Q. I was wondering: In an academic book is there a reason to put something in a bibliography and not in an endnote? If there is a reason, what is it? What references go in the endnotes then? Is a bibliography needed?
A. A bibliography is optional if the endnotes contain full citations. But some writers use a bibliography to include materials used in researching the document whether they are cited in the notes or not. It can also include suggested readings. For more details, start with CMOS 13.65 and 13.68.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am trying to document a long-standing journal which has undergone numerous title changes and publication sites. What title should I use for the multiple journal entries in the bibliography: the current title for all the entries or the title that was in use at the time of the issue publication? I have verified with the publisher that all the title variations (and differing places of publication) do indeed belong to the same journal. The changes are not extreme: no subtitle to a rather generic title or various subtitles attached to the generic main title.
A. List the journal titles as they were at the time of publication, and explain the variation in a headnote or footnote or annotation to the entries. The city of publication is not normally part of a journal citation, so you needn’t worry about that.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How do you cite a speech that is out of copyright?
A. Cite it as you would any other speech. (Copyright information is not normally included in citations.) You can find examples of citations of speeches at CMOS 14.115 and 14.164.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Dear CMOS, I’m confused by the online encyclopedia entry examples in 14.132. Why does the Masolo example include an open date (1997–) while the Middleton does not? Many thanks for your help!
A. The Masolo citation is of an online publication that began in 1997 and continues to be updated, whereas the Middleton citation is from a printed book that came out in 2004 (thus no updating). See also CMOS 6.84.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’ve noticed that print and ebook versions of the same title sometimes have different dates of publication; how should this be dealt with in bibliographic entries? If I were quoting from such a work, I would provide the publication date of whichever version, print or digital, I had consulted, but what about a reference that’s intended only to point the reader toward a certain resource (“for more on this topic, see Smith 2018”)? In that case, should preference be given to the earlier date over the later? To the print version over the digital?
A. Cite the year of whichever edition you choose to recommend. For ebooks, include the format (Kindle, iBooks, etc.). You can see examples in our Citation Quick Guide, under “Book Consulted in an Electronic Format.”
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am working on a research paper for an upper-level anthropology class and could not find the correct method for citing a quote that contains several in-text citations. How do I address the in-text citations?
A. Include them in your quotation. Please see CMOS 12.7, under rule 5: “Parenthetical text references in the original should be retained.”
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When referencing government reports with no author, is the author the country or the department? I have always used the department; however, our university style guide based on CMOS says to use the country. For example, Australia, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry . . .
A. It’s not a good idea to make a hard-and-fast rule, because your decision should fit your document. If your work is purely about Australia and no other country, it would be more useful to readers to begin with the department than to have dozens of entries beginning with Australia. If your work is more global in nature, however, readers might appreciate being able to locate the Australia references in a batch.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am writing a research paper and would like to use parenthetical in-text citations using author-date style. However, instead of including a reference list, I would like to include a bibliography, using notes-bibliography style. I thought this might be appropriate since I am writing a research paper for a course in the humanities but didn’t want to include footnotes. My professor is allowing us to use MLA or Chicago/Turabian citation style and hasn’t given us a lot of specifics.
A. A reference list (unlike a bibliography) is set up to match the parenthetical citations in the text. The in-text citations show author and year (Jones 1995), and the reference list entries begin with author and year:
Jones, Denise. 1995. Title. etc.
A bibliography entry, on the other hand, buries the year at the end of the entry. If you want to devise your own system instead of using one that is time-tested and globally employed, be prepared to defend it. And get permission from your instructor.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What is the order of dates in an in-text citation when more than one author is cited? Is it ascending by date? For example: (Martin 1986; Halliday 2000; Butt et al. 2003)? Or doesn’t the order matter?
A. The order in which author-date citations are given may depend on the order they were quoted or referred to in the text, or it may reflect the relative importance of the items cited. If neither criterion applies, alphabetical or chronological order may be appropriate. Unless citation order is prescribed by a particular journal style, the decision is the author’s and must not be edited without the author’s permission. Please see CMOS 13.124.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a manuscript for an international journal that uses Chicago style. An author has cited a monograph. I cannot find an entry for Chicago’s guidelines on monograph formatting in the index or in chapter 14. Can you tell me where I should look?
A. Monograph is another word for book, usually on a specialized subject and written by a single author. Cite a monograph as you would a book. Details and examples begin at CMOS 14.2.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]