The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is one of the most used style systems. It’s used by both students and professionals alike, especially in the fields of arts, humanities, and social sciences, among others. Citing using CMOS can be done in two ways: the Notes-Bibliography style (NB) and the Author-Date style. Both are identical in content, but differ in how they’re formatted and integrated into the text.
CMOS citations are designed to be clean but thorough, and applying them to all of your sources can get overwhelming, especially on top of following the rest of the guidelines’ standards on layout and formatting. If you need help, you can hire a freelance Chicago Manual of Style specialist on Guru to streamline and simplify the process and allow you to focus on the body of your work.
Chicago Manual of Style Citation
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide developed by the University of Chicago that standardizes how written communication is formatted and laid out; it’s one of the most prominent style systems. If you’re wondering what professions use the Chicago Manual of Style, the list is long as it’s adopted by all those in the arts, humanities, sciences, religion, and social sciences disciplines.
The history of CMOS spans over a century. Now on its 17th edition, it has also adapted to the new technology and provides guidelines for sources taken electronically–but what is the Chicago Manual of Style citation? Citing with CMOS can be done in two ways: the Notes-Bibliography system (NB) and the Author-Date system.
Notes and Bibliography
In the NB style, citations are written as numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each one corresponds to a superscript (raised number) in the main body of the text. This makes it easy to accommodate a wide variety of sources. All citations are then accompanied by a separate bibliography that contains all sources cited in the work.
Author-Date
The Author-Date system (or “Reference List” style), provides in-text citations with the author’s last name and the year of publication written in parenthesis. Each entry matches up with a reference in the “Works Cited” list, which provides full bibliographic information of all sources used in the text.
Citing Using Chicago Manual of Style
Here’s how to cite using CMOS for book, journal, and website sources:
Book Citation
For books in NB style, write it in the footnote or endnote as:
Author first name last name, Title of Book (Place of publication: publisher, year), page number(s).
Then, for the bibliography:
Author last name, first name. Title of Book. Place of publication: publisher, year.
In Author-Date style, the in-text citation should be written as:
(Author last name year, page number(s)).
While for the reference list, it should be formatted as:
Author last name, first name. Year. Title of Book. Place of publication: publisher.
Journal Citation
For journals, the NB style follows this formatting for the footnote or endnote:
Author first name last name, “Title of Article,” Name of Journal volume, no. issue (month and year): page number(s). DOI if applicable.
Meanwhile, for the bibliography, it’s:
Author last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Name of Journal volume, no. issue (month/season year): page range of the article. DOI if applicable.
When writing the in-text citation for the Author-Date format, follow:
(Author last name year, page number(s))
Then, for the reference list:
Author last name, first name. Year. “Title of article.” Name of Journal volume, no. issue (month/season): page range of the article. DOI if applicable.
Remember that if you’re citing online journal articles, you should use the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or a stable URL (not a copy-pasted URL from the address bar).
Website Citation
For website citations in NB style (without author or date), write it as:
“Title of Page,” Website, accessed month date, year, URL.
On the bibliography, it should be:
Website. “Title of Page.” Accessed month date, year. URL.
For in-text citations in the Author-Date style, it’s much simpler. Write:
(Website, n.d.)
Then, you just write it on the reference list as:
Website. n.d. “Title of work.” Accessed month date, year. URL.
Chicago Manual of Style Specialists on Guru
Writing a paper, journal, or book is already a lot of work–you have to conduct research, compile all your findings, and communicate all of your ideas in a comprehensible manner. Add formatting and layout on top of that and it becomes a heavier ordeal. Fortunately, you can hire Chicago Manual of Style specialists on Guru to help ease your work. Armed with expertise in the use and application of the style system, these freelancers can handle everything related to citations and more, allowing you to focus on the more important aspects of the work.
