Chicago style edition and punctuation
The examples on this page use the recently released Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition.
Punctuation is important. Use the same punctuation and formatting as the order instructions and examples. Use 1 space after any punctuation mark.
Author-date system
The Chicago Manual of Style sets out 2 referencing systems: footnotes and a bibliography or an author-date system. This page is about the author-date system. For information about the footnotes and bibliography system, go to:
Chicago footnotes & endnotes
Learn why and how to format Chicago Manual of Style footnotes using the notes and bibliography system.
Chicago bibliography
Learn why and how to format a Chicago Manual of Style bibliography and cite your sources using the footnotes and bibliography system.
The reference list appears at the end of the assignment under the heading 'references' or 'works cited'. It lists detailed information about each source cited in the assignment. List every source mentioned in an in-text citation in the reference list. Don't list a source if it doesn't have an in-text citation.
Example reference list
References
Castles, Francis G., Jennifer Curtin, and Jack Vowles. 2006. "Public Policy in Australia and New Zealand: The New Global Context." Australian Journal of Political Science 41 (2): 131-143.
Durie, Mason. 2003. Ngā Kāhui Pou: Launching Māori Futures. Huia Publishers.
Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. Simon & Schuster.
Ministry for Primary Industries. 2012. "Rural Communities." Accessed May 1, 2016. http://www.mpi.govt.nz/agriculture/rural-communities.
List format
Use a hanging indent for every entry in a Chicago reference list. For a hanging indent, every line after the first is moved 1.27 centimetres to the right.
Create a hanging indent in Word
In the reference list, use single-line spacing with an empty line between each entry.
The entries must be in alphabetical order according to the first author's surname. If there is no author, alphabetise by title.
Punctuation is important in the reference list. There is a different format for each type of source. Everything from commas, full stops and brackets to the capitalisation of words is strictly prescribed.
Look at the examples and use the same punctuation.
Example list entry in Chicago style
Durie, Mason. 2003. Ngā Kāhui Pou: Launching Māori Futures. Huia Publishers.
Each entry has 4 basic parts:
- authors' names
- year of publication
- title
- further publication information, such as the publisher's name, DOI or URL.
Author
Author
The author can be a person, people, an organisation, a group, a company, a ministry or a combination of people and groups.
In the reference list, put the surname or family name of the author first, followed by their first name in full. This rule applies to editors too.
Example
Grazer, Brian.
Cunningham, Barry, Anton Nikolai, and John Bazley.
2 authors
If there is more than 1 author, only the first author's name is listed surname-first. Each author after them should be listed as first name, then family name. Separate each name with a comma. Write the word 'and' before the final author – do not use an ampersand (&). This rule applies to editors too.
Example
Samson, John, and Willa Daft. 2005. An Introduction to Financial Accounting. Rata Press.
3 to 6 authors
For 3 to 6 authors, list all the authors. This rule applies to editors too.
Example
According to Chen et al. (2010) the....
Chen, Candie S., Scott Cooke, Sam Bergsma, Jennifer Burnes, Jason Maclean, and Trish Japudi. 2010. Economic Fundamentals. Huia Press.
More than 6 authors
For works with more than 6 authors, only list the first 7 authors in the reference list, followed by 'et al.'
No author or group author
If no author is named, the source may be written by a group or organisation. This is often true for collaborative or official works from government departments, corporations or other organisations.
In this case, use the group in the author position.
Example
Ministry of Education. 1996. Te Whāriki: Early Childhood Curriculum. Learning Media.
If there is no identifiable author, use the title in place of the author. An initial article such as 'a', 'an' or 'the' is ignored in alphabetising. This method is often used for newspaper or magazine articles and encyclopedia entries with no identified author.
Example
Dominion Post. 2007. "Beehive updating job wins award." October 29.
Anonymous author
If a source is explicitly attributed to 'Anonymous', write 'Anonymous' in the author position:
Example
Anonymous. 2015. Government Backroom Shenanigans. https://confessionsofapolicymaker.com.
Year of publication
Year of publication
The date of publication appears without brackets, after the author, with full stops after the author and after the date of publication.
If there is no year, write n.d. – meaning 'no date' – in both the in-text citation and reference list.
Generally, reference list entries for magazine and newspaper articles give additional details about the date after the title.
Example newspaper article
Howe, John. 2007. "Manawatu Worth $8.1b." Manawatu Standard, November 16.
Entries with the same author and date of publication
In some cases, you may need to reference 2 different sources with the same author and the same date of publication.
In the reference list, order the entries alphabetically, according to the first word of the title. Ignore 'A,' 'An,' or 'The.'
Assign a lower-case letter after the year to distinguish them. Use the same letters with the year in the in-text citation.
Example
Johnson, Ian. 2002a. Publishing…
Johnson, Ian. 2002b. United…
In the reference list, a single-author entry should come before a multi-author entry beginning with the same name.
Title
Title
Write all titles in title case. Capitalise the first letter of major words and all words longer than 3 letters.
