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HIST 177: Borderlands in Latin American History

General guidelines for Chicago citations

Chicago citation examples

There are two versions of Chicago Style:

  1. "Notes and bibliography" (Chapter 14): footnotes (N) and bibliography (B); used more in humanities
  2. "Author-date" (Chapter 15): parenthetical citations and Reference List; used more in the social sciences

In the examples below, we show how to cite a source in a footnote (N), accompanying bibliography (B). Your bibliography should be alphabetized by author last name. For works that do not have an author, alphabetize by item title (omitting articles like "a" or "the"). Your bibliography should also be formatted using Hanging Indents.

In this guide:

 

Books

(N) 1. FirstName LastName, Title of work (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), PageNumbers.

(B) Lastname, Firstname. Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.

example:

(N) 1. A. B. Jones, My Book for Citation (Minneapolis: Good Books Press, 2014), 78-79.

(B) Jones, A. B. My Book for Citation. Minneapolis: Good Books Press, 2014.

Book chapters

 

(N) 1. FirstName LastName, "Title of Chapter," in Title of Book, ed. EditorFirstName EditorLastName. (Place: Publisher, Year), PageNumber.

(B) LastName, FirstName. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Book, edited by EditorFirstName EditorLastName, PageNumberSpan. Place: Publisher, Year.

example:

(N) 1. John D. Kelly, “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War,” in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, ed. John D. Kelly et al. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 77.
(B) Kelly, John D. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Periodicals (journals, magazines)

Watch a video about citing journal articles using Chicago

(N) 1. Firstname A. Lastname and Firstname B. Lastname, "Title of Article," Title of Periodical xx, no.x (Year): pp-pp, URL/doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx.

(B) Lastname, Firstname A., Firstname B. Lastname, and Firstname C. Lastname. "Title of Article." Title of periodical xx, no.x (Year): pp-pp. URL/doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx.

example:

(N) 1. Jamie A. Smith, Arnold B. Miller, and Jose P. Rodriguez, "I Love Citation," All About Citation 21, no.1 (2012): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1086/######.

(B) Smith, Jamie A., Arnold B. Miller, and Jose P. Rodriguez. "I Love Citation." All About Citation 21, no.1 (2012): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1086/######.

See 14.10: Short forms for URLs for help with long, weird URLs

Newspaper Article

example:

(N) 1. David G. Savage, “Stanford Student Goes to Supreme Court to Fight for Her Moms,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2015, Nation, http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gay-marriage-children-20150424-story.html.

(B) Newspapers are more commonly cited in notes or parenthetical references than in bibliographies.

(B) An example from the Carleton History Department on how to cite a newspaper in a bibliography

More information...

Work in a Series

(N) 1. Muriel St. Clare Byrne, ed., The Lisle Letters (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 4:243.

(B) Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, ed. The Lisle Letters. 6 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Informally or Unpublished Reports

(N) 1. Firstname Lastname, "Title" (source type, location, year), page numbers, link if available.

(B) Lastname, Firstname. "Title." source type, location, year, link if available. 

example:

(N) 1. John Smith, "Apple of the Eye" (Senior thesis, Carleton College, 2016), 17-23.

(B) Smith, John. "Apple of the Eye." Senior thesis, Carleton College, 2016.

Web Pages

Watch a video about citing websites and social media using Chicago

On website, and On dates: Include a publication date or date of revision or modification if possible; else, access date.

(N) Firstname Lastname, "Page Title," Website Title, last modified/accessed/updated date, URL.

(B) Lastname, Firstname. "Page Title." Website Title. Date. URL.

example:

(N) 1. “Balkan Romani,” Endangered Languages, Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, accessed September 2, 2022, https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/5342.

(B) "Balkan Romani." Endangered Languages, Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. Accessed September 2, 2022. https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/5342.

You may also choose to cite to the Internet Archive instead of the live website. For example:

(N2) 1. “Balkan Romani,” Endangered Languages, Alliance for Linguistic Diversity, accessed September 2, 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20220822122125/https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/5342.

See 14.207: Citing web pages and websites for other options.

Images and Art

If citing images found in published works or online collections, cite them similarly to book chapters, articles, or web pages within website, with the artist in the author position and the image title in the chapter title, article title, or webpage title position.

If citing images or art that stand alone:

(N) 1. Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Slave, 1513-15, marble, 2.09 m., Paris, The Louvre.

(B) Buonarroti, Michelangelo. The Slave, 1513-15. Marble, 2.09 m. Paris, The Louvre.

See also: Best practices for Creative Commons attribution

Data Sets & DH Projects

(N) 1. Creator, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), link.

(B) Creator. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. link.

example:

(N) 1. The World Bank. Washington Development Indicators. (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2012). http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators.

(B) The World Bank. World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2012. http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators.

Example of how to cite different parts of a digital humanities project

Films, Videos, or DVDs

(N) 1. Firstname Lastname of Writer, Title, Directed by Firstname Lastname (Place: Studio, Year), format.

