Chicago Style Citation Guide

What Is Chicago Citation Style Citations?

Chicago citation style originally comes from the style guide used by the University of Chicago Press, which first started in 1891. Since then, the Chicago citation and Chicago style of formatting documents have become standard throughout the publishing industry and in academia. Today, in 2026, Chicago style remains one of the most widely taught and professionally respected citation systems in the English-speaking world, used by students, researchers, journalists, and book authors alike.

When the University of Chicago Press first developed its standard method of formatting references and documents for publication, it created and distributed a book called The Chicago Manual of Style. The Chicago Manual of Style has therefore been in continuous publication since the 1890s, for more than a hundred years. It is currently in its 17th edition, and the University of Chicago Press continues to release updated online guidance through its subscription-based Chicago Manual of Style Online platform, which many university libraries now provide access to for enrolled students.

If your professor asks you to use Chicago style for your papers and references, it means using the Chicago Manual of Style. However, you do not need to purchase a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style to excel at preparing perfect academic essays and term papers. You can rely on this handy guide instead. The examples and explanations below cover the most common citation scenarios you will encounter as a student, from journal articles and books to websites, blog posts, and YouTube videos.

Why Chicago Style Referencing?

The Chicago citation style is used in many different areas of academic inquiry and research, and is also used in non-scholarly publications including popular books, magazines, and newspapers. Therefore, the Chicago citation style might be one of the most important and relevant styles of referencing to learn. You might even need to use Chicago citations well after you graduate — particularly if you pursue a career in publishing, journalism, law, or academic research, all of which continue to rely on Chicago-style conventions for manuscripts and submissions.

However, there are some subject areas that rely more on Chicago style than other citation styles, like APA, MLA, or Harvard. Understanding which style your discipline expects — and being fluent in more than one — is an increasingly valuable academic skill as interdisciplinary research continues to grow.

Chicago for History

Whereas APA format is most common in the social sciences, and MLA more common in literature, the Chicago style is most common in history courses. Chicago style is also common in anthropology, art history, and religious studies. If you are a history major or planning to pursue graduate study in the humanities, becoming fluent in Chicago style is essentially non-negotiable — virtually every major history journal and university press uses it as their default citation system.

Unlike APA or MLA styles, the Chicago citation style may incorporate footnotes, endnotes, or in-text citations. The choice of whether to use footnotes, endnotes, or in-text citations is up to your instructor or institution. Many history professors strongly prefer footnotes because they allow the author to provide supplementary commentary alongside source information — something neither APA nor MLA accommodates as naturally. This flexibility is one of the hallmarks of Chicago style and a key reason historians have embraced it for over a century.

Chicago vs. Turabian

The Chicago citation style is also called the Turabian citation style. The terms "Chicago citation" and "Turabian citation" can be used interchangeably.

Why? An author named Kate Turabian published one of the premier style guides for the University of Chicago Press. This style guide established the ground rules not just for Chicago citations but also for how to write effective scholarly papers. The book is called A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, and is currently in its 9th edition available from the University of Chicago Press. The 9th edition incorporates updated guidance on citing digital sources, social media content, and AI-generated materials — all increasingly relevant for today's students.

Turabian's A Manual for Writers became so famous and well-regarded that the author's name has become synonymous for Chicago style. If your professor tells you to use "Turabian," do not be alarmed — simply follow the same Chicago-style rules laid out in this guide. The core formatting conventions are identical across both titles.

Bibliography, References, or Works Cited?

Using the Chicago citation style format, you will list all references used in your paper in the Bibliography. You entitle your references sheet not as "References" or "Works Cited," but "Bibliography." This is a small but important distinction — turning in a paper with the wrong heading on your references page is an easy mistake to avoid once you know the rule.

Chicago style Bibliography pages are, like almost all other references lists, presented in alphabetical order according to the author's last name.

When an author's name is unavailable, you can alphabetize the entry according to the first word in the title of the article. Skip articles like "A," "An," or "The" when alphabetizing by title — a convention shared across most major citation styles. Keeping your bibliography meticulously organized will also make it easier for your professor or editor to verify your sources, which reflects well on the overall quality of your research.

