authors

Author's name is in the order of first name, middle initial, then surname,

  eg Philip D. Goldswain

 

Up to 2 authors are listed in a shortened note, if more than 2 list one and use "et al."

 

Author’s name is inverted, place the last name first and separate the last name and first name with a comma

 eg Goldswain, Philip D.

 

Up to six authors are now listed in the bibliography or reference list. If more than six, only the first 3 are listed followed by "et al."

Punctuation

All elements of the citation are separated by commas

Publication information is in brackets, with year of publication within them. 

 

In the bibliography all elements are separated with a full stop

Publication information is not in brackets, year of publicaiton. Year  is listed after the publisher or journal name

Page numbers

Include reference to specific page numbers or other identifying information

 

Refer to the entire item and include all elements of the reference citation. 

 

See also Section 13.19 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition for other abbreviations in notes versus bibliographies. 

Short Form Notes for Subsequent Notes

When creating notes, if the subsequent note refers to the same reference this is called a consecutive citation. These can use a shortened form of the citation following the rules outlined in Chapter 

The short form should include enough information to remind the reader of the full title or to lead them to appropriate entry in the bibliography.

For example:

    1. Fabio Schillaci, Architectural Renderings: Construction and Design Manual (Chichester: West Sussex: Wiley, 2010), 120.

    2. Schillaci, Architectural Renderings, 251.

    3. Schillaci, 257.

    4. Richard Read, Art and its Discontents: The Early Life of Adrian Stokes (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2002), 65.

    5. Schillaci, Architectural Renderings, 258.

See also Section 13.32 to 13.39 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition for further advice on using shortened citations.

See Section 13.46 to 14.45 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition for advise on adding commentary and quotations into Notes. 

References by Format

See our Information on Footnotes page for explanations on how to create and format footnotes.

Our Endnote style tab explains how to create both footnotes and your bibliography using the Endnote referencing software. If you use EndNote, the style is referred to as 'Chicago 17th Footnote'.

For additional examples and explanations refer to Chapter 14 of the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition or its Sample Citations page.

Creating footnotes using Microsoft Word

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