Formatting Details

• For the first (or only) author, include the author's name in inverted order.  If the middle initial is known, include it and follow it with a period, e.g. "Last, First M."   [Example]

• For two authors, list the authors in the order in which they appear on the title page.  Format names as above and separate names with "and." 

• For three authors, list them in the order in which they appear on the title page. Format names as above, follow the first and second names with a comma, and precede the last with "and." 

• For more than three authors, list only the first author, followed by "et al." (with the ending period).

• If the author's name appears in the title (such as an autobiography, collected works book, etc.), omit this part and begin the note with the title.  

• If the author's name is known, but not given on the title page, enclose it in brackets. 

• If the work is anonymous, omit this part and begin the note with the title. 

• If no author is listed on the title page, but instead editor(s), compiler(s), or translator(s), list the editor(s), compiler(s), or translator(s) here instead.  Follow the name(s) with a comma, and "ed." or "eds." for editor(s), "trans." for translators, and "comp." or "comps." for compiler(s). 

• For examples on author variations, see the Books page.

• Enclosed the title of the article or the headline within quotation marks. [Example]
• The comma goes inside the quotation marks. [Example]
• If there is a title within the title that is normally enclosed within quotation marks, use single quotation marks (like apostrophes) for the shorter title. If the title would normally be given in italics, do so here as well. [Example]  [Example]
• If there is an ampersand in the title, spell it out as "and."
• Even though the standard journalistic style for headlines is analogous to a regular sentence, the Chicago citation style is to capitalize all the words you would capitalize in any other title.  [Example]
• Click here for notes on capitalization. 
• If you are citing an untitled editorial, you may substitute "Editorial" for the title. [Example]

• If the article is a review, write "review of" followed by the title of the work being reviewed.  [Example]
  • For a book or play, Then include a comma (,) and "by" followed by the author or director.  Give either of these names in normal first-name-first order.  [Example]  [Example]  
  • If you are citing the review of a play, give an additional comma, followed by "as performed by" and the performance company.  Give another comma followed by the city of performance. [Example]
  • For a movie, follow the title with parentheses before the comma.  Inside the parentheses, give the name of the studio, followed by the word "movie." [Example]
  • If the review doesn't have a title, this part can substitute for the title. [Example]

• Italicize the title of the periodical. [Example]
• Capitalize the periodical title as you would a book title. 
• Journal titles are usually given in full, but may be abbreviated so long as the abbreviations are used consistently.  Chicago follows guidelines similar to CSE style for abbreviations; see the CBE journal title abbreviations page for details and further resources if you wish to abbreviate. 
• For newspapers,
  • If the city is not part of the name of an American newspaper, it should be added at the beginning of the name and italicized with the title. [Example]
  • If the city is not well known, the state or Canadian province is included in parentheses directly after the city name.  There are two sets of accepted state abbreviations in Chicago style; one is the postal state abbreviations (two capital letters, no periods.) [Example]
  • For foreign cities, the city is added in parentheses and not italicized after the title. 
  • If the word "the" is part of the title, it is omitted. (Its foreign language equivalents are retained, however.) [Example]

• If the article is from a scholarly journal  paged consecutively throughout a volume, give the volume number (using digits), a space, and then the year of publication (four digits) in parentheses. (The issue number is not necessary, but may be included as described in the next list item.) [Example]
• If the article is from a scholarly journal paged separately by issue, give the volume number, followed by a comma, followed by "no." and the issue number (all using digits).  Then give a space and the year of publication (four digits) in parentheses. [Example]
• For journals, you may also include a month or season before the year within parentheses.  In such cases, an issue number is not given.  Months are capitalized; seasons are not. [Example] [Example]
• If the article is from a monthly magazine, give a comma and then write the month (not abbreviated) and year (four-digits) of publication.  [Example]
• If the article is from a newspaper or a weekly magazine, give a comma and then include the exact date of publication.  Put the date, followed by month (not abbreviated) and year (four digits), e.g. 28 September 1993.  [Example]

For magazines and newspapers, Comma (,)

• Include the page numbers of the article.  [Example]
• If the article appears on consecutive pages, separate the first and last page numbers with a hyphen (-).  Do not write "pages," "pp," etc.  [Example]
• You only need to give the last two digits, unless more are necessary, e.g. 205-12 but 295-303.  
• If the article appears on nonconsecutive pages, list all pages and page ranges, separating them by a comma and a space, e.g. 2, 4-6, 9. 
• For magazines and newspapers, it is not necessary to include the page numbers, although including them will help the reader locate your source.
• For newspapers, it is often helpful to include the column number after the page number.  If you do so, precede the page number with "p." and the column number with "col." to avoid ambiguity.

Otherwise, Period (.)

• If an edition name is given in the masthead of a newspaper, include it here. Use lowercase letters, as in "final edition."  [Example]