How to prepare a bibliography
Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide
Here’s a list of the most common material you will use when preparing a handout for your class presentation and a research paper. The Chicago Manual of Style is commonly used by historians. Here are some samples that help you produce your bibliography.
Sample Citations
- Book, one author
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006.
- Two or more authors
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns. The War: An Intimate History, 1941–1945. New York: Knopf, 2007.
- For four or more authors, list all of the authors in the bibliography; in the note, list only the first author, followed by et al. (“and others”):
Dana Barnes et al., Plastics: Essays on American Corporate Ascendance in the 1960s . . .
- Editor, translator, or compiler instead of author
Lattimore, Richmond, trans. The Iliad of Homer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
- Editor, translator, or compiler in addition to author
García Márquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. Translated by Edith Grossman. London: Cape, 1988.
- Chapter or other part of a book
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.
- Chapter of an edited volume originally published elsewhere (as in primary sources)
Cicero, Quintus Tullius. “Handbook on Canvassing for the Consulship.” In Rome: Late Republic and Principate, edited by Walter Emil Kaegi Jr. and Peter White. Vol. 2 of University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization, edited by John Boyer and Julius Kirshner, 33–46. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Originally published in Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, trans., The Letters of Cicero, vol. 1 (London: George Bell & Sons, 1908).
- Preface, foreword, introduction, or similar part of a book
Rieger, James. Introduction to Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, xi–xxxvii. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982
- Book published electronically
If a book is available in more than one format, cite the version you consulted. For books consulted online, list a URL; include an access date. If no fixed page numbers are available, you can include a section title or a chapter or other number.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Penguin Classics, 2007. Kindle edition.
Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders’ Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
- Journal article
Article in a print journal: Weinstein, Joshua I. “The Market in Plato’s Republic.” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 439–58.
Article in an online journal: Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115 (2009): 405–50. Accessed February 28, 2010. (URL).
Article in a newspaper or popular magazine: Newspaper and magazine articles may be cited in running text (“As Sheryl Stolberg and Robert Pear noted in a New York Times article on February 27, 2010, . . .”) instead of in a footnote, and they are commonly omitted from a bibliography. The following examples show the more formal versions of the citations. If you consulted the article online, include a URL and an access date. If no author is identified, begin the citation with the article title.
Mendelsohn, Daniel. “But Enough about Me.” New Yorker, January 25, 2010.
Stolberg, Sheryl Gay, and Robert Pear. “Wary Centrists Posing Challenge in Health Care Vote.” New York Times, February 27, 2010. Accessed February 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28health.html.
- Book review
Kamp, David. “Deconstructing Dinner.” Review of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. New York Times, April 23, 2006, Sunday Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/books/review/23kamp.html.
- Thesis or dissertation
Choi, Mihwa. “Contesting Imaginaires in Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008.
- Website
A citation to website content can often be limited to a mention in the text or in a footnote (“As of July 19, 2008, the McDonald’s Corporation listed on its website . . .”). If a more formal citation is desired, it may be styled as in the example below. Because such content is subject to change, include an access date.
McDonald’s Corporation. “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety