How to Cite a Book in Chicago Style
Chicago cites a published book by author, italic title, publisher, and year — without a city for imprints from 1900 on. This page follows the Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guides and The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (2024), §§14.2–62. It is the published-book page. A journal article, a website, or a dissertation that only happens to be bound uses a different CMOS pattern.
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How to Cite a Book in Chicago: Quick Answer
Name the author as printed, italicize the title and subtitle, then give the publisher and the copyright year of the edition you read. In a note, those publication facts sit in parentheses and a locator follows. In the bibliography they do not. CMOS 14.30 dropped the city of publication for books from 1900 on. CMOS 14.8 dropped the chapter page span from the bibliography. CMOS 13.23 now uses et al. after two authors in a note. Author-Date uses the same facts but moves the year next to the name.
CMOS 18 book templates
Notes-Bibliography first note:
First Name Last Name, Title of Book (Publisher, Year), Page.
Notes-Bibliography shortened note:
Last Name, Shortened Title, Page.
Notes-Bibliography bibliography:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
Author-Date in text:
(Last Name Year, Page)
Author-Date reference:
Last Name, First Name. Year. Title of Book. Publisher.
Official CMOS wording
Note that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations (see CMOS 14.30).
Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide, Notes and Bibliography, “Book.” CMOS points to 13.21–26 for notes and 14.2–62 for book examples.
The atomic how-to-cite page shows one formatted book. This guide is the workflow around that page: which system, which book type, which 18th-edition rule, and what to do when a slot is missing. Students using Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9th edition, should also read Turabian vs Chicago. Turabian is the student handbook built on CMOS, not a third citation style. Turabian 10 is announced for late 2026; until a syllabus names it, cite books with the CMOS 18 / Turabian 9 punctuation on this page.
Book, Chapter, Dissertation, or Website?
This URL is only the published-book pattern. How to cite a website in Chicago is the sibling page for an institutional webpage, a blog, or a news post — CMOS 14.104, not 14.2–62. Students lose points when they italicize a dissertation title, paste a city in front of Pantheon Books, or treat Interior Chinatown like a Google privacy policy. A published monograph is retrieved by publisher and year. A chapter is retrieved by its author and host volume. An unpublished thesis uses quotation marks, not italics. A website is retrieved by owner, page title, and URL.
| You are citing | Typical locating facts | Use this guide |
|---|---|---|
| Published monograph, edited collection, translation, or ebook | Author or editor, italic title, publisher, year; URL, database, or format if electronic | This page (CMOS 14.2–62) |
| One essay in an edited book | Chapter author and title; editors; no bibliography page span | This page, then the chapter how-to |
| Doctoral dissertation or master's thesis | Quoted title; PhD diss. or master's thesis; university; year | Dissertations in Chicago (14.113) |
| Scholarly journal article | Volume, issue, page range or article ID, DOI | Journal articles in Chicago (14.67–14.86) |
| Ordinary website that is not a book | Site owner, page title, revision or access date | Websites in Chicago (14.104) |
| Reprint, later edition, or facing-page translation | Original year plus the edition you actually read | Reprinted and translated works |
Current Edition: Chicago 18th (2024)
Cite books from The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, published by the University of Chicago Press in September 2024. Older history handouts still describe the 17th edition (2017), where a city sat in front of every publisher, a note listed three authors in full, and a chapter bibliography carried a page span. The "What's New in the 18th Edition" list rewrites those habits. Phillips Academy's OWHL Chicago 18 guide restated the book rules in March 2026: no place for post-1900 books (14.30), city instead of publisher before 1900 (14.31), and no chapter page range in the list (14.8). Turabian uses the same book punctuation in both systems.
Official CMOS 18 author cutoff
Up to six authors are now listed in a bibliography or reference list entry; if more than six, only the first three are listed, followed by “et al.” In a note or in an author-date text citation, up to two authors are now listed; if more than two, only the first is listed, followed by “et al.”