Footnotes or Endnotes

Although creating footnotes and endnotes can be complicated at first, the good news is that the Chicago citation style for footnotes and endnotes is exactly the same. The only difference between footnotes and endnotes is where you put them in the paper.

Of course, a footnote appears at the foot of each page (at the bottom), whereas an endnote appears at the end of each section of your paper. Most word processing programs — including Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Apple Pages — have built-in tools to insert footnotes and endnotes automatically, which handles the formatting and numbering for you. Learning to use these tools early will save you considerable time when working on longer research papers or dissertations.

When you use a footnote or endnote in Chicago style, the first citation of a source is written out in full. Subsequent citations of the same source can be abbreviated using the author's last name, a shortened version of the title, and the page number — a format known as the "short note." Knowing the difference between a full note and a short note is essential for keeping your Chicago-style papers clean and consistent throughout.

Chicago In-Text Citations (Author Date)

Sometimes your professor will ask that you create your document using Chicago in-text citations, often referred to as parenthetical citations because they are formatted in the body of the text (LikeThis, 2017). When you use Chicago in-text citations, you will not be using footnotes or endnotes but you will follow the same rules for the Bibliography. Chicago in-text citations follow the author-date format, which will feel familiar to anyone who has also used APA style — though the two systems are not identical, so do not assume they are fully interchangeable.

The author-date system is especially common in the social sciences when a Chicago-adjacent style is preferred over strict APA. If you are uncertain whether to use footnotes/endnotes or author-date in-text citations, always ask your professor before you begin writing — making the switch after you have already drafted your paper is time-consuming and error-prone.

Is Chicago Citation Really That Important?

Yes! The benefits of using Chicago style, or any other style of citation like APA or MLA include:

Professionalism: Chicago citation style is a professional, internationally recognized method of formatting documents and citing your sources. Even if you only spend a few years of your life in university or college, learning Chicago style or using Chicago citations can prepare you to correctly cite your sources and format your documents for any job you do in the future. In 2026, with more employers than ever expecting strong written communication skills, demonstrating fluency in a recognized documentation style signals that you take your work seriously. Also, learning Chicago style helps you to impress upon your professors that you have taken the time to format your papers in the way they prefer.

Consistency: Chicago citation style helps maintain stylistic consistency in your work. Why is consistency important? Imagine if you were reading a book and every line were written in a different font, or in a different language. Consistency helps create a uniform look to your document. With Chicago citations, consistency also means that your reader can quickly glance at each reference and understand where it came from and how to find it. Consistency in Chicago citations also makes your life easier as a student because once you get the hang of it, you will automatically format your entries using the same style, method, and punctuation. This kind of disciplined, uniform presentation is exactly what publishers, thesis committees, and academic journals expect.

Honesty: Chicago citations prevent you from plagiarizing others' work inadvertently. If you ever like what another person has to say about a topic you are writing about, all you need to do is give credit where credit is due. This is achieved best through the Chicago citation style. You can quote any author, as long as you credit where that quote came from using Chicago citations and inserting the entry in the Bibliography page. If you paraphrase, summarize, or borrow ideas from someone else, all you have to do is insert a footnote or endnote, or a parenthetical Chicago citation. You cannot be accused of plagiarism if you cite all your sources. Remember: when in doubt, cite it! In an academic environment where plagiarism-detection tools are more sophisticated than ever, thorough and accurate citation is your single best defense against unintentional academic misconduct.

Chicago Style Citation Examples (for bibliography page)

The way you create a bibliography entry using Chicago format will depend on the type of material you use. The sections below walk you through the most common source types you are likely to encounter during your research, from peer-reviewed print journals to Kindle ebooks and YouTube videos. Study the formatting carefully — small details like italics, commas, and punctuation placement all matter in Chicago style.

Basic Elements of Chicago Citation Style

For almost all entries, Chicago citations require you to list the author's full last name, followed by spelling out the full first name:

Mercure, Farokh.

Jones, Jim.

When there is more than one author, only the first author's name is inverted to Last Name, First Name. Subsequent authors are written First Name Last Name:

Mercure, Farokh and Jim Jones.

When you have four or more authors, you will use the Latin abbreviation et al., which means "and others." Et al. is short for "et allia." Only the word "al." is abbreviated; the word "et" takes no period. For example:

Mercure, Farokh et al., "An Essay."

