Q. What should I do if I’m missing certain bits of information for the bibliography? For example, I have many instances where I wrote down the date of a publication, but I can’t find the volume and issue numbers. The same goes for the page numbers of the entire article; for example, I jotted down the number of the page I’m citing from but not the pages of the entire article. This is problematic, as I’m a historian completing my PhD dissertation on materials from the 1930s, and the sources I use are not available online.
A. I’d say you’re in something of a pickle. First, try again online. Even if the text of an article isn’t available, it’s possible that you can find references to it that will include the missing information. Search for the article title and whatever information you have (journal title and year). Sometimes if you search for the journal, its year, and a page number (not the article title, which would limit the search), you will get hits that include the volume and issue numbers. Consider carefully whether to trust what you find. Try to confirm the information at more than one reputable site, keeping in mind that misinformation tends to replicate quickly online.
If you can’t locate the information you need online, you’ll have to dig it up the same way you did originally. Visit the libraries or archives where you did your research and find the sources. You might be able to ask a reference librarian by email or phone to help you.
In some cases, it won’t be disastrous to omit some information—for instance, if your note citation gives the year, volume, issue, and page number of the material you are quoting or referencing, the bibliography can do without the page range of the entire article. Unfortunately, even if a citation includes the year, page numbers alone aren’t always helpful without an issue number. In that case, unless you are certain that the page numbers for that year number straight through without starting anew in each issue, you should consider dropping the source.
And need I scold you about not taking thorough notes on your sources?
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Sometimes articles in periodicals—particularly in magazines—skip several pages. Typically, most of the article is contained on several adjacent pages, but then it finishes somewhere toward the back of the periodical. When citing such an article, how should the page numbers be listed? Should the very first and the very last pages displaying the article be shown, as in 25–62? Or should only the actual pages be indicated, as in 25–32, 62, 65, 66?
A. Neither solution is ideal; the first is misleading, and the second is just annoying. Please see CMOS 14.188: “Weekly or monthly (or bimonthly) magazines, even if numbered by volume and issue, are usually cited by date only. . . . While a specific page number may be cited in a note, the inclusive page numbers of an article may be omitted, since they are often widely separated by extraneous material.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I need to cite a quotation I took from a text which was originally reproduced in a book (“book 1”)
that cites the archival source of the text in question. The book I am taking the quotation from cites book 1. How should I
cite the quotation? How far should I go in citing, knowing that the original text is an archival document that has been reproduced
several times? When citing in footnotes, can I write “Transcribed in . . .”?
A. The more intermediaries between you and the original text, the further you are from actual evidence and the closer to rumor.
If you can’t consult the original archived document, you owe it to your readers to convey the chain
of transmission. It won’t necessarily be pretty. “Transcribed in”
is a fine way to start.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m writing a book review and am not sure how I’m supposed to cite quotes from
the book I’m reviewing—are they footnoted, and if so, are they traditional footnotes,
even though all of the quotes are from the book I’m reviewing?
A. Since the book review should give the publication details somewhere at the top or bottom of the review (author, title, city,
publisher, date), in the text of the review all you need to cite is the page number of the quotation in parentheses (p. 54).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Much of my research is based on semi-structured interviews. How do I reference these in-text so that the reader can distinguish interview refs from book/article refs, for example, if a point has been made by an interviewee as well as in a secondary text? An interview clearly has a different “authority” than a secondary text—how do I best convey this using the Chicago author-date system?
A. Although interviews don’t automatically have less authority than secondary materials, if you wish to distinguish them in short citations, you can do it in any number of ways. The best approach is to cite the interviews in the text only—assuming that the interviews are unpublished. To do this, you would specify in the text that the information is from an interview: “In Davis’s interview with Hamilton (April 23, 1981) . . .” Other possible forms include (Thomas interview 1989) and (Thomas 1989, interview). For more information and examples, see paragraphs 15.53 and 14.211.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hello. I’ve been charged with editing the illustration credits for a new history textbook, but I’d
like to know what you think should be done for crediting montage photographs. This is where two or more photographs have been
morphed into one image for printing. Putting all the illustration credits on one line without some sort of distinguishing
mark or word would make it difficult for interested persons to tell which part of the montage came from what company or photographer.
What solution or alternative do you suggest?
A. Sometimes the pieces of a montage can be identified with terms like “clockwise from upper left”
or “top, left to right; center, left to right; bottom, left to right.” An alternative
is to make a small line drawing of the components and number them so the credits can be keyed to the numbers. For elements
superimposed or blended beyond distinction, there’s not much point in trying to sort them out; just
list the credits in alphabetical order. If it’s essential to match each credit to its original, you
might have to print thumbnail images of the original art as a guide.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hello. I am seeking to include both the journal year and the publication year for an academic journal that has had delays
in its production schedule. The journal provides the year 2003 following its issue number, but was published in 2007 (and
the cited article is a review of a book that was itself published in 2004). Please advise on the correct bibliographic entry
citation format. Thank you.
A. The citation should follow the information printed on the journal. It’s not uncommon for books and
journals to appear in the year after the stated one, but it’s not feasible for a reader to investigate
whether this happened and exactly when for every item she cites. If you feel you need to explain this unusually long delay,
however, you can either annotate the entry in your bibliography or reference list (Published in 2007) or, if the citation
closely follows the mention of the review of the 2004 book, add [sic] after the journal pub date.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When citing the same work two or more times in a paper do you use the same footnote number without relisting the work or do you use a different footnote number and list the work again? What if you cite the same source on the same page but in different paragraphs?
A. Use a new number each time you cite, even if it results in a row of notes identical except for the number. Some writers use “ibid.” instead of repeating the citation, though Chicago now recommends the latter approach (see CMOS 14.34).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What if two authors with the same surname are cited, and their writings are published in the same year? How can I tell them
apart when I am using the author-date citation system?
A. Use a first initial (R. Jones 2000; B. Jones 2000). If the initials are also the same, add a short title to your text citation
(Jones, Big Book, 2000; Jones, “Little Article,” 2000). If the works are by the same author, assign
letters to the dates in your reference list and refer to them (Jones 2000a, 2000b).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am using Chicago style for the first time. I am totally confused! Can you explain to me when to use footnotes (which my professor wants at the end of the paper) and when to use a bibliography? I am under the impression that she wants both used for this particular paper, and I can’t figure out how to distinguish when to use each. Help!
A. Notes (which are called “footnotes” when they appear at the bottom of the page and “endnotes” when they are collected at the end of the paper) tell the reader exactly where they can verify something that you wrote. As you write your paper, each time you quote something or use a fact that you borrowed from an article or book, create a note that includes the author, the title, and the page number of that source. A bibliography is more general, and you can pull it together after you finish writing your paper. It lists in alphabetical order (by the authors’ last names) all the sources you read for your research, whether or not you mentioned them in your paper or in the notes. Bibliography entries give complete information for each source: author, title, city of publication, publisher, and date. A note can give less information, since the reader can look in the bibliography for the full citation. If your professor wants full information to appear in both places, include the exact page number only in the note. You can omit page numbers from the bibliography, because its purpose is to list works as a whole. If a bibliography item is a single article in a journal or a chapter in a book, however, you should give the range of pages for that article or chapter in order to help the reader find it in the larger work. You can find examples of how to cite various sources at our Citation Quick Guide.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]