Styles
Type of Resource
Citation Tools
This guide includes examples of citation styles most commonly used by students at Williams College. For additional examples and further information see the print manuals. |
Chicago Manual of Style
Author-Date System
Developed by the University of Chicago, the Author-Date System is widely used by the social sciences and sciences disciplines. For humanities and the arts and for history papers, use the Documentary Note Style.
For full information on this style, see Chicago Manual of Style 15th edition (Online edition) or the print manual at Sawyer or Schow Reference Z253 .U69 2003.
In the Author-Date System each citation consists of two parts: the text citations, which provides brief identifying information within the text, and the reference list (list of sources used) which provides full bibliographic information.
How to Format: Text Citations | Reference Lists
How to Format Text Citations
(For more detailed information see CMS, sec. 16.107-120)
The text citations in the Author-Date Style consists of the author's last name and the year of publication of the work cited. No punctuation is used between the name and the date.
Single Author
(Nairn 1997)
Multiple Authors
(Geis and Bunn 1997)
Group or Corporate Author
(Global Environment Coordination 1994)
For direct quotations the page number is also included.
(Nairn 1997, 73)
For direct quotations from sources without page numbers use subheading, chapter, paragraph number, or other organizational division of the work.
(Yetman, under "Slave Narratives during Slavery and After")
Citations taken from secondary sources
Is generally to be avoided as researchers are expected to examine the works they cite. If the original work is not available, the original and secondary source must be cited. The original author and date would be used in the text citation and as the beginning of the reference list entry.
text citation:
(Sedwick 1844, 479)
reference list:
Sedgwick, T. 1844. Thoughts on the proposed annexation of Texas to the United States. New York: D. Fanshaw. Quoted in Rathbun, L. 2001. The debate over annexing Texas and the emergence of Manifest Destiny. Rhetoric & Public Affairs 4 (3).
How to Format Reference Lists
Books | Articles | Media | Web/Online | Government Information | Unpublished
Books
(Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 17.16-17.147)
| Single author |
Nairn, Tom. 1997. Faces of nationalism: Janus revisited. London: New York: Verso. |
| Multiple authors |
Geis, Gilbert, and Ivan Bunn. 1997. A trial of witches: A seventeenth-century witchcraft prosecution. London: Routledge. |
| Edited Book | Sarat, Austin and Stuart Scheingold, eds. 1998. Cause lawyering: Political commitments and professional responsibilities. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. |
| Group or corporate author |
Global Environment Coordination. 1994. Facing the global environment challenge: A progress report on World Bank global environmental operations. Washington, DC: Global Environment Coordination Division, Environment Dept., The World Bank. |
| Chapter or essay in book | Roell, Craig H. 1994. The piano in the American home. In The arts and the American home, 1890 - 1930, ed. Jessica H. Foy and Karal Ann Marling, 193-204. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. |
| Article from a reference book |
Not usually included in the reference list. (CMS sec. 17.238). |
Articles
(Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 17.148-17.203)
| Article in a journal (one author) |
Bondonski, Ilya. 1989. Caring among the forgotten. Journal of Social Activism 14 (Fall): 112-34. |
| Article in a journal (multiple authors) | Liker, Andras and Tamas Szekely. 1997. Aggression among female lapwings, Vanellus vanellus. Animal Behaviour. 54 (3): 797-802. |
| Article in a popular magazine | Birnbaum, Jeffrey H. 1998. How to succeed at damage control. Fortune, March 30, 173-176. |
| Article in a newspaper | It is preferable to include newspaper references in running text (CMS 17.191). Example: In his 8 May 1998 New York Times article "Pact on Israeli Pullback Hinges on Defining Army's role," Steven Erlanger states... If the newspaper citation needs to be included in the reference list, follow this model: Erlanger, Steven. 1998. Pact on Israeli pullback hinges on defining Army's role. New York Times, May 8, sec. A. |
Note: Different web browsers break the text in different places of a URL. The URL should begin on the same line as the rest of the citation information, with a break inserted after a slash, if needed.
| Article from a full-text database | Zellner, Wendy. 2003. An insider's tale of Enron's toxic culture. Business Week March 31, 16. http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/form/academic/ |
| Article from an e-journal collection |
Miguel, Edward. 2004. Tribe or nation?
Nation building and public goods in Kenya versus Tanzania
World Politics 56 (3): 327-362. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/world_politics/ Note: if the article has a DOI, use it in place of the page numbers. See Chicago Manual of Style sec. 17.181 for more information and example. |
| Article from a free web e-journal | Shrum, Robert. 1996. Taxing Clinton's character. Slate, June 25. http://slate.msn.com/id/. Note: if the article has a DOI, use it in place of the page numbers. See Chicago Manual of Style sec. 17.181 for more information and example. |
Media
(Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 17.263-17.273)
| Music Score | Johnson, Charles L. 1997. Crazy bone rag. In Ragtime jubilee: 42 piano gems, 1911-21, ed. David A. Jasen, 41-45. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. |
| Sound Recording | "..the author-date system is inappropriate for most audiovisual materials. In a work using the author-date system, such materials are best mentioned in running text and grouped in the reference list under a subhead such as 'Sound Recordings.'" (CMS 17.265) |
| Video Recording | "..the author-date system is inappropriate for most audiovisual materials. In a work using the author-date system, such materials are best mentioned in running text and grouped in the reference list under a subhead such as '[Video] Recordings.'" (CMS 17.265) |
| Television |
No example provided in Chicago Manual of Style. |
Web/Online
(Chicago Manual of Style, e-books: sec. 17.142-17.147, e-journals: 17.180-17.181, online magazines: 17.187, online newspapers: 17.198, e-mail and web pages: 17.234-17.237, and articles from full-text databases: 17.358-17.359)
Note: Different web browsers break the text in different places of a URL. The URL should begin on the same line as the rest of the citation information, with a break inserted after a slash, if needed.
| Web page | Yetman, Norman R. "An introduction to the WPA slave narratives." Born in slavery: slave narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html. |
| Article from a free web e-journal | Shrum, Robert. 1996. Taxing Clinton's character. Slate, June 25. http://slate.msn.com/id/. Note: if the article has a DOI, use it in place of the page numbers. See Chicago Manual of Style sec. 17.181 for more information and example. |
| Article from a full-text database | Zellner, Wendy. 2003. An insider's tale of Enron's toxic culture. Business Week March 31, 16. http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/form/academic/ |
| Article from an e-journal collection |
Miguel, Edward. 2004. Tribe or nation?
Nation building and public goods in Kenya versus Tanzania
World Politics 56 (3): 327-362. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/world_politics/ Note: if the article has a DOI, use it in place of the page numbers. See Chicago Manual of Style sec. 17.181 for more information and example. |
Government Information
(Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 17.290-17.356)
| Congressional Hearings | "...the author-date style is generally inappropriate for citing public documents." (CMS 17.291) If conversion to author-date is necessary, use the following format: U.S. Congress. House. Committee on International Relations. 1997. The threat from international organized crime and global terrorism: Hearing before the Committee on International Relations . 105th Cong., 1st sess., October 1. |
| Executive Department Documents |
"...the author-date style is generally inappropriate for citing public documents." (CMS 17.291) If conversion to author-date is necessary, use the following format: U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice. 2001. The threat of Russian organized crime, by James O. Finckenauer and Yuri A. Voronin. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS15051. |
Unpublished
(Chicago Manual of Style, sec. 17.210-17.237)
| Interview | "Unpublished interviews are best cited in text ..., though occasionally appear in ... reference lists." (CMS 17.205) Rudolph, Frederick. 2001. Interview by author. Williamstown, MA, May, 15. |