Chicago Manual of Style, “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraphs 13.23 and 13.107.
| Slot | 17th-edition habit | 18th-edition rule |
|---|---|---|
| Place of publication | Always City: Publisher, Year | Omit the city for books from 1900 on (CMOS 14.30) |
| Pre-1900 books | City and publisher together | Prefer the city instead of the publisher (CMOS 14.31) |
| Authors in a note | et al. after four authors | et al. after two authors (CMOS 13.23) |
| Authors in the bibliography | List up to ten, then et al. | List up to six; if more than six, first three plus et al. (13.23) |
| Chapter page range | Required in the bibliography | Omit it; cite specific pages only in the note (CMOS 14.8) |
| Repeated authors | 3-em dash for the same author | Repeat the name (CMOS 13.72) |
| Self-published books | "Self-published" plus Amazon or Smashwords | "Published by the author" / "pub. by author"; omit the storefront (CMOS 14.36) |
| Same person, two roles | Repeat a surname only, or drop the second credit | Give the full name for each role (CMOS 14.12) |
Official CMOS 18 self-published wording
The phrase “published by the author” (abbreviated “pub. by author” in a note) is now preferred over “self-published” in citations of books published independently.
When citing a self-published book, it is no longer necessary to list a commercial distribution platform such as Amazon or Smashwords.
Chicago Manual of Style, “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraph 14.36.
If a professor still requires CMOS 17, follow that syllabus and keep the city. If the assignment says only "Chicago," use the 18th edition unless the course style sheet says otherwise. The Chicago notes-bibliography style page and the author-date style page are the two generator targets on this site.
Which Chicago System to Use
Chicago is one manual with two documentation systems. The book data are the same; the punctuation and the in-text device are not. History, literature, art history, and most other humanities programs expect Notes-Bibliography. Sociology, some political science, and many social-science courses that still say "Chicago" expect Author-Date. If your department has not named a system, match the syllabus or the journal you are writing for — do not mix footnotes with author-date citations in one paper.
Notes-Bibliography
- Numbered footnotes or endnotes
- First note is full; later notes are shortened
- Bibliography at the end, alphabetized
- Commas inside the note; periods in the bibliography
- Default for history, art history, literature, religion, and philosophy
Author-Date
- Parenthetical citations: (Yu 2020, 45)
- Year moves after the author in the reference list
- Reference list at the end, alphabetized
- No footnotes required for ordinary citations
- Default for many social-science venues that specify Chicago
| If you are writing… | Start with… | Confirm with… |
|---|---|---|
| A history seminar paper or archival essay | Notes-Bibliography | The syllabus and the history citation guide |
| An art-history or literature essay | Notes-Bibliography | The instructor; discursive notes are a feature, not a flaw |
| A sociology, political science, or education paper | Author-Date | The journal or department; some still want notes |
| A thesis that cites both secondary books and unpublished letters | Notes-Bibliography | Archival Chicago guidance for the unpublished side |
| A paper that must later become a journal submission | The journal's author instructions | The CMOS system that journal actually prints |
Author-Date is not "Chicago for scientists" in the way ACS or Vancouver is. Many laboratory and medical journals want a numbered style instead. If the venue is a science journal, read the author instructions before you build a Chicago reference list. For a side-by-side of Chicago against APA, use APA vs Chicago.
Notes-Bibliography Format
A note tells the reader where this sentence came from. A bibliography row tells the reader how to find the book. That is why the first author's name flips only in the bibliography, why the note is one comma-separated sentence, and why only the note carries a locator. CMOS 13.21–26 still wants a full note the first time a source appears and a shortened note after that. Shorten the title to a distinctive three- or four-word form, not a single generic word such as History.
One author
These are the official one-author examples from the CMOS Notes and Bibliography citation guide. The city is gone. The shortened title keeps Interior Chinatown because the title is already short.
Official CMOS Quick Guide example
First note:
1. Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown (Pantheon Books, 2020), 45.
Shortened note:
2. Yu, Interior Chinatown, 48.
Bibliography:
Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.
Two authors
List both names in the note and in the bibliography. Invert only the first name in the bibliography. CMOS 18 still uses and, not an ampersand. The Quick Guide uses Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder.
Official CMOS Quick Guide example
First note:
1. Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today (University of Chicago Press, 2022), 117–18.
Shortened note:
2. Binder and Kidder, Channels of Student Activism, 125.
Bibliography:
Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press, 2022.
Three or more authors
This is the CMOS 17 trap. A 17th-edition note listed three authors in full and switched to et al. only at four. CMOS 13.23 now treats three the way it treats ten: first author, et al., in the note. The bibliography still lists every name through six authors. The Craft of Research, 5th edition (University of Chicago Press, 2024), is a real five-author handbook, so it shows both halves of the rule. It is not a Quick Guide sample. Cite the 2016 4th edition only if that is the copy you actually read.