It is worth noting that while et al. is acceptable in footnotes and endnotes when you have four or more authors, the Chicago Manual of Style recommends listing all authors in full in the Bibliography whenever possible. This ensures that every contributor to the work receives proper credit, which matters especially in collaborative academic and scientific publishing. Always double-check your instructor's or publisher's specific preference, as some institutions require listing all authors regardless of the number.

The following guide offers you examples of the most common types of Bibliography entries.

Chicago Style Citing Guide (with examples)

Periodicals/Magazines/Journals

Some of the most commonly cited materials using Chicago citation are articles published in peer-reviewed journals. You may occasionally cite articles published in trade publications or other periodicals. As of 2026, the vast majority of academic journals are available digitally, but the principles of citation remain the same — you are simply directing your reader to exactly where your source lives, whether in print or online.

Articles in a print journal:

Although most academic journals are digitalized, you may need to refer to and cite an article in a printed copy. This is especially common when working with older scholarship — historical research in particular often requires consulting print-only volumes from university library archives that have not yet been digitized.

When you do cite a printed academic journal article, make sure you include the page range where the article appears in the journal. For example, if your article starts on page 24 and ends on page 31, you would indicate the range 24-31 in the bibliography citation as follows:

Example:

Wiener, Jamila. "The Market in Plato's Republic," Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440-450.

Article in an online journal:

Scholarly articles appearing in online journals or periodicals use a similar format to the citation for printed articles. The main difference is that a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number or a URL will be included so the reader can access your source. Also, you will indicate the date you last accessed the online article. DOI numbers are strongly preferred over URLs when available, because DOIs are permanent identifiers that do not break over time the way ordinary website links can. Most major academic databases — including JSTOR, PubMed, and EBSCOhost — display the DOI prominently on the article's landing page.

Example:

Cosines, George, and Duncan J. Watts. "Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network." American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. Accessed October 12, 2010. doi:10.1086/599247.

Article in a newspaper or popular magazine:

Because most articles in newspapers and popular magazines do not have DOI numbers, you will be most likely to include the URL and access date in a Chicago citation like this. In 2026, the vast majority of newspaper reading happens through digital platforms, so you will almost always be citing online versions of newspaper articles rather than print editions. The format is essentially the same, but remember to always record the URL and the date you accessed the page, as news websites frequently update, move, or remove articles.

Example:

Holden, Tamika and Robert Gomez, "Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote," New York Times, February 27, 2010, accessed February 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.

Books, Printed Materials

Of course, you will eventually need to refer to a printed or digital copy of a book during your research. The Chicago citation style requires that you spell out the author's entire first name, just as with the author of a journal article. Titles of books use italics, not quotation marks. Indicate the date of publication at the end of the citation. When citing a newer edition of a book, be sure to note the edition number as well, since page numbers and content can differ significantly between editions — a detail that matters especially if your reader tries to verify a specific quotation.

Author, or Editor?

When using Chicago style to format entries in a bibliography, pay attention to whether the book you are using has an author or an editor. Usually the publisher will indicate "Editor" on the cover or title page. Edited volumes are especially common in the humanities and social sciences, where a single book may collect essays or chapters written by many different scholars. In those cases, you may cite either the book as a whole (listing the editor) or an individual chapter within it (listing the chapter's author and the editor of the volume). The examples below cover both scenarios.

One author:

Example:

Polan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2012.

Two or three authors:

Example:

Ward, Kevin C., and Ken Burnside. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf, 2007.

Utica, Jane, Yolanda Navidad and Joshua Oakes. The Traumatic Events of the 20^th Century. New York: Ballantine, 2013.

For four or more authors:

Chicago style encourages you to list all the authors in the Bibliography, even if you use the abbreviation "et al." in the corresponding footnotes or endnotes. Listing all authors ensures that every contributor receives proper attribution and also helps readers identify the source in library catalogs or databases, where full author names are typically indexed.

Example:

Brick, Tony, Jane Goodall, Nancy Drew, and Shamikia Copeland. Rumble on the Street. New York: Alfred Knopf.

