Chicago Style Citation Footnotes: A Step-by-Step Guide With Examples (18th Edition, 2026) | Affordable Dissertation

Chicago referencing trips up more students than almost any other style, and the reason is simple: it asks you to do two jobs at once — drop footnotes at the bottom of the page and build a full bibliography at the end. If your tutor has asked for “Chicago footnotes” and you are staring at a blank page wondering where the little superscript numbers actually go, this guide takes you through the format source by source, with corrected examples for the current 18th edition. It is written with UK students in mind, so we will also cover when British universities actually set Chicago and how it differs from Oxford referencing.

What Is the Chicago Notes and Bibliography System?

Chicago offers two citation systems. The first is the Notes and Bibliography (NB) system, which pairs footnotes or endnotes with a bibliography page. The second is the Author-Date system, which works much like APA, using in-text parenthetical citations alongside a reference list. This guide covers the Notes and Bibliography system, because footnotes are its defining feature.

The humanities favour the NB system because it lets you place a citation, and any extra commentary, at the foot of the page without breaking the flow of your argument the way a parenthetical reference would. Each time you quote, paraphrase or refer to a source, you add a superscript number in the text. That number matches a footnote at the bottom of the same page, where the full citation sits.

What Changed in the 18th Edition (2024)

The 18th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style was published in September 2024, and a handful of changes affect footnotes directly. It is worth knowing these before you start, because reading lists and department style sheets are slowly catching up and you may meet either edition:

• The publisher’s city is no longer required in book citations, so a book footnote is now shorter than it used to be.
• “Ibid.” is effectively retired. Repeated sources now use a shortened note by default.
• There is new guidance for citing AI tools such as ChatGPT.
• Page ranges are optional for chapters in edited books, and up to six authors can appear in a bibliography entry.

If your module handbook still cites the 17th edition, check with your tutor before you submit, as both editions remain in active use across UK courses. You may find it useful to compare how other systems handle the same job in our complete ASA citation guide and our guide to the IEEE reference format.

How Do Footnotes Work in Chicago Style?

Once you spot the pattern, the mechanics are straightforward. The superscript number goes after the punctuation, never before it. It follows the full stop or comma rather than sitting in front of it. The one exception is the dash: a note number goes before a dash, not after it.

Correct: The campaign began in the autumn of 1862.⁴

Incorrect: The campaign began¹ in the autumn of 1862.

The footnotes themselves sit at the foot of the page, separated from the main text by a short horizontal line. Each one opens with its matching number, then the citation. Most word processors number and place them for you automatically.

The first time you cite a source, the footnote gives the full reference. Every later reference to that same source is shortened — more on that below.

Chicago Footnote Format: The Full Citation

A full footnote differs from a bibliography entry in two ways: the author’s name stays in natural order (First Last, not Last, First), and the note ends with a full stop rather than using a hanging indent. Footnotes also give a specific page number to point the reader to the exact passage.

The broad shape is:

Note number. Author First Last, Title of Work (Publisher, Year), page number.

Note the 18th-edition change here: there is no longer a place of publication before the publisher.

Chicago Footnote Examples by Source Type

How to Cite a Book in a Chicago Footnote

¹ David McCullough, John Adams (Simon & Schuster, 2001), 144.

Single author (18th edition — no city):

Two authors:

² Robert Middlekauff and Gordon S. Wood, The American Revolution: A History (Modern Library, 2005), 67.

An editor in place of an author:

³ Lawrence B. Solum, ed., The Constitution in 2020 (Oxford University Press, 2009), 23.

A translated work:

⁴ Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1990), 312.

A chapter in an edited volume:

⁵ Nancy F. Cott, “What’s in a Name? The Limits of ‘Social Feminism,’” in Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women’s History, ed. Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz (Routledge, 1990), 216.

Two quick add-ons: if you are citing an edition other than the first, add it after the title (for example, 2nd ed. or rev. ed.); and if you read the book online rather than in print, add the URL or DOI at the very end of the note.

How to Cite a Journal Article

For a journal article, add the volume and issue (in brackets), the year, and the page you are citing:

⁶ Rebecca J. Scott, “Gradual Abolition and the Dynamics of Slave Emancipation in Cuba,” Hispanic American Historical Review 63, no. 3 (1983): 454.

For an article you read online with a DOI, add the DOI at the end:

⁷ Amanda Vickery, “Golden Age to Separate Spheres? A Review of the Categories and Chronology of English Women’s History,” Historical Journal 36, no. 2 (1993): 383, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X00014874.

How to Cite a Website

For an online source, give the author, the page title, the site name, the publication or revision date, and the URL. Contrary to a widespread belief, Chicago does not normally require an access date — you add one only when the page carries no date of its own, or when your department specifically asks for it.

⁸ Julia Belluz, “The Research on Intermittent Fasting Is Surprisingly Weak,” Vox, January 3, 2020, https://www.vox.com/2019/8/27/20832733/intermittent-fasting-diet-research-2019.

When no author is named, use the organisation as the author:

⁹ World Health Organisation, “Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic,” WHO, accessed April 28, 2026, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019.

How to Cite a Newspaper or Magazine Article

For a print newspaper article:

¹⁰ Emily Bazelon, “The Return of the Anti-Monopolists,” New York Times Magazine, June 5, 2017, 38.

For an online newspaper article, add the URL:

¹¹ Toluse Olorunnipa, “Biden Reaches 100 Days,” Washington Post, April 29, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-100-days.

How to Cite AI Tools Like ChatGPT in Chicago

The 18th edition added formal guidance for AI-generated content. Because a chatbot’s reply cannot be reproduced reliably the way a published source can, you usually credit the tool, the company, the prompt and the date in a footnote rather than listing it in the bibliography:

¹² ChatGPT, response to “Summarise the main causes of the English Civil War,” OpenAI, April 12, 2026.

Two cautions matter here. First, check whether your university permits AI use at all before you cite it; many departments restrict it. Second, citing a tool is never a substitute for your own analysis, and AI text should never be passed off as your own work.

Formats differ slightly depending on the tool and on what you are citing — text, an image or code — and some departments prefer you to describe your AI use in a note or in your methodology rather than as a formal citation. When in doubt, disclose more rather than less.

Handling Multiple Authors, Combined and Incomplete Citations

A few situations trip students up because the single-source examples above do not cover them. Here is how Chicago deals with the three most common.

Two, Three or More Authors

Name up to two authors in a note. For three or more, give the first author followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”). The bibliography is more generous, listing up to six names before it switches to “et al.”

Citing Several Sources at Once

Do not stack several superscript numbers at the same point in your text. Gather the sources into a single footnote and separate them with semicolons:

⁸ T. E. Hulme, “Romanticism and Classicism”; T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land; Virginia Woolf, “Modern Fiction,” 11.

When Information Is Missing

Real sources are often incomplete. Chicago has a fix for each gap:

• No author: put the organisation that published the work in the author’s place, or begin with the title.
• No date: use the abbreviation “n.d.” (no date) where the year would normally go.
• No page numbers: point to another locator instead — a chapter (“chap. 2”), a paragraph (“par. 4”), or a section heading introduced with “under.”

⁹ Smith, “Thematic Analysis,” under “Methodology.”

Shortened Footnotes and the End of “Ibid.”

After the first full footnote, every later reference to the same source uses a shortened form: the author’s surname, a short version of the title, and the page number. There is no need to repeat the publication details.

First (full): ¹⁶ Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (Macmillan, 1962), 72.

Later (shortened): ¹⁷ Tuchman, Guns of August, 89.

Older papers used “ibid.” for a source repeated in the very next note, but Chicago now advises against it because it is easy to lose track of what “ibid.” points to in a digital document where notes may not appear in sequence. Unless your tutor tells you otherwise, use the shortened form every time.

If two authors share a surname, add their initials in the shortened note to avoid confusion. If you cite two works by the same author, keep the short title in every note, including the first shortened one, so the reader knows which book you mean.

See It All Together: Footnotes in Context

Isolated examples only take you so far. Here is how the whole system looks on the page — a short passage, the matching footnotes (full the first time, shortened after), and the bibliography entry for the same source.

Tuchman argues that the July crisis moved faster than any government could manage.¹ The mood in Berlin shifted within days,² and by August the alliances had hardened.³

Footnotes:

¹ Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (Macmillan, 1962), 72.

² Tuchman, Guns of August, 95.

³ Tuchman, Guns of August, 118.

Bibliography:

Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August. Macmillan, 1962.

Notice the pattern: the first note is full, the next two are shortened, and the bibliography inverts the author’s name and drops the page number.

Copy-paste templates:

Book (full): N. Author First Last, Title (Publisher, Year), page.

Book (short): N. Surname, Short Title, page.

Journal: N. Author First Last, “Article Title,” Journal Name vol, no. issue (Year): page.

Website: N. Author, “Page Title,” Site Name, date, URL.

Chicago Footnotes vs Bibliography: What’s the Difference?

In the NB system you always need both. The footnotes point the reader to specific passages as they read; the bibliography gives the full alphabetised list of everything you cited. Here is the difference at a glance:

When Do UK Universities Use Chicago Referencing?

Most UK courses default to Harvard or to a numbered style, so plenty of students are surprised to be handed Chicago at all. It tends to appear in the humanities: history is the most common, followed by classics, theology and divinity, art history, and some music and philosophy modules. If you are on one of these courses, the footnote-and-bibliography format is the version you are almost certainly being asked for.

