Style Notes

Table 1.  Abbreviations

Source: Adapted from Chicago Manual of Style Online,18th ed. (University of Chicago, 2024), sec. 10.48 Scholarly Abbreviations.

For official US state abbreviations : https://pe.usps.com/text/pub28/28apb.htm

General

• Generally, use the form of authors name is as it appears on the book, article, website etc.
• If in one source the author uses initials but in another their full name – you should use the fuller version of the name.
• Cite the names of authors in the order they appear on the source.
• Use ‘and’ not ‘&’ before the last author’s name - in the footnote and the bibliography.
• Authors who always use initials continue to do so (J K Rowling / T S Eliot).
• Each footnote has to have an entry in the bibliography – unless its personal communication (pers. comm.), unpublished data, or similar non-retrievable sources.  
• As long as the author is fully identified in the text somewhere there is no need for an entry in the bibliography for personal communications – they are usually defined as things that won't be retrievable by the person reading your work. See Personal communications in Other Sources.
• Applies to author, editor, translator and other contributors.

Table 2.  Basic Footnotes / Bibliography Style

Source: Compiled from from Chicago Manual of Style Online, 18th ed. (University of Chicago, 2024), chap. 13.

Authors in the Footnote

• The author(s) name(s) should be written as: First name Surname,
• In the footnote list one and two authors, but for three or more authors just list first author - Surname  et al.  
• When citing 2 or more sources to make a point, put them all at one superscripted number – at that number in the notes you can then arrange in the order cited in the text at that number  - with a semicolon in between each one.
• Authors are listed numerically by footnote number and each element separated by a comma: (example for a book) Footnote number. Author(s), Title, (Publisher, date), page/locator.

Authors in the Bibliography

• Invert the first author’s name only (ie. Last name, First Name) – the rest of the authors are listed in order (i.e. First name Last name).
• List all names up to 6 authors in the bibliography.
• For more than 6 authors – list only first three authors (3) et al. in the bibliography.
• Single author entry appears before a multi author entry beginning with the same name.
• Type in the repeated names that appear in consecutive entries in the bibliography – no longer use the 3-EM dash.
• Entries are listed alphabetically in the form: (example for a book)  Author Surname, First name(s). Title. Publisher, date.

Editors and translators

• When in the author position:
  • In the footnote and bibliography - listed the same as an author would be listed with addition of ed. or trans. after the name (or eds. or trans. for more than one).  See: CMOS 13.24.
• When in addition to author (i.e. listed after title):
  • In the footnote - ed. or trans. is added before the full name of the editor/s or translator/s.
  • In the bibliography - do not abbreviate e.g.,

Edited by … or Translated by … or
Edited by Jason Pollock. Translated by Trevor Smith (where both appear).  See: CMOS 14.6.

Same author and date

• For works by the same author(s) and year, 
  • In the footnotes - each will have a different note number.
  • In the bibliography - arrange them alphabetically by title.
• Repeated entries for author names now have to be typed in full - Chicago no longer recommends the 3 EM dash.

Special types of names

• For foreign names, capitalise and spell the name just as it appears in the source you're citing.
• If the surname starts with a lower-case letter, use that form in the note and keep the author's original capitalisation even in the bibliography list entry. Note: you may need to check additional sources to see the correct order for the name.

Same last name

• For authors with the same surname, their full names will be written in order they appear in the source.

No author

• If a work has no identifiable author, use the title in the author position.
• For works where the author is “Anonymous,” use it in the note in author position.

No date

• n.d. (short for no date) is used when there is not date on a publication, website etc.

Organisation as author

• For publications issued by an organisation, association, commission, corporation etc . Also known as corporate author.
• Use the organisation name as author, even when it will quite often also be the publisher. This means when the reference is written out in the bibliography the organisation name appears in both the author and publisher (source) position. See CMOS 13.86. For example,

World Health Organization. Health and the Millennium Development Goals. World Health Organization, 2005.

Pseudonyms

• If work is by a made-up name can put pseud. after it in square bracket [pseud.]
• If well-known you can use it as author, for example George Eliot.
• If of interest to readers put real name in square bracket after - Jay-Z [Shawn Carter].
• If real name better known that pseudonyms, use real name. Charlotte Bronte rather than Currer Bell.

Other variations

• If authorship is guessed at put in square brackets [  ] .
• If an author is known by one name, just use it (e.g. Virgil) and alphabetise in the bibliography accordingly.