Five-author book (real title; CMOS 13.23 applied)
First note:
1. Wayne C. Booth et al., The Craft of Research, 5th ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2024).
Shortened note:
2. Booth et al., Craft of Research.
Bibliography:
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. The Craft of Research. 5th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024.
If a book credits more than six authors, the bibliography keeps the first three and adds et al. Do not invent a seventh name to force that form. The official citation guide demonstrates the cutoff on a journal article (the Snyder example), and the same 13.23 rule applies to books.
Shortened notes after the first (CMOS 13.37)
Ibid. is allowed but no longer encouraged. CMOS 13.37 prefers a shortened note because ibid. becomes opaque when a note is added or deleted. The official "What's New" paragraph names three legal short forms. Use the author-title form unless a nearby note already makes the source obvious.
Official CMOS wording on shortened notes
Shortened citations used instead of “ibid.” may take one of three forms: author-title (Chicago’s regular short form), author-only, or title-only.
Chicago Manual of Style, “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraph 13.37. The three rows below apply that rule to the official Yu sample; they are not a fourth invented book.
Three legal short forms of the official Yu note
Author-title (regular short form):
Yu, Interior Chinatown, 48.
Author-only (when the title is already clear):
Yu, 48.
Title-only (when the author is already clear):
Interior Chinatown, 48.
Edited collection, cited as a whole
Cite the collection under the editors when you are using the book as a book — the introduction, the volume's argument, or several chapters. Use ed. or eds. in the note and ed. or eds. after the inverted name in the bibliography. The Quick Guide uses P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin.
Official CMOS Quick Guide example
First note:
1. P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin, eds., The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention (University of Chicago Press, 2023).
Shortened note:
2. Marks and Parkin, Book by Design.
Bibliography:
Marks, P. J. M., and Stephen Parkin, eds. The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention. University of Chicago Press, 2023.
Chapter in an edited book
Cite the chapter author and the chapter title when one essay is your source. CMOS 14.8 is explicit: the bibliography no longer takes the chapter's page span. The note still cites the page you used. For a single formatted chapter, see how to cite a book chapter in Chicago.
Official CMOS wording
The page range for a chapter in a book is no longer required in bibliography entries (see CMOS 14.8). In a note, cite specific pages as applicable.
Official CMOS Quick Guide example
First note:
1. Kathleen Doyle, "The Queen Mary Psalter," in The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention, ed. P. J. M. Marks and Stephen Parkin (University of Chicago Press, 2023), 64.
Shortened note:
2. Doyle, "Queen Mary Psalter," 65.
Bibliography:
Doyle, Kathleen. "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, 2023.
In the note, the editor abbreviation is ed. even when there are two editors; eds. is reserved for the collection-as-a-whole form above. In the bibliography, spell out edited by. Do not invert the editors' names after edited by. If the same person wrote the chapter and edited the volume, CMOS 14.12 wants the full name in both roles — do not collapse the second credit to a surname.
Official CMOS wording on two roles
If the same person is credited more than once in the same citation (e.g., as author of a chapter in a book and editor of the book as a whole), the name is given in full for each role.
Chicago Manual of Style, “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraph 14.12.
Chapter whose author also edited the volume (template)
First note:
First Name Last Name, "Chapter Title," in Book Title, ed. First Name Last Name (Publisher, Year), Page.
Bibliography:
Last Name, First Name. "Chapter Title." In Book Title, edited by First Name Last Name. Publisher, Year.
Organization as author
CMOS 14.2 treats an institution that stands in for a named person as the author. Do not add Anonymous. The American Medical Association's Essential Guide to Asthma (Pocket Books, 1998; ISBN 978-0-671-01013-3) is a real corporate-author book. It is not a Quick Guide sample. Invert nothing: the organization is already in lookup order.
Corporate author (real title; CMOS 14.2 applied)
First note:
1. American Medical Association, Essential Guide to Asthma (Pocket Books, 1998), 44.
Shortened note:
2. American Medical Association, Essential Guide, 48.
Bibliography:
American Medical Association. Essential Guide to Asthma. Pocket Books, 1998.
Translated book, including Eastern name order
The translator follows the title: trans. in the note, Translated by in the bibliography. CMOS 13.75 adds a name-order rule the 17th-edition handouts rarely mentioned. When a name is already printed family-name-first, do not invert it again. The official translated-book example is Liu Xinwu; the shortened note refers to Liu, and the bibliography keeps Liu Xinwu uninverted. The first official note has no locator; the shortened note uses page 279.