The title should be in quotation marks if it is a:
- journal title
- chapter in an edited book
- newspaper or magazine article
- dissertation or thesis
- web page.
The title should be in italics if it is a:
- title of a book
- journal name
- magazine or newspaper.
Sometimes a reference will have 2 titles – the name of an article or entry and the name of the whole work. For example, journals have a name but each individual article also has a title. Edited books have both a book title and a chapter title. In these cases, write the main title in italics and the section, article or chapter title in double quotation marks.
Publication information
Publication information
The publication information depends on the type of source.
- For a book, state the name of the publisher. The publisher location is no longer required in the 18th edition.
- For a journal article, write the name of the journal, the volume or issue number and the page range of the article.
- For a website, use the URL.
Publisher
Do not include legal or superfluous terms such as 'Inc.,' '& Co.,' 'Pty.,' or 'Publishers'. Keep words like 'Press' and 'Books'.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
The Digital Object Identifier is a unique number allocated to an online publication. It is often used to identify online journal articles and other online documents.
If an online document has a DOI, use it instead of the URL address.
Example
Gelkopf, Mark, Paul Ryan, Sarah Cotton and Rudi Berger. 2008. "The Impact of 'Training the Trainers' for Helping Tsunami-Survivor Children on Sri Lankan Disaster Volunteer Workers." International Journal of Stress Management 15, no. 2: 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.15.2.117.
The DOI will usually appear as part of the source's copyright information or online citation. You can also look up a DOI online.
No month or season, volume or issue number
Format a journal entry according to whether the volume, season, month, or issue number is included.
If there is both volume and issue numbers, give the issue number in brackets after the volume number with no punctuation between them.
Example
Gelkopf, Mark, Paul Ryan, Sarah Cotton, and Rudi Berger. 2008. "The Impact of 'Training the Trainers' for Helping Tsunami-Survivor Children on Sri Lankan Disaster Volunteer Workers." International Journal of Stress Management 15 (2): 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.15.2.117.
When there is no volume number, put a comma before the issue number and add 'no.'. If available, include a month or season in brackets.
Example
Gelkopf, Mark, Paul Ryan, Sarah Cotton, and Rudi Berger. 2008. "The Impact of 'Training the Trainers' for Helping Tsunami-Survivor Children on Sri Lankan Disaster Volunteer Workers." International Journal of Stress Management, no. 4 (Winter): 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.15.2.117.
If no month or season is available, use a comma after the issue number rather than a colon.
Example
… Stress Management, no. 4, 117–135.
When there is a volume number but no issue number, list any month or season in brackets.
Example
Gelkopf, Mark, Paul Ryan, Sarah Cotton, and Rudi Berger. 2008. "The Impact of 'Training the Trainers' for Helping Tsunami-Survivor Children on Sri Lankan Disaster Volunteer Workers." International Journal of Stress Management, 89 (Spring): 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.15.2.117.
If no month or season is available, the page number follows the colon with no intervening space.
Example
…Stress Management 89:117–135.
Referencing software
Learn about EndNote and Zotero referencing software.
Order of entries
Alphabetise entries according to the first author's surname or whatever else appears first in the entry. Ignore small words like 'A', 'An' and 'The' when alphabetising. You can use the sort text feature of Microsoft Word to do this quickly and easily.
Microsoft Support: Sort a list
- If 2 authors have the same surname, alphabetise them according to their first name.
- If there are 2 entries with identical authors, order them chronologically, earliest first.
- If 2 different entries begin with the same author, entries with 1 author come before entries with multiple authors.
- If 2 different multiple-author entries begin with the same author, alphabetise by the second author. If the second author is the same, use the third.
- If 2 entries have the same authors and the same date of publication, alphabetise by title and assign a letter after each year accordingly.
List order of entries example
Durie, Mason. 2003…
Johnson, Ian. 2002a. Publishing…
Johnson, Ian. 2002b. United…
Johnson, Ian. 2004…
Johnson, Ian, and Candie Chen. 2006…
Johnson, Ian, Tran Nguyen, and Candie Chen. 2004…
MacArthur, Arthur. 2019…
McAllister, Cate. 2019…
Ministry of Health. 2018…
Singh, Yuvraj. 2017…
Statistics New Zealand. 2000…
Villafuerte, Sole. 2016...
List entry formats by source type
Audio & visual material
Chicago style referencing – how to format art works, video, audio and other visual material.
Books
Chicago style referencing – how to format books, chapters and eBooks.
Journals
Chicago style referencing – how to format print and online journal articles.
Online material
Chicago style referencing – how to format online material.
Other material
Learn how to format other material in a Chicago style reference list, footnote or bibliography.
Referencing disclaimer
This page is a guide to proper referencing. Your course, department, school or institute may prescribe specific conventions. Their recommendations supersede these instructions. If your questions are not covered here, ask your course coordinator or ask on our Academic Q&A forum.
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