Webpages and Social Media

Chicago 16 style has both an author-date system and a notes and bibliography system. This guide refers to the author-date system. 

There are two key components: 

• In-text references. 
• A reference list that corresponds to the in-text references.

For more information refer to Chicago Manual of Style (online) or you can borrow a copy from the library. 

Before writing your list of references, check with your tutor or lecturer for the bibliographic style preferred by the School or Department. 

In-text references 

In-text citations are given in brackets, and include the author’s surname and the publication date. There is no punctuation between these elements. A page number or other location information may be added after these elements, separated by a comma. 

Reference list 

In a reference list entry the elements are separated by full stops. 

The first-listed author’s name, according to which the entry is alphabetised in the reference list, is inverted (last name first). 

Where there are four to ten authors, the in-text reference should give the name of the first author only, followed by ‘et al.’ The reference list entry should include the names of all the authors. See 14.76 and 15.28.

If there are more than ten authors, list the first seven in the reference list, followed by 'et al.' See 14.76.

Titles are capitalised headline-style (all major words). 

Titles of larger works (e.g., books, journals and websites) are italicised. 

Titles of smaller works (e.g., chapters, articles and web pages) or unpublished works are enclosed in quotation marks and not italicised. 

For books, specify the edition for all editions other than the first. 

Do not include personal communications, such as letters or informal emails, in the reference list. 

These should appear only in the in-text references. 

Secondary citations ("quoted in" or "cited in")

The Chicago Manual of Style advises against citations taken from secondary sources (i.e. “quoted in” or “cited in”), as you are expected to have read the sources you use. If an original source is unavailable, both sources must be identified in-text, but only the secondary source is listed in the Reference List. 

In-text

Mention the original author and date in your text, but cite the secondary source in brackets, using “quoted in” or cited in”. For example:

In Sutherland’s article “The Existential Albatross” from the February 2014 issue of Ornithological Metaphor, (cited in Cohen 2017)… 

Reference List 

In your reference list, cite the secondary source. For example:

Costello, Bonnie. 1981. Marianne Moore: Imaginary Possessions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

If unsure please ask your lecturer or tutor for further advice. 

For more information refer to Chicago Manual of Style (15.52). 

Abbreviations

Acceptable abbreviations in the reference list for parts of books and other publications include: 

Specific Reference Types

Books 

Specify the edition if it is not the first edition. 

In the reference list, works without an author should appear alphabetically by the main word of the title (ignore ‘the’, ‘a’ and ‘an’). 

No page numbers are given for books. 

Give beginning and ending page numbers for book chapters. 

Do not use ‘p’ or ‘pp’ before the page numbers. 

Editor's names should be followed with the abbreviation ed. (or eds.). 

Use the same format where there is a translator or compiler instead of an editor. 

For online books include the DOI (or URL) as the last part of the citation and refer to section headings in lieu of page numbers. 

Published musical scores are treated in the same way as books. 

Journals 

Include both article title and subtitle, regardless of length. 

In the reference list, give the start and end pages of the article. 

Do not use ‘p’ or ‘pp’ before the page numbers. 

In-text, cite specific pages (unless you are referring to the whole article). 

If a journal is paginated consecutively across a volume or if the month or season appears with the year, the issue number may be omitted. 

For online articles that have not been assigned a DOI include a URL. Note that DOI is lowercased and followed by a colon (with no space after) in source citations. 

Access dates are not required by Chicago in citations of formally published electronic sources (see Chicago Manual of Style, Ch.14.7). If an access date is required (by publisher or discipline) they should immediately precede the URL, separated from the surrounding citation by commas in a note and periods in a reference list entry. 

Newspapers 

If there is no article title, give the article type (not in quotation marks). For example: Obituary, Editorial. Omit ‘The’ from newspaper titles. 

Add a city name if the newspaper is not well known e.g. Examiner (Launceston). 

Page numbers are usually omitted. 

Details of the edition can be added to a reference list entry. For example: final edition, Midwest edition. 

If the paper is published in several sections, the section number or name may be given. To cite an article consulted online, include the URL. 

Electronic sources 

A web page is any one of the “pages,” or subdocuments, that make up a website. 

A blog is a category of website that includes dated entries and dated comments. 

Blog titles should be italicised; titles of blog entries (analogous to articles in a periodical) should be in quotation marks. 

Include the title of the web page, the title of the website (or a description), the author of the content and/or the owner (sponsor) of the site, and a URL. 

Include a publication date (or date of modification/revision). If no such date can be found, include an access date. Precede date of modification or access with 'last modified' and 'accessed' respectively. 

If a website refers to themselves by their domain name (which is case sensitive), shorten and capitalise it in a logical way (e.g., www.google.com becomes Google). 

Citations of website content are usually only included in the text and the notes, not in the reference list. 

Audio-visual 

Episodes and indexed scenes are treated like chapters. Sound recordings should be grouped under an appropriate subheading in the reference list (see 14.267). 

Further Information

For more information and examples not covered here, refer to Chicago Manual of Style 16th ed. chapter 15.