Note Identifiers - Superscript Numbers Appearing in the Text (CMOS 13.29)

• If you quote, paraphrase or summarise information from another source, you must include a note identifier and accompanying footnote in the body of your assignment.
• The note identifier must be written in superscript i.e. ⁴ Superscript is where the numbers are slightly raised above the level of the text.
• The note identifier should appear after any punctuation (normally after the closing point of a sentence). One exception is when it precedes a dash.
• If you use a long quotation (more than three lines of text) it is placed in a block. The note identifier should be placed at the end of the quotation.
• Never use more than one note identifier in the same place  – so no ^5,6  but rather have ⁵ and then in the notes add multiple references into the one note in the order they are mentioned in the text (See CMOS 13.61).
• Numbers cannot appear out of sequence – if the note applies to more than one location it must be repeated under a new number – there is possibility of using a “see note 3 above” though, appearing at that new number.
• If something other than a number is used see CMOS 13.28 in the manual.

Footnotes (CMOS 13.27 - 64)

• Footnotes are numbered – corresponding to the superscripted number in the text.
• The number in the footnote is same font size as other footnote text and is followed by a period.
• Footnotes are styled like sentences with sentence punctuation (commas between the elements). Example for a book: Author, Title, (Publisher, date), pages.
• Full bibliographic details are found in the footnotes and in the bibliography at the end of the document.
• See also: Authors tab.

Shortened form

• Depending on discipline and assignment instructions you may be directed to use a shortened form of footnote throughout – as the bibliography will contain the full details about each source.  
• Shortened forms can be used if the full details have already been given in full for a previous footnote – this will be how the examples appear in this guide : the first time an item is cited there will be a full citation given – second and subsequent mentions of the same source will appear in shortened form.
• Shortened form should include enough info to remind readers of the full title or lead them to the entry in the bibliography.
• Most common short form is last name of author, and the main title of the work shortened (if more than four words).
• You can shorten the title but don’t change the order, and you can omit The and A. Be cautious and do not shorten foreign language titles unless you have knowledge of the language.
• No ibid anymore – use short titles is the Chicago recommendation. Also no longer use:  idem, op cit or loc cit.
• Based on these books (long form) footnotes:

1. Tom Nairn, Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited (Verso, 1997), 17
2. Robert Broome, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800 (Allen & Unwin, 2005), 120
3. John Danalis, Riding the Black Cockatoo (Allen & Unwin, 2009), 53.

•  The short form footnotes for subsequent mentions can look like this:

4. Nairn, Faces of Nationalism, 17.
5. Broome, Aboriginal Victorians: A History, 126.
6. Danalis, Riding the Black Cockatoo, 53.
7. Broome, Aboriginal Victorians, 127.
8. Nairn, Faces of Nationalism, 176.

• Number of authors in the shortened form – list one, and two surnames, but for three or more authors list the first author surname and then et al.
• Based on these books (long form) footnotes:

1.    Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory 5th ed. (Routledge, 2016), 89
2.    Rob White, Fiona Haines, and Nicole L. Asquith, Crime and criminology, 6th ed. (Oxford, 2017),43

Becomes…

3.    Bennett and Royle, Introduction to Literature Criticism, 89
4.    White, et al., Crime and criminology, 43

Commentary in the footnote

• If a footnote has commentary as well as a source – the source comes first followed by a period. Then the commentary.

Quoting in the footnotes

• If the footnote contains a quote then the source follows the quote.

Multiple mentions in the text

• Number of note citations in the text can be reduced by grouping a few together in one number. In the footnote separate them with semicolons; and they have to be in same order as mentioned in the text. See CMOS 13.61.
• For more information on footnotes see CMOS 13.40-64.

Bibliography (CMOS 13.65 - 73)

• Appears at the end of the document – and is usually a single alphabetical list.
• Entries are formatted with periods between the main elements:example for a book  Author Surname, First name(s). Title. Publisher, date.
• Entries are listed in alphabetical order by surname (Jane Doe, in footnote becomes Doe, Jane in the bibliography). See CMOS 13.69 and Authors tab.
• Generally, students are required to list everything cited in the assignment footnotes in the bibliography as well – check the instructions / rubric in LMS.
• Sometimes the bibliography may be required to be divided into sections – for example if it includes manuscript and archival sources they maybe in a separate section to the secondary sources. See CMOS 13.67.
• There are different types of bibliographies – see CMOS 13.68 for more information.

Page numbers / No page numbers

• Page numbers go in the footnote  – can be a one number or a span of pages:  15 or 145–48.
• Page numbers are used for quotes and paraphrases  “in notes where reference is usually to a particular passage in a book or journal article, only the page number or numbers pertaining to that passage are given.” See CMOS 13.20.
• In the bibliography page numbers follow a colon :34–46, and are usually only needed for journal articles.
• Can denote chapter (chap.), part (pt.), book (bk.) or section (sec.) instead of a span of pages:  pt. 2.
• For line numbers – for example used in poetry or plays - write line or lines – i.e. do not use l or ll.
• Old books pre-1800 may not have pages numbers but use signatures, leaves and folios – consult CMOS 14.53 and 14.54.
• See 14.56 and 14.57 of CMOS to see how to cite notes, figures, and tables.    
• For ebooks – sometimes pages are not included in online versions – in the first instance try and find a version which has original paging. You can also refer to chapter or sections to pinpoint the information you are using. Sometimes if viewing online version there will be a link to the pdf (especially for journal articles etc) – open pdf and use the pages there.
• For journal articles with an article number cite the pages used in the footnote CMOS 14.71. In the bibliography only cite the article number and no pages.

Footnote:

1. Shayesteh Tabatabaei, "An Energy-Aware Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks using the Scattered Search Algorithm and Fuzzy Logic," PLoS One 19, no. 11 (2024): 6, e0297728.

2. Tabatabaei, “An Energy-aware Protocol”, 8.

Bibliography entry:

Tabatabaei, Shayesteh. "An Energy-Aware Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks using the Scattered Search Algorithm and Fuzzy Logic," PLoS One 19, no. 11 (2024): e0297728. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297728.

• For other online journal articles, most will have pages, but if they don’t you can use another type of locator – but it is not required.
• Include a time stamp audiovisual and multimedia materials, e.g. 4:25
• For more information, see CMOS 13.20  (page numbers and other locators) and 14.59 (ebooks) and 14.71 (journal page references – incl article numbers and pages).

Publishing information (CMOS 14.30-14.40)

Publishing details consist of the name of publisher, and year of publication.

Note - Place of Publication – no longer required for books published after 1900. See CMOS 14.30.

• For books published independently by an author, and there are no details of publisher or imprint on the title or copyright pages, put “published by the author” in the publisher position. See CMOS 14.36.

Publisher Name

• For older books published before the 20th century you can omit the publisher name and just have a place and date. If the book has been printed by the author you can add that notation (Printed by the author).
• If the author is also the publisher (common in government / organisation reports), both appear in the bibliography.
• If multiple publishers are named, only include first named.
• Give publisher name exactly as it appears in the publication - even if you know the name has changed (over time publishers have been known to change their name - e.g. Harcourt Brace and World, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Harcourt).
• Omit the initial The in publisher names and also omit abbreviations like Co., Inc., and Ltd.
• For foreign publishers write as is, and do not omit anything. Give the city name in English form (if used).

Date / Year of publication

• Year of publication is part of publishing details and is placed after the publisher's name.
• Year of publication is usually the same date as copyright date.
• Reprints and new editions may have a string of dates on the publishing page - most times you will be using the last date in the string.
• If there are 2 dates - one for the physical copy and one for the online copy - use the date on the source you are viewing (for online it would be the date it was 'published' online, even if it is just a digital version of the original and has the original cover and publishing details). There are some exceptions where you might put the original published date as well – see CMOS 14.16.
• Journal articles – The date goes in  parentheses after the volume/issue number .  See also Journal page as its ok to just be the year if you have vol and issue but sometime month or season can be used when either vol or issue not given. See CMOS 14.70.

No date

• If you cannot determine the year of publication it is okay to use notation n.d. (no date).
• If a website or other online material has no date, or the site is frequently updated (e.g. Wikipedia), you can use n.d. and add an access date after the title (Accessed July 1, 2016 or Last modified March 25, 2015).
• If you think you know the date even though it doesn't appear on the item, use square brackets and a question mark [1955?].

Not yet published

• If something is not yet published but you know it is in the process of being published, you can use ‘forthcoming’. Forthcoming stands in for Year and page numbers. See CMOS 14.45. 

eBooks

• If consulting electronic/online book you need to give information about how you accessed as part of publication details – include URL or DOI after the publishing details, or if the online version required specific software specify that instead (iBooks, Adobe Digital Editions). If accessing from a specific database, you could use its name (Business Source Ultimate).

Quotations and paraphrasing

Golden rule - you must acknowledge everything that is not your own work.

