How to Cite in Chicago Style: Websites, Books, Journals and YouTube (18th Edition)

Chicago style is two citation systems in one manual, and most confusion starts there. This guide shows both, using the rules of The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2024. For each common source type you get the three forms that notes-bibliography needs (full note, shortened note and bibliography entry), followed by the author-date version and the mistakes that markers spot first.

Notes-bibliography or author-date?

Chicago offers two systems that share the same rules for names, titles and publication details. They differ in how a source is pointed to from your text.

• Notes-bibliography (NB): a superscript number in your sentence leads to a numbered footnote or endnote, and the paper ends with an alphabetical bibliography. The manual describes it as preferred by many in the humanities, including literature, history and the arts.
• Author-date: a short parenthetical citation such as (Yu 2020, 45) in the sentence, matched to an alphabetical reference list. It is preferred by many in the sciences and social sciences.

The two are not interchangeable within one paper. If your assignment says "Chicago" and nothing else, check the course guidelines or ask: in a history or art history class it usually means notes-bibliography. Turabian, which some US universities ask for, is a student version of Chicago and follows the same two systems.

The three forms you need in notes-bibliography

Every source cited with notes appears in up to three forms, and each one is punctuated differently:

Notes cite the specific page you used. The bibliography cites the work as a whole, so a journal article gets its full page range there and a book gets no page numbers at all.

How to cite a book in Chicago style

The 18th edition no longer requires a place of publication for books, so the publisher and year are enough.

One author

• Full note: 1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45.
• Shortened note: 2. Yu, Interior Chinatown, 48.
• Bibliography: Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.

Two authors

• Full note: 3. Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today (University of Chicago Press, 2022), 117–18.
• Shortened note: 4. Binder and Kidder, Channels of Student Activism, 125.
• Bibliography: Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Only the first author's name is inverted in the bibliography. The shortened title drops the subtitle and a leading "The", and keeps to a few key words.

Three or more authors: in a note, give the first author followed by et al. In the bibliography, list up to six authors; for more than six, list the first three followed by et al.

How to cite a journal article in Chicago style

Journal articles are cited by volume and issue number. For an article you read online, add a URL, preferably one built from the DOI (https://doi.org/...). If there is no DOI, you can give the database name instead.

• Full note: 5. Hyeyoung Kwon, "Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life," American Journal of Sociology 127, no. 6 (2022): 1842–43, https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.
• Shortened note: 6. Kwon, "Inclusion Work," 1851.
• Bibliography: Kwon, Hyeyoung. "Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life." American Journal of Sociology 127, no. 6 (2022): 1818–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.

The article title goes in quotation marks and the journal title in italics. The note gives the pages you are citing (1842–43); the bibliography gives the article's full range (1818–59). Chicago abbreviates the second number in a page range, so 1818–1859 becomes 1818–59.

How to cite a website in Chicago style

The manual notes that web content can often just be described in your text ("As of November 15, 2023, Google's privacy policy stated..."). When you need a formal citation, watch one detail: in a note, the page title usually comes first, while the bibliography entry is listed under the site's owner or sponsor.

A page with a date

• Full note: 7. "Privacy Policy," Privacy & Terms, Google, effective November 15, 2023, https://policies.google.com/privacy.
• Shortened note: 8. Google, "Privacy Policy."
• Bibliography: Google. "Privacy Policy." Privacy & Terms. Effective November 15, 2023. https://policies.google.com/privacy.

A page with no date: add an access date. Chicago only asks for one when the page shows no publication or revision date.

• Full note: 9. "About Yale: Yale Facts," Yale University, accessed March 8, 2022, https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.
• Shortened note: 10. "Yale Facts."
• Bibliography: Yale University. "About Yale: Yale Facts." Accessed March 8, 2022. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.

Instead of an access date, you may cite an archived copy from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine or a similar service. Website titles are usually set in roman type, not italics, unless the site is also a publication such as an online newspaper.

