how to chicago in text citation?

You should choose one of these two citation options and use it consistently throughout your text. The source details are listed in full in a bibliography or reference list at the end. Make sure to pay attention to punctuation (e.g., commas and quotation marks).

Chicago Reference Generator

First, you need to decide whether you are using notes or author-date in-text citations. You can usually find out from your instructor or syllabus which style you should use.

The notes and bibliography system is usually preferred in humanities subjects like literature, history and the arts. The author-date system is preferred in the sciences, including social sciences.

The styles are similar in the information they present, but they differ in terms of the order, location, and format of that information. It’s important to use one style consistently, and not to confuse the two.

Author-date style places citations directly in the text in parentheses. In-text citations include the author’s last name, the year of publication, and if applicable, a page number or page range:

This style of Chicago in-text citation looks the same for every type of source.

When using author-date, you should always include a reference list with an entry corresponding to each citation. This provides the reader with full publication information to locate the source.

The author-date style gives you some flexibility in where you place your citations in the text.

Most commonly, you will put the citation at the end of the relevant sentence (before the period). You can also integrate it into the sentence. If you name the author in your sentence, you only need to include the date and page number in parentheses.

Multiple citations can also be combined within one set of parentheses using a semicolon.

As you can see in the Valentine citation, it’s not always necessary to include a page number—only when you’re referring to a specific part of the text. If you want to cite the text as a whole, you can leave out the page number.

In notes and bibliography style, your citations appear in either footnotes or endnotes.

To create a Chicago footnote or endnote reference, a superscript number is placed at the end of the clause or sentence that the citation applies to, after any punctuation (periods, quotation marks, parentheses). Your first citation is marked with a 1, your second with a 2, and so on.

These superscript numbers correspond to numbered footnotes or endnotes containing the actual citation.

There are two types of note you can use in Chicago style: full and short.

You should usually use a full note the first time you cite each source. If you cite the same source more than once, use a short note for each subsequent citation. You may also use “ibid.” to repeat the citation from the previous note, but short notes are the more usual choice.

The rules of your specific institution may vary, requiring you to use one of the two note styles every time. It’s important to check with your instructor if you’re unsure.

This is what a full and short note for the same citation might look like:

The format of the note varies depending on the type of source. Below you can see examples of a Chicago website citation, book citation, book chapter citation, and journal article citation.

Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page they refer to, while endnotes appear in their own section at the end of the text, before the Chicago style bibliography.

The citation looks exactly the same whether it appears in a footnote or an endnote. If you haven’t been told which one to use, the choice is a matter of personal preference. The important thing is to consistently use one or the other.

In both styles, when you cite a source with two or three authors, list the names in the order they appear in the original publication:

When a source has four or more authors, use the term “et al.” after the first author’s name:

Sometimes, not all of the information you need for your citation will be available. Thankfully, there are ways to work around this in both styles.

Page numbers are not always necessary; if the source doesn’t have page numbers (e.g., a website), or if you’re referring to the general argument of a text instead of a specific passage, you can omit page numbers.

If a source has no page numbers but you still want to specify a particular part of the text, you can use other locators like paragraphs, chapters or headings instead—whatever markers the text provides:

If the source doesn’t have a stated publication date, you can write “n.d.” in place of the year:

If no specific author is listed, you can refer to the organization that published the source:

The Chicago style, when referring to a source of information within the text of a document, in its simplest form, gives a short citation consisting of the name of the author (or authors) and the date of publication.

• The short references within the text are given wholly or partly in round brackets.

• Use only the surname of the author followed by the year of publication. Include page, chapter, section or paragraph numbers if you need to be specific. A comma is placed between the year of publication and the page, chapter, section or paragraph numbers.

• No distinction is made between books, journal articles, internet documents or other formats except for electronic documents that do not provide page numbers. In this instance, use the paragraph number, if available, with the abbreviation para.

• Citations in the text can either be placed at the end of a sentence in parentheses (brackets) or alternatively, the author's name may be included in the text, and just the date and additional information placed within the brackets.

Some Examples

• A citation for a book appearing in the text as:

There are many reasons for intestinal scarring (Ogilvie 1998, 26-28).

would be found in the reference list in the following form:

Ogilvie, Timothy H. 1998. Large Animal Internal Medicine. Baltimore, MD: Williams and Wilkins.

• A citation for a journal article appearing in the text as either:

... gastrointestinal illness is also often misdiagnosed (Morgan and Thompson 1998, 243). OR Morgan and Thompson (1998, 243) argue that gastrointestinal illness is also often misdiagnosed.

would be referenced as:

Morgan, U. M., and R.C. A. Thompson. 1998. "PCR Detection of Cryptosporidium: The Way Forward." Parasitology Today 14, no. 6 (December): 241-245.

• An electronic document would be cited in the text in the same way as a print document.

For example, citation for an internet document appearing in the text as:

There are many useful materials available (Raidal and Dunsmore 1996, par. 13)

would be given in the reference list as:

Raidal, Shane R., and Jon Dunsmore. 1996. Parasites of Companion Birds: A Survey of Alimentary Tract Parasites in Caged Psittacine Birds with Specific Reference to the Prevalence of Trichomonas Gallinae. http://wwwvet.murdoch.edu.au/caf/parasit.htm.

Note: When referring to multiple authors within the text and within parentheses, precede the final name with the word and:

... as Kurtines and Szapocnik (2003) demonstrated. ... as has been demonstrated (Kurtines and Szapocnik, 2003).