• For information on the writing process or how to start your assessments – visit Achieve@Uni - Writing. There is a section which explains quotes, paraphrases and summarising.
• In all cases you will need to correctly use a footnote and have an entry in the bibliography.
• In Chicago you are required to put pages numbers in for quotes and paraphrases. See CMOS 13.20.

Direct quotations - short

• If the quote is 4 lines or less run it into the text and enclose with quotation marks.
• Follow the quotation with the superscript number and footnote at bottom of page.

Example text: The 2016 presidential election was “a battle between the two least-trusted candidates in the history of modern polling”.¹

 Footnote:

1. James Comey, Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust (Macmillan, 2021), 171.
2. Comey, Saving Justice, 171.

 Bibliography:
Comey, James. Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency and Trust. Macmillan, 2021.

• If there is a quote within the quote you are using, then single quote marks go within double quotes marks.

Direct quotations - long (block quotations)
Prose

• More than 4 lines of prose should be presented as a block with no quotation marks around it. If there are quotes within the block quote you must put those quote marks in.
• Single space it and leave a line before and after it.
• Indent size - same as first line indent of each paragraph.

Example of block quotation:

Ironically, Menzies’s commitment to education had produced a large population of university students, often schooled in the critique of the new social sciences and whose affluence and idealism made them ready and eager to overthrow the old order associated with Menzies and Calwell. Across the country the old concern to preserve the status quo, to converse uniformity, to safeguard the Australian way of life and the family home from subversion was giving way to demands for change.²

The superscript follows the block quotation – after the period.

• For the long quote above the reference for the book is:

Footnote:
2. Patricia Grimshaw, Marilyn Lake, Ann McGrath and Marian Quartly, eds, Creating a Nation, (McPhee Gribble Publishers, 2006), 300.

3. Grimshaw et al., Creating a Nation, 250.

Bibliography:
Grimshaw, Patricia, Marilyn Lake, Ann McGrath and Marian Quartly, eds. Creating a Nation. McPhee Gribble Publishers, 2006.

Poetry

• Present 2 lines or more as block quotation.
• If it has variable line lengths and indents reproduce these as well as you can.
• For line numbers – for example used in poetry or plays - write line or lines – i.e. do not use l or ll.

Dialogue from dramatic works

• Set it apart in block quote with each speaker name in capitals or a different font to differentiate.
• Each speech on a new line and indent runovers.

Paraphrasing (and Summaries)

• Use past tense when citing someone else's work.

Titles

Use of Capitals for Titles

• Chicago uses title case capitalisation - this means each word in the title and subtitle is capitalised except for small words like the, a, an, and, but, for, or and nor.
• Do not capitalise articles, prepositions, second parts of hyphenated words, second parts of a species name or parts of proper nouns that are normally lower case (Ludwig van Beethoven - ie. van).
• There are exceptions so please read rules – CMOS 8.157-204.
• Use sentence case for foreign language titles only. (Sentence case is where only the first word of the title and subtitle have a capital letter plus any proper nouns).

Formatting of Titles

Italics are used for Titles of longer form works:

• Books
• Plays and longer poems
• Journals, magazines, newspapers and blogs
• Long musical compositions and album titles
• Paintings, sculptures and other visual arts (including photos)
• Movies, television and radio programs.

Quotation marks are used around  "Titles" of shorter works:

• Chapters and other titled parts of books
• Short stories, short poems and essays
• Articles and other matter in journals, magazines and newspapers, websites and blogs
• Individual episodes of TV
• Short musical compositions.

Not formerly published works also have Quotation marks around their "Titles" :

• Theses and dissertations
• Lectures and papers presented at conferences
• Titled documents in a manuscript collection.

Capitals BUT no italics or quotation marks for the following types:

• Book series
• Manuscript collections
• Scriptures and other revered works, versions of the Bible and its books
• Musical works referred to by genre (Symphony no. 4) - but italics if referring to popular titles (the Jupiter Symphony)
• Websites (Google Maps, Facebook,Wikipedia).

Punctuation

• Preserve punctuation in titles when writing them in a sentence - add commas if needed.
• Exception - when it is the end of a sentence and the title has a ? - do not put in the period after a ? or a !

Further Information on:

• Capitalisation, Punctuation and Italics, see CMOS 8.158 - 169.
• Titles, see CMOS 13.87-13.101.

For further help

• Contact us - via chat or phone, or send your feedback to libreftool@latrobe.edu.au.
• Please consult the manual directly for more detailed information: 
  The Chicago Manual of Style Online 18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024 and more specifically for students: Resources for students.