Books with an Editor, Translator, or Compiler instead of an author:

Some books will have editors instead of authors, or will be classical works from antiquities that scholars prefer you list by translator name instead of by the original author. This situation arises frequently in history and classics courses, where you might be working with ancient Greek or Latin texts available only in modern translation. In these cases, the translator's interpretive choices are considered significant enough to warrant primary billing in the citation.

Example:

Lahore, Richard trans. The Iliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Editor, translator, or compiler in addition to author:

On the other hand, translated versions of modern literature or historiography will be listed according to the author's name. The translator's contribution is acknowledged after the title, introduced by the word "Translated by." This format makes it immediately clear who wrote the original work while still crediting the person who made it accessible in a new language.

Example:

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. Translated by Eddie Gross. London: Cape, 2011.

Chapter or other part of a book:

If you cite only one chapter of a book, you would only need to list that individual chapter in the bibliography. This is especially true for chapters in books that are compiled or edited, rather than authored by one person.

When you cite a chapter of an edited book, treat it similar to the way you treat an academic journal article by including the entire page range of the chapter in the bibliographic entry. The chapter title appears in quotation marks, while the book title is italicized — a consistent rule across all Chicago bibliography entries that distinguishes contained works from the larger works that contain them.

Example:

Kelly, John D. "Seeing Red: Mao Fathoms." In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kerry, Beatrice Jarvis, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Preface, foreword, introduction, or similar part of a book:

Prefaces and forewords are written by someone other than the author. Therefore, when citing the preface or foreword, give credit to that individual. Treat the entry as you would a book chapter, by listing the page range too. This type of citation comes up more often than you might expect — many scholarly editions of classic texts include lengthy, substantive introductions written by prominent academics, and those introductions are frequently worth citing in their own right.

Example:

Rigger, James. Introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, xi–xxxvii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Chicago Citations for Websites and Digital Materials

Webpage or Website:

How you cite a web page or website using Chicago style depends on the type of website and the way you include the reference in your work. A general reference to website content can often be limited to a cursory mention in the text or in a note ("As of July 19, 2013, the Xerox Corporation listed on its website . . .").

However, if you cite extensively from a company's website, or the website belonging to a government agency, you may need to use more formal Chicago citation style. This is increasingly common in research papers that draw on data or policy documents from government portals, think tanks, and nonprofit organizations — all of which publish significant amounts of material exclusively online in 2026.

The following examples are more formal citations for websites, and can be used when needed.

Note that Chicago style for websites does change often. Please refer to the Purdue Owl Guide for up to date information.

Similarly, the URLs (web page addresses) of almost all websites are subject to change. To prevent your reader from following a broken link, be sure to include an access date or list the date that the site was last modified. If possible, look for a "permalink" to the article. Some publications and institutional websites also offer archived versions of their pages through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (web.archive.org), which can be an excellent fallback for preserving access to sources that may later be moved or deleted.

Example:

Google. "Google Privacy Policy." Last modified March 11, 2013. http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.

Example:

McDonald's Corporation. "McDonald's Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts." Accessed July 19, 2013. http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.

Chicago Citation for Online Articles

Online articles vary in terms of their credibility. Regardless of where your information comes from, you do need to reference it properly using a Chicago citation. In the current research environment, students routinely encounter material from a wide range of online sources — from established academic publishers to open-access repositories, preprint servers like SSRN and arXiv, and general-interest online magazines. Each requires proper attribution, and Chicago style gives you the framework to handle all of them consistently.

If your online article appears in a newspaper, follow the citation format as follows:

Example:

Holden, Tamika and Robert Gomez, "Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote," New York Times, February 27, 2010, accessed February 28, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.

Blog entry or comment:

Blogs are not considered peer-reviewed academic sources, and are frequently unreliable sources of information, but if you do need to refer to a blog, there are several ways you can do it using a Chicago citation. As of 2026, many respected subject-matter experts, policy analysts, and academics maintain active blogs that sometimes contain original analysis not yet published elsewhere. In those cases, a blog post may be a legitimate — if informal — source worth citing, provided you acknowledge its limitations.

Blog entries or comments are often excluded from the actual bibliography page in the Chicago style. Instead you can offer a passing reference to a blog post or a blogger in text.