(B) Lastname, Firstname. Title. Directed/Performed by Firstname Lastname. Place: Studio, Year. Format. 

example:

(N) 1. John Wong, Cool People at the Libe, Directed by Cat Toff (Northfield: Gould Libe, 1999). DVD.

(B) Wong, John. Cool People at the Libe. Directed by Cat Toff. Northfield: Gould Libe, 1999. DVD.

Primary Sources in a Republished Source

When possible, always find and cite the original. If this is absolutely impossible, you may need to cite a primary source that is republished in a secondary source.

Follow whatever citation rules apply to your specific item type; for instance, because this example is a newspaper article, there's only a short bibliography entry. If this were a different item type, the bibliography entry might look different. 

(N) 1. [Complete citation for the older/original item; see Archival Citations or above for help], quoted in [Complete citation for newer/secondary source; see above for help], page #, URL/doi.

(B) [Complete citation for the older/original item; see Archival Citations or above for help]. Quoted in [Complete citation for newer/secondary source; see above for help]. URL/doi. 

example:

(N) 1. Itthi, "Love Problems of the Third Sex -- Solved by Go Pakhnam" [in Thai], Plaek, July 7, 1976, quoted in Peter A. Jackson, First Queer Voices from Thailand: Uncle Go’s Advice Columns for Gays, Lesbians and Kathoeys (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016), 196-197, https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bj4sqf.

(B) Plaek. July 7, 1976. Quoted in Peter A. Jackson. First Queer Voices from Thailand: Uncle Go’s Advice Columns for Gays, Lesbians and Kathoeys. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bj4sqf.

See: 14.260: Citations taken from secondary sources

More examples...

There are two versions of Chicago Style: "notes and bibliography" and "author-date" style. The "Notes" style uses footnotes and sometimes a Bibliography, and is typically used in the humanities. "Author-Date" uses in-text parenthetical citations plus a Reference List, and is more typically used in the social sciences.

In the paranthetical citation, you will put the author's last name followed by the publication year, comma, page number. For example (Smith 2017, 214).

In the examples below, we show how to cite a source in a Reference List.

Books

Lastname, Firstname. Year. Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.

example:

Jones, A.B. 2014. My Book for Citation. Minneapolis: Good Books Press.

Book chapters

LastName, FirstName. Year. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Book. edited by EditorFirstName EditorLastName, PageNumberSpan. Place: Publisher.

example:

(R) Kelly, John D. 2010. “Seeing Red: Mao Fetishism, Pax Americana, and the Moral Economy of War.” In Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency, edited by John D. Kelly, Beatrice Jauregui, Sean T. Mitchell, and Jeremy Walton, 67–83. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Periodicals (newspapers, journals, magazines)

Lastname, Firstname A., Firstname B. Lastname, and Firstname C. Lastname. Year. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical xx (no. x): pp-pp. 

example:

Smith, Jamie A., Arnold B. Miller, and Jose P. Rodriguez. 2012. "I Love Citation." All About Citation 21 (1): 1-10.

Informally or Unpublished Reports

Lastname, Firstname. Year. "Title." source type, location. link if available.

example:

Smith, John. 2016. "Apple of the Eye." Senior thesis, Carleton College.

Images and Art

If citing images found in published works or online collections, cite them similarly to book chapters, articles, or web pages within website, with the artist in the author position and the image title in the chapter title, article title, or webpage title position.

If citing images or art that stand alone:

Buonarroti, Michelangelo. 1513-15. The Slave. Marble, 2.09 m. Paris, The Louvre.

Data Sets

Creator. Year. Title. Place: Publisher. link

Example:

The World Bank. 2012. World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators.

Video/DVD

Lastname, Firstname. Year. Title. Performed by Firstname Lastname. Place: Studio. Format.

example:

Wong, John. 1999. Cool People at the Libe. Directed by Cat Toff. Northfield: Gould Libe. DVD.

Archival material & FAQ

Elements to include (Rule)

Author (if applicable) / Title of the item (Rule) / date of the item (Rule) / item number (if applicable) / series title (if applicable) / series number (if applicable) / name of the collection (if applicable) / collection number (if applicable) / name of the depository or archive / location of depository (if applicable) / URL or DOI or name of database (if applicable)

Footnotes: Format (RuleExamples)

"In a note, the main element of a manuscript citation is usually a specific item (a letter, a memorandum, or whatever) and is thus cited first.”

Bibliography: Format (Rule & Examples)

In a bibliography: "Entries are usually listed under the name of the collection or under the author(s) of the items contained therein...If only one item from a collection has been mentioned in text or in a note and is considered important enough to include in a bibliography, the entry will begin with the item."

Frequently Asked Difficult Questions

Referencing AI-generated media

There is no standard for how to cite or describe AI-generated media...yet. In the meantime, best practice is to be as transparent as you can about what was generated, and how. Always follow the policies and guidance of the specific class you are in; policies may vary by professor and by class. Ask if you're not sure.

Other resources: