Chicago Citation Generator (Notes or Author-Date)

The Chicago Manual of Style offers two citation systems. Notes and bibliography, common in history, art and the humanities, cites sources in footnotes and lists them in a bibliography. Author-date, used in the sciences and social sciences, puts (Author Year, page) in the text and a reference list at the end. This generator produces the full first note, the short note for later citations and the bibliography entry, or the author-date reference and citation. It follows the current 18th edition, with the 17th as an option.

How to use this tool

1. Choose notes and bibliography or author-date, and the edition your course uses.
2. Pick the source type and enter the authors as Family, Given names.
3. Add the title, journal or book details, place of publication, publisher, date and DOI or URL.
4. Enter the page you cite to complete the note or the in-text citation, then copy the results.

Formula

Note: First Last, Title of Book (Place: Publisher, Year), page. · Bibliography: Last, First. Title of Book. Place: Publisher, Year. · Author-date: Last, First. Year. Title of Book. Place: Publisher. → (Last Year, page)

Notes give names in normal order; the bibliography inverts only the first author. In the 18th edition, et al. starts at three authors in notes and author-date citations, and bibliographies list up to six authors (first three plus et al. beyond that). In the 17th edition the limits are four authors and ten names (first seven). Page ranges are shortened as in CMOS (165–76, 101–8). The short note uses the surname and up to four key words of the title, so check it reads naturally. Titles keep the capitalization you type unless you tick the option.

Example

Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman's 2015 book gives the note 1. Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 12., then the short note Grazer and Fishman, Curious Mind, 12. and the bibliography entry Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015. In author-date it is cited (Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12).