Chicago Citation Guide (18th Edition): Welcome

May 2025: All pages throughout this guide have been updated in accordance with the 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Some of the major updates are listed below, along with the corresponding section number in The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed., which is available as a physical book from Columbia College Library.

Author Names:

• Up to six authors are now listed in the bibliography. If the source has more than six authors, list only the first three in the bibliography entry, followed by “et al.” (13.78)
• Up to two authors are now listed in footnotes. If the source has more than two authors, list only the first author in the footnote, followed by “et al.” (13.78)
• Authors whose names follow Eastern order (family name first) rather than Western order (family name last) are not normally inverted in a bibliography or reference list. (13.75)

Bibliography:

• No blank line is needed between entries in the Bibliography. (13.66, fig. 13.8)

Books:

• Place of publication is no longer required in citations for books. (14.30)
• However, if the book that you are citing was published before the year 1900, provide the City of Publication instead of the Publisher's Name in your citation. (14.31)
• The page range for a cited chapter in an edited book is no longer required in a bibliography or reference list entry (though a page range is still required for most journal articles). (14.8)

Class Handouts, Presentations, and Readings:

• Information about presentations is no longer enclosed in parentheses. (14.115)
• Citations for papers or posters presented at meetings are normally only included in footnotes. (14.115)

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries (Reference Works):

• CMOS 18th Ed. no longer recommends using the Latin abbreviation s.v. (“under the word”, plural s.vv.) in citations for encyclopedia and dictionary entries. Use the word “under” instead. (14.130)

Newspapers:

• If the title of the newspaper is divided by a period, convert the period to a colon. If the result is unwieldy, use only the first part of the title (or the part that makes the most sense as a main title). (14.90)

Social Media:

• Quote up to the first 280 characters of a social media post, including spaces and emojis. (14.106)
• If citing a post on the social media platform X from before July 2023, format the name of this social media platform as: Twitter (now X). (14.106)

Videos & DVDs:

• Citations for Films & DVDs no longer require the city where the distributor is located. (14.161)

The Chicago Manual of Style was originally created in 1937 by Kate L. Turabian at the University of Chicago.  It is most commonly used by writers in the fields of History, Literature, and the Arts.

Chicago Style features two different methods of citation that can be used:

1. Author-Date Style

• This method of citation uses specific parenthetical citations throughout your work and a bibliography at the end of your work, arranged in alphabetical order, that provides full details about your cited sources.

2. Footnotes-Bibliography Style - This is the method that you will use in your Art History and History courses at Columbia College.

• This method of citation employs footnotes or endnotes for specific citations and a bibliography at the end of your work, arranged in alphabetical order, that provides full details about your sources.

Footnotes are generally structured as follows:

• First time adding a footnote for a source: Full citation details including author/editor name(s), title information, publication information, and page(s) cited. Details vary depending on the source type.  Place a superscript number at the end of a quote or paraphrased section.  Citation numbers should appear in sequential order.
• Subsequent footnotes for a source (also known as 'shortened footnotes'): Author’s last name, title (shortened if the full title was more than four words), page(s) cited. (See The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed., sec. 13.32-13.39).

Bibliography entries generally contain, in the following order:

• Author/creator information
• Title information (titles may be in “quotation marks” or in italics, depending on the source type)
• Publication information (e.g. publisher name and publication date for a book; volume and issue number for a journal article; DOI [Digital Object Identifier] or URL for an online resource)

Adapted from The University of Alberta Chicago Citation Style QuickGuide

Bibliography: Contains details on ALL the sources cited in a text or essay, and supports your research and/or premise.

Citation: The details about one source you are citing.

Citing: The process of acknowledging the sources of your information and ideas.

Footnotes: Notes placed at the end of the page in your paper to cite sources found on that page.

Paraphrasing: Taking information that you have read and putting it into your own words.

Plagiarism: Taking the ideas or words of another person and using them as your own.

Quoting: Copying words of text originally published elsewhere, and pasting them into the body text of your own assignment, with quotation marks at the beginning and end.

Shortened Footnote: A subsequent footnote that includes enough information for readers to find the full citation in your bibliography or in an earlier footnote.

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This sample paper can be used as a template to set up your assignment. It includes a title page, main body paragraph with footnotes, and a bibliography.

Stop by the library and speak with a Librarian, or use the chat box below to chat with a Librarian from home. 

This citation guide is based on the following resources: 

Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation. 10th ed. In English and French. Thomson Reuters, 2023.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed. The University of Chicago Press, 2024.

The contents are accurate to the best of our knowledge.