Chicago 17th edition notes and bibliography

The Chicago Manual of Style allows for two different types of reference styles. There is the Notes and Bibliography Style (the subject of this guide), and the Author-Date System (a variation of the Harvard style).

While the Notes & Bibliography Style allows for either footnotes or endnotes, this guide will deal with footnotes. Bibliographic citations are provided in footnotes, supplemented by a bibliography at the end of the document. Your footnotes and bibliography should identify references cited (eg. book, journal article, webpage, video) in sufficient detail so that others may locate and consult your references. Each note corresponds to a raised (superscript) number in the text.

Punctuation marks and spaces within the citation are very important. Follow the punctuation and spacing as given in the examples.

A note may look like this:

1. Alastair Blanshard, Hercules: A Heroic Life (London: Granta, 2006), 151.

While a bibliographic entry may look like this:

Blanshard, Alastair. Hercules: A Heroic Life. London: Granta, 2006.

Any subsequent lines in a reference are on a hanging indent.  A hanging indent is an indent that indents all text except the first line.

It is important to understand the basics of referencing and why it is important. 

A referencing style is a set of rules on how to acknowledge the thoughts, ideas and works of others in a particular way. Different types of sources eg. books, articles, each have a specific format, determined by the referencing style you are using.

Referencing is a crucial part of successful academic writing, avoiding plagiarism and maintaining academic integrity in your assignments and research.

Watch Introduction to referencing (YouTube 3m42s) to learn about the basics of referencing.

Many types of publication examples have been provided in this guide. If you cannot find the example you need, you can:

• consult The Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition.
• view the reference lists of articles in publications that use Chicago style
• consult the Instructions to authors, if writing for a journal
• type the title of the item into Library Search to see if it has a suggested citation
• adapt the rules of a similar publication type to the item
• consult other institutions’ style guides
• consult with your tutor or course coordinator.

Amongst many changes some of the more important include:

• The use of ibid. for subsequent citations is now discouraged in favor of shortened citations. (14.29)
• Expanded information on personal communications, including texts and posts through social media (14.214)
• Expanded information on the elements of multimedia citations (14.261)
• New information on permalinks (14.9)
• New information on the use of short URLs (14.10)
• Citing locations in electronic formats without fixed pages (14.160)

For a full list see What’s New in the 17th Edition

To print or save this guide:

1. Go to the print version of the Chicago 17th ed notes and bibliography referencing style guide.
2. Click Print Page at the end of the page or use your browser's Print tool​

This guide was last updated on 22 January 2025.