How to cite a YouTube video in Chicago style

For a video, give the creator, the title in quotation marks, any useful description, the date, the platform, the running time and the URL. When the uploader is not the creator, add "posted by".

• Full note: 11. Eric Oliver, "Why So Many Americans Believe in So Many 'Crazy' Things," moderated by Andrew McCall, virtual lecture, February 23, 2022, posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago, YouTube, 1:01:45, https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg.
• Shortened note: 12. Oliver, "Why."
• Bibliography: Oliver, Eric. "Why So Many Americans Believe in So Many 'Crazy' Things." Moderated by Andrew McCall. Virtual lecture, February 23, 2022. Posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago. YouTube, 1:01:45. https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg.

To point to a specific moment, add a time stamp to the note, as the manual does for a TED Talk: Cowan, "Green Hydrogen," at 6:09–17. Notice that the quotation marks inside the video title become single quotation marks because the whole title is already in double ones.

The same sources in author-date

Author-date moves the year to directly after the author's name in the reference list and replaces notes with parenthetical citations. There is no comma between author and year in the citation, but there is one before the page number.

Two details are specific to author-date. Journal volume and issue appear as 127 (6) instead of 127, no. 6. A web page with no date uses n.d. in place of the year and adds an access date.

If you would rather not assemble these by hand, the Chicago citation generator builds both systems for books, journal articles and web pages, showing the full note, shortened note and bibliography entry together. It runs in your browser and does not ask for an account.

Common Chicago citation mistakes (and fixes)

1. Repeating the full note every time. After the first citation, switch to the shortened note: surname, short title, page. This is the error markers notice fastest.
2. Relying on "ibid." The 18th edition discourages ibid. and recommends shortened notes instead, because a reader has to check the previous note to know what "ibid." refers to. It is not banned, so follow your instructor if they ask for it.
3. Punctuating notes like bibliography entries. Notes use commas, put publication details in parentheses and keep names in normal order ("Charles Yu"); bibliography entries use periods and invert the first name ("Yu, Charles").
4. Adding an access date to everything. Chicago asks for one only when a page has no publication or revision date. A dated article or a book does not need one.
5. Still adding the city. Under the 18th edition, "New York: Pantheon Books" can simply be "Pantheon Books". If your department follows an older edition, its guidance wins.
6. Putting the note number in the wrong place. The superscript number generally follows punctuation, including a closing quotation mark or period, and comes before a dash.
7. Mixing the two systems. A paper with footnotes and parenthetical (Yu 2020) citations is wrong in both systems. Pick the one your course requires and use it throughout.
8. Formatting the bibliography by hand without hanging indents. Entries are alphabetized by the first author's surname and use a hanging indent, with the first line flush left and later lines indented.

Build your Chicago citations

The quickest route is the Chicago citation tool: choose notes-bibliography or author-date, enter the source details, and copy the forms you need. If one paper needs a different style for another course, the citation generator handles APA, MLA and Chicago from the same details, and the dedicated APA citation and MLA citation tools cover those styles in more depth. All of them are free and run on your device. Whichever you use, check each entry against the title page or the article's first page, since a missing edition or translator cannot be guessed. For unusual sources, the official Chicago citation quick guide has worked examples for both systems.

FAQ

Do I need a bibliography if I use footnotes?

Usually, yes. Chicago says sources are also usually listed in a bibliography, and most instructors expect one. Some publications drop it when the full notes give complete details, so check your assignment.

How do I cite a source with no author in Chicago style?

Start with the title. For web pages, the bibliography entry is normally listed under the organization that owns or sponsors the site, as in the Google and Yale examples above.

Which edition of Chicago should I use?

The current edition is the 18th, published in 2024. Some departments still use the 17th, which required a place of publication for books and handled long author lists differently. If your course guide names an edition, follow that one.

Is Turabian the same as Chicago?

Turabian is a student-focused adaptation of Chicago by the same publisher. It uses the same two citation systems and nearly identical formats, plus extra guidance on formatting papers, theses and dissertations.