History students in particular tend to accumulate dozens of primary and secondary sources, and getting the footnotes consistent across a long essay is fiddly work. If you would value a second pair of eyes on the argument and the referencing, our specialist history essay help is built around exactly these modules.

One small but telling UK convention: British academic writing tends to use single quotation marks around titles in references (‘Modern Fiction’), where the American Chicago Manual uses double marks (“Modern Fiction”). If your department follows UK house style, switch the double marks in these examples to single ones — and keep them consistent throughout.

Chicago vs Oxford Referencing

UK students mix these two up constantly, and for good reason: they look almost identical. Oxford referencing is a footnote system used by many UK history and law departments, and like Chicago NB it places a superscript number in the text and a full citation at the foot of the page. The main differences are small ordering and punctuation conventions, and the fact that Oxford is a broad British convention rather than a single published manual.

The practical takeaway: if your handbook says “Oxford” or simply “footnote referencing” and gives no manual, the Chicago patterns in this guide will get you very close. If it names Chicago explicitly, follow this guide directly. When in doubt, your department’s style sheet always wins.

Footnotes vs Endnotes: Which Should You Use?

Chicago lets you place your notes at the foot of each page (footnotes) or gather them at the end of the document or chapter (endnotes). The citations look identical — only the placement changes — so the decision comes down to how you want the reader to experience them.

• Footnotes sit on the same page, so the reader can check a source without losing their place — but a page heavy with notes can look crowded.
• Endnotes keep the body clean and uncluttered — but the reader has to turn to the back to follow each one.

Pick one and use it consistently; never mix the two in the same piece. Unless your department says otherwise, footnotes are the usual choice for essays, and endnotes suit book-length work where notes would otherwise swamp the page.

How to Insert Footnotes in Microsoft Word

Place your cursor after the relevant punctuation, then go to References and select Insert Footnote. Word numbers the note and drops it at the foot of the page with a separator line for you.

Chicago expects footnote text in the same font as the body (usually Times New Roman, 12pt) but a little smaller, often 10pt. Indent the first line of each note by half an inch, and leave a single line space between notes. If your department issues its own style sheet, follow that over the defaults.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Mixing up footnote and bibliography format. Footnotes keep the author as First Last and give a page number; the bibliography inverts the name and drops the page number. This is the single most common slip.
• Giving a full citation every time. Only the first reference is full. After that, use the shortened form, or the notes become cluttered.
• Adding an access date you don’t need. Include one only when the page has no publication or revision date, or when your department asks for it.
• Misplacing the superscript number. Punctuation always comes first, then the number. Markers notice this.
• Leaving out the bibliography. In the NB system you need both; footnotes do not replace the bibliography.

If referencing consistency is the part that worries you most, it is often the easiest thing to outsource a final check on. A dissertation proofreading service can verify every note against your bibliography, which is especially useful once a literature review has pushed your source count into the dozens.

A Quick Pre-Submission Checklist

• Every quote and paraphrase has a footnote number, placed after the punctuation.
• The first note for each source is full; later notes are shortened.
• Footnote names read First Last; bibliography names read Last, First.
• Every footnoted source appears in the bibliography, and every bibliography entry has been cited.
• Notes are numbered consecutively from 1, with no “ibid.”
• Titles use your department’s quotation-mark style (single or double) consistently.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you format footnotes in Chicago style?

Add a superscript number after the punctuation, then write the matching citation at the foot of the page. The first note is full (author as First Last, title, publisher, year, page); later notes use a shortened form.

What is the difference between Chicago footnotes and endnotes?

The content and formatting are identical. Footnotes sit at the bottom of the page where the citation occurs; endnotes are gathered at the end of the document or chapter. Footnotes are more common in academic essays.

Do I still use “ibid.” in Chicago style?

No. The current editions discourage it in favour of a shortened note, because “ibid.” can be hard to trace in a digital document. Use the author’s surname, a short title, and the page number instead.

Should page numbers be included in Chicago footnotes?

Yes. Footnotes give the specific page or pages cited. Bibliography entries do not, except for articles, where you list the full page range.

Did the 18th edition change footnotes?

Yes. The place of publication is no longer required in book citations, “ibid.” is retired in favour of shortened notes, and there is new guidance for citing AI tools.

Final Word

Chicago footnotes reward a bit of patience. Once you have the rhythm — full citation first, shortened note after, bibliography at the end — the system is logical rather than fiddly. The rules exist so a reader can trace every source you used and check your claims, so sticking to the format is what makes your citations look clean, consistent and properly academic. If you would like a hand getting there, our dissertation writing service works with UK students across exactly these subjects.