Official CMOS wording on Eastern order
In the following examples, the author’s name follows Eastern order (family name first) rather than Western order (family name last); the author is therefore referred to as “Liu” in a shortened note, and the name is not inverted in a bibliography entry. See CMOS 13.75 for more details.
Official CMOS Quick Guide example
First note:
1. Liu Xinwu, The Wedding Party, trans. Jeremy Tiang (Amazon Crossing, 2021).
Shortened note:
2. Liu, Wedding Party, 279.
Bibliography:
Liu Xinwu. The Wedding Party. Translated by Jeremy Tiang. Amazon Crossing, 2021.
If you used the translation as a translation — comparing wordings, discussing the translator's choices — keep the translator. If you only need the argument of the English edition, the translator still belongs in the citation; CMOS treats the translator as part of the book, not as optional metadata. Reprints, new editions, and facing-page translations are a different decision tree; use reprinted and translated works rather than forcing a simple monograph template onto a 1949 text in a 1990s paperback.
Ebooks, databases, and books published before 1900
The official citation guide groups these together because the extra element is the same kind of thing: a path back to the copy you actually read. CMOS 14.58–62:
Official CMOS wording
To cite a book consulted online, include either a URL or the name of the database. For downloadable ebook formats, name the format; if no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the note (or simply omit). For citing a place rather than a publisher for books published before 1900 (as in the Moby-Dick example below), see CMOS 14.31.
Books consulted in a fixed-page format that matches a printed counterpart can be cited without naming the format (as if it were print).
The first sentence is the Notes and Bibliography Quick Guide, “Book Consulted in an Electronic Format.” The second is “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraph 14.58.
Official CMOS Quick Guide examples
Kindle, no stable pages:
1. Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (Random House, 2008), chap. 6, Kindle.
Online edition with a URL:
2. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders' Constitution (University of Chicago Press, 1987), chap. 10, doc. 19, https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
Database ebook with an edition:
3. Brooke Borel, The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking, 2nd ed. (University of Chicago Press, 2023), 92, EBSCOhost.
Pre-1900 book: place instead of publisher:
4. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (New York, 1851), 627, https://melville.electroniclibrary.org/moby-dick-side-by-side.
Official CMOS Quick Guide shortened notes
Roy:
5. Roy, God of Small Things, chap. 7.
Kurland and Lerner:
6. Kurland and Lerner, Founders' Constitution, chap. 4, doc. 29.
Borel:
7. Borel, Fact-Checking, 104–5.
Melville:
8. Melville, Moby-Dick, 722–23.
Official CMOS Quick Guide bibliography rows
Borel, Brooke. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press, 2023. EBSCOhost.
Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. The Founders' Constitution. University of Chicago Press, 1987. https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York, 1851. https://melville.electroniclibrary.org/moby-dick-side-by-side.
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. Random House, 2008. Kindle.
A PDF that reproduces the printed pagination can be cited as the print book (CMOS 14.58). Name Kindle, EPUB, or the database when the copy does not share that pagination, or when your reader would otherwise be unable to recover the file. Do not add a database name and a URL unless the URL is a persistent identifier you actually used. Prefer a DOI URL when the book has one. Do not cite Kindle location numbers.
Edition, volume, series, and a named distributor
CMOS 14.2 lists the extra book facts in this order after the title: edition if not the first, volume facts (14.18–24), series if needed (14.25–28), then publisher and date. Borel's fact-checking guide above is already a 2nd edition. A numbered volume of a set takes that volume and its own title when you used only one volume. A numbered series can follow the title in roman type. CMOS 14.40 adds a distributor only when the title page names one.
Official CMOS wording on distributors
A distributor’s name should be included in a bibliography or reference list entry for a book if it is listed on the title page.
Chicago Manual of Style, “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraph 14.40.
Volume and series templates
One volume of a set, first note:
First Name Last Name, Volume Title, vol. 2 of Set Title (Publisher, Year), Page.
Numbered series, bibliography:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Series Title 12. Publisher, Year.
Author-Date Format
Author-Date uses the same 18th-edition book data. The year leaves the end of the citation and sits after the author. In-text citations take the locator that a note would have carried. The official Author-Date citation guide repeats the no-place rule and the no-chapter-page-range rule. CMOS points to 13.105–10 and 14.2–62.
Official CMOS wording (Author-Date)
The page range for a chapter in a book is no longer required in reference list entries (see CMOS 14.8). In the text, cite specific pages as applicable.
Official CMOS Quick Guide examples
One author:
Yu, Charles. 2020. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books.
