A citation style frequently used in the Humanities and some Social Sciences is the Notes Bibliography style.
The following brief overview to Chicago's Notes Bibliography Style is taken from Kate L.
Turabian, A Manual of Style for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th
ed. (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007), 141-2.
Bibliography entries are identified with a B; Notes entries are identified with an N.
In bibliography style, you signal that you have used a source by placing a superscript number at the end of the sentence in which you refer to that source, e.g.:
According to one scholar, “The railroads had made Chicago the most important meeting place between East and West.”4
You then cite the source of that quotation in a correspondingly numbered note that provides information about the source (author, title, and facts of publication) plus relevant page numbers. Notes are printed at the bottom of the page (called footnotes) or in a list collected at the end of your paper, called (endnotes). All notes have the same general form:
N: 4. William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991), 92-93.
If you cite the same text again, you can shorten subsequent notes:
N: 8. Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, 383.
In most cases, you also list sources at the end of the paper in a bibliography. That list normally includes every source you cited in a note and sometimes others you consulted but did not cite. Each bibliography entry includes the same information contained in a full note, but in a slightly different form:
B: Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 199.
In the boxes below and right are some tips for creating citations in this style. Examples are taken from Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide.
Journal articles
Article in a print journal
In a note, list the specific page numbers consulted, if any. In the bibliography, list the page range for the whole article.
Full N Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440.
Brief N Weinstein, “Plato’s Republic,” 452–53.
B Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 439–58.
Article in an online journal
Include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) if the journal lists one. A DOI is a permanent ID that, when appended to http://dx.doi.org.proxy.bc.edu/ in the address bar of an Internet browser, will lead to the source. If no DOI is available, list a URL. Include an access date only if one is required by your publisher or discipline.
Full N Gueorgi Kossinets and Duncan J. Watts, “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network,” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 411, accessed February 28, 2010, doi:10.1086/599247.
Brief N Kossinets and Watts, “Origins of Homophily,” 439.
B Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. doi:10.1086/599247.
Article in a newspaper or popular magazine
Newspaper and magazine articles may be cited in running text (“As Sheryl Stolberg and Robert Pear noted in a New York Times article on February 27, 2010, . . .”) instead of in a note, and they are commonly omitted from a bibliography. The following examples show the more formal versions of the citations. If you consulted the article online, include a URL; include an access date only if your publisher or discipline requires one. If no author is identified, begin the citation with the article title.
Full N Daniel Mendelsohn, “But Enough about Me,” New Yorker, January 25, 2010, 68.
Full N Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Robert Pear, “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, accessed February 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
Brief N Mendelsohn, “But Enough about Me,” 69.
Brief N Stolberg and Pear, “Wary Centrists.”
B Mendelsohn, Daniel. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25, 2010.
B Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
Book review
Full N David Kamp, “Deconstructing Dinner,” review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, New York Times, April 23, 2006, Sunday Book Review, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html.
Brief N Kamp, “Deconstructing Dinner.”
B Kamp, David. “Deconstructing Dinner.” Review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. New York Times, April 23, 2006, Sunday Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html.
Thesis or dissertation
Full N Mihwa Choi, “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008).
Brief N Choi, “Contesting Imaginaires.”
B Choi, Mihwa. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008.
Website
A citation to website content can often be limited to a mention in the text or in a note (“As of July 19, 2008, the McDonald’s Corporation listed on its website . . .”). If a more formal citation is desired, it may be styled as in the examples below. Because such content is subject to change, include an access date or, if available, a date that the site was last modified.
Full N “Google Privacy Policy,” last modified March 11, 2009, http://www.google.com.proxy.bc.edu/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.
Full N “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, accessed July 19, 2008, http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.
Brief N “Google Privacy Policy.”
Brief N “Toy Safety Facts.”
B Google. “Google Privacy Policy.” Last modified March 11, 2009. http://www.google.com.proxy.bc.edu/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.
B McDonald’s Corporation. “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts.” Accessed July 19, 2008. http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.
E-mail or text message
E-mail and text messages may be cited in running text (“In a text message to the author on March 1, 2010, John Doe revealed . . .”) instead of in a note, and they are rarely listed in a bibliography. The following example shows the more formal version of a note.
Full N John Doe, e-mail message to author, February 28, 2010.
