Two Chicago systems: which one do you need?
Notes and bibliography is common in history, literature and the arts. You cite with numbered footnotes or endnotes, and list sources in a bibliography at the end. Author-date is common in the sciences and social sciences: a short citation in parentheses in the text and a reference list. Both describe the same source with the same facts; the order and punctuation differ.
| Notes and bibliography | Author-date | |
|---|---|---|
| In the text | Superscript note number | (Yu 2020) |
| Where the date goes | Near the end of the entry | Right after the author |
| List title | Bibliography | References |
Chicago 18th edition examples
Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.
Footnote: Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020).
Kwon, Hyeyoung. “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life.” American Journal of Sociology 127, no. 6 (2022): 1818–59. https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.
Footnote: Hyeyoung Kwon, “Inclusion Work: Children of Immigrants Claiming Membership in Everyday Life,” American Journal of Sociology 127, no. 6 (2022): 1818–59, https://doi.org/10.1086/720277.
Doyle, Kathleen. 2023. “The Queen Mary Psalter.” In The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World’s Greatest Invention, edited by P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin. University of Chicago Press.
In-text citation: (Doyle 2023)
Yale University. n.d. “About Yale: Yale Facts.” Accessed March 8, 2022. https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.
In-text citation: (Yale University, n.d.)
What changed from the 17th to the 18th edition
The visible change for most students is the place of publication: Chicago 18 drops the city for books, so "New York: Penguin Press, 2016" in the 17th edition becomes "Penguin Press, 2016". The generator defaults to the 18th edition, which the official quick guide shows today. If your instructor still asks for the 17th edition, choose "Chicago 17th" in the style menu; nothing else needs re-entering.
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
Footnote: Zadie Smith, Swing Time (New York: Penguin Press, 2016).
Footnotes in practice
Insert the footnote with your word processor's footnote command, then paste the note shown under the preview. The first note for a source is the full note. Later notes can be shortened to the surname, a short title and the page: Yu, Interior Chinatown, 45. Add page numbers yourself, because they depend on the passage you cite.
For more on in-text forms across styles, see the in-text citation generator. To build the whole list, use the bibliography generator.
Official Chicago guide and edition used
The generator uses the official CSL files chicago-notes-bibliography.csl and chicago-author-date.csl, titled for the Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition, plus the 17th edition files. Examples were recreated from the Chicago Manual of Style citation quick guide, checked October 25, 2026. Rephrasa is not affiliated with the University of Chicago Press.
Who uses Chicago
Historians, art historians and many publishers use the notes system, because footnotes can carry commentary as well as references. Some social sciences use author-date. Always follow the system named in your assignment brief.