Example:

In a comment posted to The Ratchet Blog on April 3, 2010, a contributor named Pumkinhead1 stated, "I do not like to drink blood."

Occasionally you may quote or paraphrase from a blogger who has some credibility in his or her field of interest. Or, the blog may be attached to a credible website or organization including a university. Therefore, you may occasionally need a formal Chicago citation when referencing blog content.

The following examples show how you can create more formal versions of Chicago citations for blog posts or blog entries. As with other websites and online material, the date of access is important to note because of the tendency for URL links to break. When an access date is included, add it before the URL.

Example:

Jack, April 3, 2010, "Double Exports in Five Years?," The Ratchet Blog, December 1, 2010, http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/ratchet/2010/02/double-exports-in-five-years-.html

On rare occasions you may want to cite from the comment section of a blog. When you do so, indicate that your reference or quote comes from the comment section, as follows:

Example:

Jack, April 3, 2010 (7:03 p.m.), comment on Richard Bowles, "Double Exports in Five Years?," The Ratchet Blog, December 1, 2010, http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/ratchet/2010/02/double-exports-in-five-years-.html.

E-mail or text message

Personal communications with sources are often digitalized materials, as opposed to in-person communications. When you have interviewed someone via email or text message, be sure to give credit to that person's ideas or, when necessary, quote them exactly. In 2026, personal communications also increasingly occur through messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Signal, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. Chicago style does not yet have specific official formats for each of these platforms, but you can adapt the email and text message conventions below and clearly indicate the platform used so your reader understands the nature of the communication.

When you are simply referring to a communication in email or text message, you may be able to omit the Chicago citation from the bibliography page. In these situations, you can simply refer to the material in text as if it were a passing reference.

Example:

In a text message to the author on March 1, 2011, John Doe revealed that the children did not have enough to eat.

However, some types of email or text message communications may be integral to your research. When relying heavily on what the source of your information said, use a more formal Chicago citation both in-text and in the Bibliography page.

Example:

John Doe, e-mail message to author, May 31, 2011.

Item in a commercial database

Referencing materials you find in private, academic, or commercial databases using a Chicago citation is simple: use the format required for the type of citation and then indicate the name of the database and reference number afterwards. In 2026, researchers have access to a broader range of databases than ever before — from long-established platforms like ProQuest, JSTOR, and EBSCOhost to specialized discipline-specific repositories and open-access archives like PubMed Central and PhilPapers. The same basic Chicago rule applies across all of them: format the citation as you normally would for the source type, then append the database name and any identifying accession or reference number at the end.

For academic, scholarly, and peer-reviewed articles retrieved from a commercial database, you would follow the same rules as for a printed version of the same but with the addition of the database entry afterwards. If possible, also include the DOI.

Example:

Choi, Mahwah. "Contesting Imaginaries in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty." PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2011. ProQuest (AAT 3300426).

Book published electronically

Textbooks, scholarly publications, and fiction are increasingly becoming available in digital formats including Kindle. As of 2026, it is common for students to read assigned texts entirely on e-readers, tablets, or through browser-based platforms like VitalSource, RedShelf, or Perlego. Regardless of the platform, the core elements of a Chicago e-book citation remain the same — you need to clearly signal to your reader how and where you accessed the text.

Some digital books or ebooks have a standard URL, as they are available for download in a standard format readable by most computers, such as PDF.

Other digital books come in a proprietary format and can only be read using special software or hardware like the Kindle.

A citation style for a digital book will indicate to your reader how you accessed the book, and what format it was in.

A Chicago citation for a textbook will be similar to any other book, but remember to pay attention to whether the book has author(s) or editor(s).

Example of PDF format e-book:

Thrall, Grant Ian. Land Use and Urban Form. New York: Methuen, 1987. http://www.rri.wvu.edu/WebBook/Thrallbook/Land%20Use%20and%20Urban%20Form.pdf

Examples of e-book published to a website:

Prelock, Patricia A., Tiffany Hutchins, and Frances P. Glascoe. Speech-Language Impairment: How To Identify The Most Common And Least Diagnosed Disability Of Childhood. Ebook. 10th ed. Medscape J Med, 2008. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2491683/.

Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders' Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), accessed July 19, 2013, http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.

