Skip to Main Content

Chicago 18th edition author-date

Author-date for the Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition

Citing social media content

Citations to social media can usually be limited to the text. If your School requires an entry in the reference list, see below for guidance.

In place of a title, quote up to the first 280 characters of the post. Comments are cited in reference to the original post.

Private content, including direct messages, is considered a form of personal communication and should be cited as such.

Because social media can be changed and deleted, retain copies of cited posts.

In the reference list, include the real name and a screen name, if both are available. In the text, cite the name under which the entry is listed (14.106).

Social media

Type Format
Elements of citation

Author -- Year -- Text of the post up to 280 characters -- Name of the social media platform -- Date -- URL

In-text citations

(Davenport 2017)

Reference list

Davenport, Caillan. 2017. "Happy New Year! Kick off 2018 with my new article @ConversationEDU Who was Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings?" Twitter, 1:35 p.m., 31 Dec,  https://twitter.com/DrCDavenport/status/947582098956697601.

EndNote reference type

Social media

Add year of the post to "Year" field, add time and date of the post to the "Post Date" field