Documentation
Q. This has become a huge issue with our professors. I am the thesis processor for the school and have stated that “Ibid.” should not be the first footnote on a page. The cited work could be two or more pages back. Does Chicago have a rule on this? The academics state that they have never heard of this, but to me it makes perfect sense for the reader to not have to go back to see what the source was. Please help! Answer »
Q. My book has three parts, and each part contains several chapters. Here is the question: do I need to give full publishing information in each new chapter for items cited earlier in the same part, or can I use the short version of citing (as I do within each chapter)? Answer »
Q. When using foreign-language archival sources, what parts of the citation should be translated into English and what parts should be left in the original language? The name of the organization where the archive is kept (Indonesian Ministry of Culture)? The name of the archive (Dutch East India Company Archive) or the section of the archive (Police Reports)? The descriptive title of the document (“report on the reorganization of the regional police force by Chief of Police S. L. Scheepmaker, chapter 2”)? In all these cases, the original language can make it easier for other researchers to find the document if they wish. But including the translation makes it easier for readers to understand the nature of the source. Answer »
Q. Hi! I am working on a white paper using results from a company survey that has not been published. We generally footnote statistics and data (including citations from internal reports to show that we are not making the information up) in white papers. But do I even need a footnote since this thing isn’t published and it’s owned by my company? Is it enough to describe the survey in the body copy? Answer »
Q. I am using Bible passages in an essay and I cannot seem to understand how to properly cite. What do I do about page numbers, as the professor will not likely use the same edition as me? Answer »
Q. How does one create a reference for a work currently at press? I know the title, journal, volume, and number, but not the pages. Answer »
Q. I am summarizing a book as part of a research paper. Am I required to cite ideas at the end of every paragraph or can one citation serve for the whole book? Answer »
Q. I am writing a history paper using three articles. If I am talking about one and source it, and then in the next sentence talk about it again, do I just keep re-sourcing it again and again? Answer »
Q. If I have multiple citations from the same author on the same page, how do I write the footnote? Do I list each separately? Abbreviate them? Answer »
Q. I am a history minor, and in my paper I put citations at the end of paragraphs, unless otherwise needed. A professor wants me to cite virtually every paragraph. He even wants me to cite information that is general knowledge, saying that not citing these things would be plagiarism. What is generally accepted when citing in a scholarly paper? Answer »
Q. Is there a proper way to cite a classic such as Tacitus when I am using a Web version without page or line numbers? Answer »
Q. I recently wrote an essay and used some information that my adult son gave me, and when I told him I was using it, he said I had to cite him. In my view, if you give birth to a source and he’s still living under your roof, you don’t have to cite him. What’s your view? Answer »
Q. Thank you for your helpful website! My question has to do with 17.141. You don’t mention that a bibliographic entry is required for illustrations, maps, and tables, but I assume they are. If so, would they be listed alphabetically by the author of the book that contains the plate? Answer »
Q. I am currently copyediting a business-advice book that has a very casual, conversational tone. The book includes a bibliography, but so far, none of the quoted works mentioned in the text are in the bibliography. There are many sound bites from famous actors and writers. These one-liners are not necessarily well-known quotes, but considering that the people quoted are public figures and the quotes themselves are (in most cases) only a short sentence, is a source really needed? And then a bibliographic entry? It seems a bit excessive, but I don’t know how else to do this. Unfortunately, this book does not have notes. Any ideas? Answer »
Q. In the citation of the following newspaper showing various issues and page numbers, would it be written like this? Southern Patriot, 20 January 1835, 3, 27 January 1835, 3, 30 January 1835, 3, 2 February 1835, 3, 3 February 1835, 3, 3 March 1835, 3, and 19 March 1835, 3. Answer »
Q. Should footnotes and bibliographic entries for foreign publications be written in the foreign language or in English? Answer »
Q. I am writing a qualitative thesis in which I quote several primary-source published documents that, if cited under the actual names of the authors, would destroy subject anonymity. How do I create a reference list citation for a document I quote or cite and protect the research subject’s rights to anonymity? Answer »
Q. In a book I’m working on, the author tells stories that go on for several paragraphs and include quotations. When those quotations are all from one source, my author has put a single note callout at the end of the last quotation as a blanket reference for all the quotations in the story. The copy editor is suggesting that he instead put the note callout after the first quotation. I looked in CMOS but haven’t been able to find anything on this subject. What do you recommend? Answer »
Q. Should “ibid.” in citations be italicized? Are block quotes always a smaller font size than the rest of the text? If a publisher specifies that only U.S. and not British spelling should be used in a manuscript, should quoted words be changed as well? Answer »
Q. I am writing a seminar paper of which the majority of references are interviews I have done. How do I reference these within the paper? Should I provide a note each time I reference an interview? What should the note look like if I’m also attaching a full bibliography? Answer »
Q. If I have several unpublished sources in the same endnote and they are all housed at the same location, should I list that location repeatedly throughout the endnote, or can I just place it at the end of the note? Answer »
Q. I don’t believe there is a standard Chicago/Turabian bibliographic citation format for video games yet. Is there? Answer »
Q. What is the correct way to cite Web sites in an appendix or bibliography? Do you include the name of the organization, and then the Web site? Answer »
Q. I’ve been asked to change the author-date style used in a list of works cited to the author-title humanities style. But some of the authors have multiple works, some with the same year of publication. In the author-date style, it was written 1949a, 1949b, and so on, and cited in the text as (author 1949b). When I move the date to follow the publisher’s name, how do I handle that? Can I write “City: Publisher, 1949(b)”? Some of those entries refer to journals, which would mean “Journal Name 2 (1949b): 3–7.” Which looks silly. Please help me out of this awkward spot! Answer »
Q. I have an author listed in the bibliography. Below that entry will be one with the same author plus a second author. Should I use a 3-em dash to represent the repeated name, or should I spell it out? Answer »
Q. We are using the author-date form of citation. One author cited appears in the reference list with four items for a single year (Author 2003a, 2003b, 2003c, 2003d). However, in the last entry, the person is the editor, rather than the author, of the work. Thus, the entry is Author, J. Q., ed. 2003d. But this entry currently occurs after entries dated to 2004, 2005, and 2006. This makes the entry difficult to find, though the author clearly is attempting to follow the rule that “edited entries follow those of which the person cited is the author.” What would CMOS do? Answer »
Q. I’m preparing a bibliography for an edited volume, which means merging the bibliographies from ten chapters. One of the authors seems to be a German speaker, and though his writing is in English, the titles in his bibliography are in German. Must I translate these? Is there a difference if he read them in German or English? And if I do not need to translate the titles of the works, should I still translate words like “editor” and “volume?” Answer »
Q. When I reference an author within the body of my text, do I then repeat the author’s name in the footnote? Answer »