Example of a Kindle edition of a book:

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2010), Kindle edition.

If a book is available in more than one format, cite the version you consulted – such as print or web. For books consulted online, list a URL and 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. This is a particularly common issue with Kindle and other e-reader formats, which use dynamic "locations" rather than fixed page numbers — in those cases, citing the chapter or section is your most reliable option.

Chicago Citation YouTube Video

When citing a YouTube video or other multimedia content, you try to indicate the author/producer of the video. If there is no author but only the username of the person who uploaded the video, use that instead. Also include the date the video was posted and of course, the URL. In 2026, video content has become a significant part of academic and journalistic discourse — documentary clips, recorded lectures, conference presentations, and government briefings are all now routinely posted to platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, and students often encounter these as legitimate secondary sources in their research. The Chicago citation format for video has adapted accordingly, and the core principle remains the same: give your reader enough information to find exactly what you watched.

Example:

GEICO Insurance. "GEICO Hump Day Camel Commercial – Happier than a Camel on Wednesday". Filmed [May 2013]. YouTube video, 00:30. Posted [May 2013]. http://youtu.be/kWBhP0EQ1lA.

For longer or more formal video sources — such as a recorded university lecture posted to YouTube, or a documentary film uploaded to a streaming platform — you should also try to include the name of the director or presenter, if known, and the total runtime of the video. When citing a specific moment in a video, you can note the timestamp (e.g., 14:32) in your footnote or endnote to help your reader locate the precise claim you are referencing, much as you would cite a specific page number in a book.

Chicago Style In-Text Citations

Although not as common as footnotes or endnotes in Chicago style, Chicago in-text citations are a simpler and more straightforward method of citing your sources.

The basic elements of a Chicago in-text citation are (Author, Date) or (Author, Date, Page Number), using the page number only when quoting. The author-date system is particularly popular in disciplines that deal with a large volume of frequently updated research, where the publication year is immediately meaningful to a knowledgeable reader scanning a list of references.

Examples:

During the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected the public's attitudes toward the older generation (Hodgkin 2003, 176).

Hodgkin (2003, 176) discussed how, during the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected the public's attitudes toward the older generation.

In a 2003 article, Hodgkin (176) discussed how, during the turbulent 1960s, science fiction programs on television reflected the public's attitudes toward the older generation.

Two authors:

(Kirby and Spock 2013, 47)

Three authors:

(Kirby, Spock, and McCoy 2013, 47)

Four or more authors:

(Kirby et al. 2013, 47)
Note: Be sure to include all of the authors in the reference list.

Corporate author:

(NAACP 2011, 47)
Note: It is okay to create an abbreviation for long names. When you use an abbreviation for a corporate author in an in-text citation, make sure the full name of the organization appears clearly in the corresponding bibliography entry so your reader can identify the source without ambiguity.

No author:

("Evening Glory" 2005, 47)
Note: Use the first few words to shorten the title, excluding initial articles. Place the title in italics or quotation marks (or neither) the same way that you would in the reference list.

No page numbers:

(Copper 2011, para. 2.16)
("Triumphed" 2011, under "1990s Series")

When citing sources that have no page numbers — a situation that arises frequently with websites, ebooks, and online articles — Chicago style allows you to use whatever structural markers the source provides, such as paragraph numbers, section headings, chapter numbers, or timestamps. The goal is always the same: give your reader enough detail to locate the specific passage you are referencing, regardless of the format of the source.

Conclusion

Chicago style formatting for academic papers is becoming increasingly common in specific disciplines like history and anthropology. Although not a universal documentation format, the Chicago style is one of the oldest and most established method of citing sources. Its longevity speaks to how well the system has adapted over more than a century — from handwritten manuscripts and letterpress printing in the 1890s all the way through the digital-first research environment of 2026.

Chicago citations are easy to learn, even though the process of formatting footnotes and endnotes might seem tricky at first. With the help of a writing tutor, you can perfect your Chicago format to create polished academic papers. And with tools like Microsoft Word's built-in footnote manager, citation management software such as Zotero or Mendeley, and guides like this one, you have more resources available to get Chicago style right than any previous generation of students. The effort you put into mastering Chicago citation today will pay dividends throughout your academic career and well beyond it.