Books
One author
Full N Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 99–100.
Brief N Pollan, Omnivore’s Dilemma, 3.
B Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Two or more authors
Full N Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945 (New York: Knopf, 2007), 52.
Brief N Ward and Burns, War, 59–61.
B Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf, 2007.
For four or more authors, list all of the authors in the bibliography; in the note, list only the first author, followed by et al. (“and others”):
Full N Dana Barnes et al., Plastics: Essays on American Corporate Ascendance in the 1960s . . .
Brief N Barnes et al., Plastics . . .
Editor, translator, or compiler instead of author
Full N Richmond Lattimore, trans., The Iliad of Homer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 91–92.
Brief N Lattimore, Iliad, 24.
B Lattimore, Richmond, trans. The Iliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
Editor, translator, or compiler in addition to author
Full N Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera, trans. Edith Grossman (London: Cape, 1988), 242–55.
Brief N García Márquez, Cholera, 33.
B García Márquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. Translated by Edith Grossman. London: Cape, 1988.
Chapter or other part of a book
Full N John D. Kelly, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War,” in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, ed. John D. Kelly et al. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 77.
Brief N Kelly, “Seeing Red,” 81–82.
B Kelly, John D. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Chapter of an edited volume originally published elsewhere (as in primary sources)
Full N Quintus Tullius Cicero, “Handbook on Canvassing for the Consulship,” in Rome: Late Republic and Principate, ed. Walter Emil Kaegi Jr. and Peter White, vol. 2 of University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, ed. John Boyer and Julius Kirshner (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 35.
Brief N Cicero, “Canvassing for the Consulship,” 35.
B Cicero, Quintus Tullius. “Handbook on Canvassing for the Consulship.” In Rome: Late Republic and Principate, edited by Walter Emil Kaegi Jr. and Peter White. Vol. 2 of University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, edited by John Boyer and Julius Kirshner, 33–46. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Originally published in Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, trans., The Letters of Cicero, vol. 1 (London: George Bell & Sons, 1908).
Preface, foreword, introduction, or similar part of a book
Full N James Rieger, introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), xx–xxi.
Brief N Rieger, introduction, xxxiii.
B Rieger, James. Introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, xi–xxxvii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
Book published electronically
If a book is available in more than one format, cite the version you consulted. For books consulted online, list a URL; include an access date only if one is required by your publisher or discipline. If no fixed page numbers are available, you can include a section title or a chapter or other number.
Full N Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2007), Kindle edition.
Full N Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), accessed February 28, 2010, http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu.proxy.bc.edu/founders/.
Brief N Austen, Pride and Prejudice.
Brief N Kurland and Lerner, Founder’s Constitution, chap. 10, doc. 19.
B Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle edition.
B Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu.proxy.bc.edu/founders/.
Paper presented at a meeting or conference
Full N Rachel Adelman, “‘Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On’: God’s Footstool in the Aramaic Targumim and Midrashic Tradition” (paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 21–24, 2009).
Brief N Adelman, “Such Stuff as Dreams.”
B Adelman, Rachel. “‘Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On’: God’s Footstool in the Aramaic Targumim and Midrashic Tradition.” Paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society of Biblical Literature, New Orleans, Louisiana, November 21–24, 2009.
Blog entry or comment
Blog entries or comments may be cited in running text (“In a comment posted to The Becker-Posner Blog on February 23, 2010, . . .”) instead of in a note, and they are commonly omitted from a bibliography. The following examples show the more formal versions of the citations. There is no need to add pseud. after an apparently fictitious or informal name. (If an access date is required, add it before the URL; see examples elsewhere in this guide.)
Full N Jack, February 25, 2010 (7:03 p.m.), comment on Richard Posner, “Double Exports in Five Years?,” The Becker-Posner Blog, February 21, 2010, http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/2010/02/double-exports-in-five-years-posner.html.
Brief N Jack, comment on Posner, “Double Exports.”
B Becker-Posner Blog, The. http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/.
Item in a commercial database
For items retrieved from a commercial database, add the name of the database and an accession number following the facts of publication. In this example, the dissertation is shown as it would be cited if it were retrieved from ProQuest’s database for dissertations and theses.
B Choi, Mihwa. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008. ProQuest (AAT 3300426).
