Chicago 17th edition citation reference
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), 17th edition, is widely used in history, the arts and many social sciences. Uniquely, it defines two distinct citation systems for the same sources. This tool shows both: toggle between Notes-Bibliography (footnotes plus a bibliography) and Author-Date (parenthetical in-text citations plus a reference list), with a template and copy button for each source type.
How it works
In the Notes-Bibliography system, each citation appears as a numbered footnote or endnote
the first time it is used — 1. First Last, Title (City: Publisher, Year), page. — and the
corresponding bibliography entry inverts the author name and uses periods instead of commas. In
the Author-Date system, you cite briefly in the running text as (Last Year, page) and give
a full reference-list entry that moves the year directly after the author. The same source data
populates both; only the punctuation, name order and year placement change between systems.
Tips and notes
- Footnote entries use commas and parentheses around the publication facts; bibliography entries use periods and no parentheses around them — that difference is the most common slip.
- Choose one system per document. Notes-Bibliography suits text-heavy humanities work; Author- Date suits data-driven sciences.
- After a full first footnote you may use a shortened note (
Last, Short Title, page) for repeat citations. Turabian is the student-oriented adaptation of the same two systems.