Chicago 18 guide

The Chicago bibliography, exactly.

A Chicago bibliography lists the sources you cite in notes, alphabetically, at the end of the paper. Entries invert the first author’s name and use periods where notes use commas.

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On this page
  1. The page
  2. What stays in the notes
  3. Rules students miss
  4. Questions

Updated

The page

Title
Bibliography, centered. Turabian adds two blank lines below it.
Order
Alphabetical by the first word, usually the author’s last name.
Indent
A half-inch hanging indent.
Spacing
Turabian: each entry single-spaced, a blank line between entries. Some instructors want it all double-spaced.

Bibliography

Aron, Laurent, Marion Botella, and Todd Lubart. “Culinary Arts: Talent and Their Development.” In The Psychology of High Performance: Developing Human Potential into Domain-Specific Talent, edited by Rena F. Subotnik, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, and Frank C. Worrell, 345–59. American Psychological Association, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000120-016.

Hershner, Shelley D., and Ronald D. Chervin. “Causes and Consequences of Sleepiness Among College Students.” Nature and Science of Sleep 6 (2014): 73–84. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S62907.

Walker, Matt. “Sleep Is Your Superpower | Matt Walker | TED.” YouTube video, June 3, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM.

Walker, Matthew. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Scribner, 2017.

What stays in the notes

Chicago 18 lets some sources appear in notes only, because readers cannot retrieve them or they are well known:

  • Personal communications: interviews, emails, conversations.
  • Social media posts, and AI chats with no public link.
  • Scripture and well-known reference works such as major dictionaries.
  • Legal cases, which are cited in notes in legal form.

Your instructor may want them listed anyway. Format’s Chicago export has a setting to list cases, scripture and posts in the bibliography for that reason.

Rules students miss

  • Repeated authors: Chicago 18 repeats the name in each entry and orders those entries by title (CMOS 18, 13.72). The three-em dash for a repeated name is no longer the recommended form.
  • Up to six authors in an entry; seven or more give the first three and “et al.”
  • Page ranges for articles and chapters only, shortened as Chicago does: 145–67.

Questions

Is a Chicago bibliography required?

With full notes, Chicago makes it optional, but most instructors require one.

Bibliography or References?

Bibliography in notes-bibliography; References in author-date.

Is the bibliography double-spaced?

Turabian single-spaces each entry with a blank line between. Follow your instructor if they want double spacing.