Citation Resources

Chicago notes can either be done as footnotes or endnotes. Footnotes are located at the bottom (aka the "foot") of the page where the work is cited, while endnotes are located at the end of a document. Both methods for citing have pluses and negatives (see table Pros and Cons of Footnotes and Endnotes).

For some electronic documents, the bottom of the page and the end of the document are the same, so there is not really a difference between a footnote and an endnote.

• When you cite in your paper, you will mark your citation with a superscript note number.
• That number will match the note that has the information for that citation.
• Each new note is numbered in consecutive order throughout the whole document.
• The note number in the text can be included either at the end of a sentence or at the end of a clause after the last punctuation mark.

All notes start with the note number. The note will contain the author, the title, other publication information (which Chicago calls "the facts of publication"), and a locator. In most cases, each element is separated by a comma, and the note ends with a period.

• For the author, you will write their names out normally, which for Western naming structure is personal name(s) before the surname.
• The title will be in italics for a larger work or in quotations for a smaller work.
• What is included in the facts of publication and how they are formatted will vary depending on the type of source, so we will look at examples later. The facts of publication will usually have a publication date no matter the source type.
• The locator is often the page number(s) for the specific passage you are citing, but if there are no page numbers you might include a chapter or paragraph number, a heading, or a timestamp for audio and video sources. For very short electronic sources, you can get by without using a locator.

Let's take a look at those elements in an example note for this book.

• You do not have to write the full note each time you cite. After the first time you cite a source, you can use a shortened note.
• For a shortened note, use just the author, the title, and the locator. Only the surname of an author is required for a shortened note, and titles can be shortened if they are more than four words.
• If you have consecutive shortened notes for the same source, you can skip the title and just use the author and locator for the subsequent citations.

Whether you use footnotes or endnotes, you will include a bibliography at the end of your paper with entries for every source included in your notes. You will have one entry per source, no matter how many notes cite that source.

The bibliography entry will include the same information as a non-shortened note, but there will be some differences in how it is organized. Here are some differences:

• There is no note number.
• You will list the author's surname, followed by a comma, before their personal name(s).
• Instead of commas, you will separate the different information primarily with periods.
• Not all bibliography entries need a locator.
  • If your source is a smaller part of a larger source, like one article in a journal, then you would include the page number range for the source.
  • Sources that are not a smaller part of a whole, like a whole book, do not need a locator.
  • Online sources will usually have a URL or DOI locator.

Let's take a look at a bibliography entry for the book we looked at earlier: