Chicago Citation and Referencing Guide
Chicago style is a flexible citation system widely used in history, literature, art history, theology, religious studies, philosophy, cultural studies, and several areas of the social sciences.
One of its defining features is the availability of two major citation systems: Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. Authors should select the system appropriate to their discipline and apply it consistently throughout the manuscript.
The Two Main Chicago Systems
1. Notes and Bibliography
This system is especially common in history, literature, art history, theology, religious studies, and other humanities disciplines.
Sources are identified in the text with superscript note numbers, while bibliographic information is provided in footnotes or endnotes. A bibliography may also appear at the end of the manuscript.
Example in text: This approach changed substantially during the second half of the twentieth century.1
2. Author-Date
The Author-Date system may be used in selected social science and scientific disciplines. The author's surname and publication year appear within the text.
Example: (Yılmaz 2025)
A corresponding alphabetized reference list appears at the end of the manuscript.
Which Chicago System Should I Use?
Where footnotes form an established part of disciplinary practice, Notes and Bibliography may be appropriate. Where author-date citation is conventional, the Author-Date system may be used.
Because SAER Journal is multidisciplinary, it does not impose one Chicago system across all disciplines. The selected approach must, however, be used consistently.
First Note in Notes and Bibliography
The first note for a source generally contains relatively complete bibliographic information.
General book format:
1. First Name Last Name, Book Title (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page.
Example:
1. Ahmet Yılmaz, Modern Society and Culture (Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024), 85.
Subsequent Citations to the Same Source
Later citations to the same source may use a shortened note.
Example:
2. Yılmaz, Modern Society and Culture, 112.
A shortened note generally contains the author's surname, a shortened title, and the relevant page number.
Should Ibid. Be Used?
Ibid. has traditionally been used in Chicago-style notes, but modern scholarly practice often favors shortened notes because they provide clearer identification.
Whichever approach is selected should be applied consistently.
How Do Note Numbers Work?
Note numbers increase sequentially throughout the manuscript. When a source is cited again, its earlier note number is not reused; a new note number is created, although the bibliographic information may be shortened.
This differs from Vancouver and IEEE systems, where a source generally retains the same citation number throughout the manuscript.
In-Text Citations in the Author-Date System
The basic structure is:
(Author Surname Year)
Example: (Demir 2024)
For a specific page:
(Demir 2024, 48)
Two Authors
For a work with two authors, both surnames may appear in the citation.
Example: (Demir and Kaya 2024)
Three or More Authors
For works with several authors, the in-text citation may be shortened according to Chicago conventions by using the first author's surname followed by “et al.”
Example: (Demir et al. 2025)
Direct Quotations
Direct quotations should include the relevant page or page range.
In Notes and Bibliography:
1. Ahmet Yılmaz, Modern Society and Culture (Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024), 85.
In Author-Date:
(Yılmaz 2024, 85)
How Is the Bibliography Ordered?
Chicago bibliographies are generally arranged alphabetically by the surname of the first author.
The first author's surname usually appears first:
Yılmaz, Ahmet.
Bibliography entries and notes are not identical in form. In notes, the author's first name normally precedes the surname; in the bibliography, the first author's surname is placed first for alphabetical ordering.
Book
Note
1. Ahmet Yılmaz, Modern Society and Culture (Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024), 85.
Bibliography
Yılmaz, Ahmet. Modern Society and Culture. Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024.
Author-Date Reference
Yılmaz, Ahmet. 2024. Modern Society and Culture. Istanbul: Academic Press.
Book with Two Authors
Bibliography example:
Yılmaz, Ahmet, and Mehmet Demir. Contemporary Social Research. London: Academic Press, 2025.
Edited Book
Where a book has editors rather than conventional authors, the editorial role should be identified.
Example:
Kaya, Mehmet, ed. Studies in Contemporary History. London: Academic Press, 2024.
Book Chapter
Note
1. Ahmet Yılmaz, “Social Change and Modernization,” in Contemporary Social Sciences, ed. Mehmet Kaya (Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024), 45–62.
Bibliography
Yılmaz, Ahmet. “Social Change and Modernization.” In Contemporary Social Sciences, edited by Mehmet Kaya, 45–62. Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024.
Journal Article
Note
1. Ahmet Yılmaz and Mehmet Demir, “Social Change and Institutional Transformation,” Journal of Social Studies 18, no. 2 (2025): 145–46.
Bibliography
Yılmaz, Ahmet, and Mehmet Demir. “Social Change and Institutional Transformation.” Journal of Social Studies 18, no. 2 (2025): 140–160. https://doi.org/10.0000/example.
How Is a DOI Presented?
Where available, a DOI may be presented as a persistent link:
https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx
For scholarly journal articles, a DOI should generally be preferred over an ordinary web address where both are available.
Thesis or Dissertation
The degree type, institution, year, and online access information may be included as appropriate.
Bibliography example:
Demir, Mehmet. “Digital Transformation in Public Institutions.” PhD diss., Example University, 2025.
Website
Web references may include the author or organization, page title, website name, publication or modification date, and URL.
Example:
World Health Organization. “Health and Digital Transformation.” Accessed September 10, 2026. https://www.who.int/
Institutional Report
An organization may serve as the corporate author of a report.
Example:
World Health Organization. Global Health Report 2025. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2025.
Newspaper and News Sources
A newspaper citation may include author, article title, newspaper title, publication date, and URL where relevant.
Primary scholarly evidence should generally be preferred when supporting scientific claims.
Conference Papers
Conference presentations and published conference papers may include author, paper title, conference title, location, and date.
Where the paper appears in formal proceedings, publication details should also be included.
Archival and Historical Sources
Chicago style is particularly flexible for archival materials used in historical and humanities research.
Entries may include the author or document title, date, collection name, box or folder number, archive, and institution as appropriate.
The citation should provide sufficient information for another researcher to identify and locate the same material.
Sacred Texts and Classical Works
In theology, religious studies, philosophy, and classical studies, sacred texts and classical works may follow citation conventions different from ordinary books.
Stable divisions such as book, chapter, verse, section, or standardized numbering systems may be used according to established disciplinary Chicago practice.
Translated Works
A translated work should identify the translator in addition to the original author.
Example:
Weber, Max. Economy and Society. Translated by A. Translator. New York: Academic Press, 2024.
E-Books
Electronic books are generally cited similarly to printed books. A platform, format, DOI, or persistent URL may be added where relevant.
Preprints and Online Scholarly Works
Preprints and scholarly works deposited in institutional repositories may be cited.
The reference should clearly identify publication status and should include a DOI or persistent link where available.
Reference Management Software and Chicago
Reference management software such as Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote may contain multiple Chicago style variants.
Authors should ensure that they have selected either Notes and Bibliography or Author-Date as appropriate.
Automatically generated entries should be checked for:
- Author names
- Capitalization of titles
- Italicization of journal and book titles
- Quotation marks around article and chapter titles
- Publisher and year
- Volume, issue, and page ranges
- DOI and URL information
- Differences between notes and bibliography entries
Common Chicago Style Mistakes
- Mixing Notes and Bibliography with Author-Date in the same manuscript
- Copying note format directly into the bibliography
- Failing to alphabetize the bibliography
- Repeating a full note unnecessarily for every citation to the same work
- Omitting page numbers for direct quotations where needed
- Confusing the formatting of book, article, and chapter titles
- Failing to invert the first author's name in the bibliography
- Failing to verify DOI or bibliographic information
- Citing a secondary source as though the original work had been consulted
- Selecting the wrong Chicago variant in reference management software
A Practical Notes and Bibliography Example
In the text:
This transformation has been identified as an important turning point in modern social research.1
First note:
1. Ahmet Yılmaz, Modern Society and Culture (Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024), 85.
Later note:
5. Yılmaz, Modern Society and Culture, 112.
Bibliography:
Yılmaz, Ahmet. Modern Society and Culture. Istanbul: Academic Press, 2024.
A Practical Author-Date Example
In-text citation:
(Yılmaz 2024, 85)
Reference list:
Yılmaz, Ahmet. 2024. Modern Society and Culture. Istanbul: Academic Press.
Chicago Pre-Submission Checklist
- Has either Notes and Bibliography or Author-Date been clearly selected?
- Is the selected system used consistently throughout the manuscript?
- Are note numbers sequential?
- Are shortened notes used appropriately for subsequent citations?
- Are page numbers provided for direct quotations where required?
- Is the bibliography alphabetized?
- Are note and bibliography formats correctly distinguished?
- Are article, book, and chapter titles formatted appropriately?
- Have DOI and URL details been verified?
- Has the correct Chicago system been selected in reference management software?