In-text:
(Yu 2020, 45)
Two authors:
Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. 2022. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press.
In-text:
(Binder and Kidder 2022, 117–18)
Chapter:
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:
(Doyle 2023, 64)
Collection as a whole:
Marks, P. J. M., and Stephen Parkin, eds. 2023. The Book by Design: The Remarkable Story of the World's Greatest Invention. University of Chicago Press.
In-text:
(Marks and Parkin 2023)
Official CMOS wording on Eastern order (Author-Date)
In the following example, note the absence of a comma after “Liu” in the author’s name, which follows Eastern order (family name first) rather than Western order (family name last). See CMOS 13.75 for more details.
Official CMOS Quick Guide translated-book examples
Translated book, Eastern order:
Liu Xinwu. 2021. The Wedding Party. Translated by Jeremy Tiang. Amazon Crossing.
In-text:
(Liu 2021, 279)
Official CMOS wording (Author-Date ebooks)
To cite a book consulted online, include either a URL or the name of the database in the reference list entry. For downloadable ebook formats, name the format; if no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the text (or simply omit). For citing a place rather than a publisher for books published before 1900 (as in the Moby-Dick example below), see CMOS 14.31.
Official CMOS Quick Guide electronic examples
Database ebook:
Borel, Brooke. 2023. The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking. 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press. EBSCOhost.
In-text:
(Borel 2023, 92)
Online edition:
Kurland, Philip B., and Ralph Lerner, eds. 1987. The Founders' Constitution. University of Chicago Press. https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/.
In-text:
(Kurland and Lerner 1987, chap. 10, doc. 19)
Pre-1900 ebook:
Melville, Herman. 1851. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York. https://melville.electroniclibrary.org/moby-dick-side-by-side.
In-text:
(Melville 1851, 627)
Kindle:
Roy, Arundhati. 2008. The God of Small Things. Random House. Kindle.
In-text:
(Roy 2008, chap. 6)
Author-Date in-text citations follow the same two-author / et al. cutoff as notes. Two authors stay visible: (Binder and Kidder 2022, 125). Three or more collapse: (Booth et al. 2024). There is no comma between the name and the year. A page or chapter locator, when you need one, follows a comma after the year. For Liu, the official parenthetical uses page 279.
Five-author and corporate Author-Date (same real books)
Craft of Research, 5th ed.:
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. 2024. The Craft of Research. 5th ed. University of Chicago Press.
In-text:
(Booth et al. 2024)
AMA asthma guide:
American Medical Association. 1998. Essential Guide to Asthma. Pocket Books.
In-text:
(American Medical Association 1998, 44)
Build the Citation from the Title Page
Chicago wants the title page, not the dust jacket and not the library catalog's compressed author string. Work the slots in this order so a missing piece is obvious before you generate the note. CMOS 14.2 lists the elements a full book citation can carry: author or institution, title and subtitle, edition if not the first, volume facts, series if needed, publisher and date, a locator in a note, and a URL or persistent identifier for an online copy. The Douglas College CMOS 18 books guide reprints that 14.2 list. Prefer the official Quick Guide numbers when a campus guide still says 14.29 for place or 14.9 for chapter pages — those are 14.30 and 14.8.
Title-page checklist
- Author or editor. Copy the form on the title page. Keep Jr., II, and particles (de, van, von) as printed. Invert only the first author, and only in the bibliography or reference list.
- Title and subtitle. Italicize both. Use the punctuation on the title page. CMOS 13.91 says the subtitle "A Novel" can usually be omitted even when it appears on the title page.
- Edition. Include 2nd ed., rev. ed., or 5th ed. when the book is not a first edition. Borel's fact-checking guide and Booth's research handbook above are later editions; that fact belongs in every system.
- Volume. If you used one volume of a set, cite that volume and its own title. If you used the set as a whole, cite the set (CMOS 14.18–24).
- Publisher. Use the publisher's name as it appears, minus Inc., Ltd., and Co. Keep University Press and Books. CMOS 14.30 no longer wants the city in front of that name. CMOS 14.34 lets you normalize and versus & across a list.
- Year. Use the copyright year of the edition you read, not the year of a later printing and not the original year of a work you read in a new edition.
- Locator. Pages in a note or parenthetical citation; chapter or document numbers when the ebook has no stable pages; nothing in the bibliography for a whole book.
- Path back to an electronic copy. URL, DOI, database name, or format — one of them, not all of them. A print-image PDF needs none of those extras (CMOS 14.58).
Official CMOS wording on “A Novel”
The subtitle “A Novel” can usually be omitted when the title of a book is mentioned or cited, even if it appears on the title page.
Chicago Manual of Style, “What's New in the 18th Edition,” paragraph 13.91.
When a slot is missing
- No author. Move the title to the front. A corporate author (World Bank, American Medical Association) is an author, not a missing name.
- No date. Use n.d. in the date slot. In Author-Date, that produces (Liu n.d., 279) and a matching n.d. in the reference list. Add an access date only when CMOS would already want one, such as an undated online book. See how to cite a source with no date.
- No publisher. For a pre-1900 book, that is expected: cite the city and year, as in the Melville example. For a later book, look at the copyright page and the colophon before you give up. CMOS 14.36 now prefers published by the author (or pub. by author in a note) over self-published, and it no longer wants Amazon or Smashwords in the citation.
- No page numbers. Use a chapter, section heading, or document number. If none exist, omit the locator rather than inventing a Kindle "location" number CMOS does not recognize.
- Two cities or two imprints. CMOS 14.30 says that if you include a place at all, take the first city on the title page. Authors should resist adding a place. If both a publisher and a distributor appear, take the name the title page treats as the publisher, and add the distributor only when 14.40 applies.
Punctuation That Changes the Meaning
Chicago book citations fail more often on punctuation than on missing names. The note is one sentence. The bibliography row is a sequence of sentences.
| Element | Note | Bibliography / reference list |
|---|---|---|
| Author order | Charles Yu | Yu, Charles |
| After the author | comma | period (Author-Date: period, then year, then period) |
| Title | italics | italics, then a period |
| Publication facts | parentheses: (Pantheon Books, 2020) | no parentheses: Pantheon Books, 2020 |
| Locator | required when you quote or paraphrase a passage | omit for a whole book; omit chapter spans |
| Two authors | Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder | Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder |
| Editor of a collection | eds., before the title | eds. after the inverted name |
| Editor of a chapter's host volume | ed. after the book title | edited by after the book title |
Use an en dash in inclusive numbers (117–18), not a hyphen. CMOS shortens the second number in most page ranges. Edition statements are lowercase and abbreviated: 2nd ed., not Second Edition. Jr. stays with the given name when you invert: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Chicago Books beside APA and MLA
If you are restyling a bibliography, do not search-and-replace the city out of an APA list and call it Chicago. The three styles disagree about more than place. This page stays on Chicago books; the other two book guides carry their own official examples.
| Style | Reference |
|---|---|
| Chicago 18 bibliography | Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020. |
| Chicago 18 reference list | Yu, Charles. 2020. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books. |
| APA 7 | Yu, C. (2020). Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books. |
| MLA 9 | Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020. |
- APA initials the given name, puts the year in parentheses, and uses a sentence-case title. It also wants a DOI when one exists. See how to cite books in APA.
- MLA looks closer to a Chicago bibliography row, but it drops the note system, uses a container model, and treats the publisher abbreviation rules differently. See how to cite a book in MLA.
- Chicago Notes-Bibliography is the only one of the three that puts a full citation in a footnote and a shortened form later. That is the style history departments mean when they say "Chicago."
- Chicago Author-Date shares APA's year-forward instinct but keeps full given names, title case, and and instead of &.
A Last Pass before You Submit
Pre-submission audit
- Every source uses the same CMOS system. No leftover (Yu 2020) in a notes paper, and no leftover superscripts in an Author-Date paper.
- No city appears before a post-1900 publisher, unless your instructor froze the class on CMOS 17.
- First notes are full; later notes are shortened. Ibid. is rare or absent. If you shorten, prefer author-title unless 13.37's author-only or title-only form is clearer.
- Three-author books are First et al. in notes and in-text citations, and fully named in the bibliography if there are six or fewer authors.
- Chapter bibliographies have no page span. Chapter notes still have a page. A person who is both chapter author and volume editor is named in full twice (14.12).
- Eastern-order names are not double-inverted. Liu stays Liu Xinwu in the list, with no comma after Liu.
- Ebooks name a format, a database, or a URL — not a Kindle location number. A print-image PDF can look like the print book (14.58).
- Pre-1900 books cite a place instead of a modern-looking publisher string.
- The edition you read is the edition you cite. A 2024 5th edition is not a 2016 4th edition.
- The bibliography is alphabetized by the first element the reader will look up, hanging-indented, and free of 3-em dashes.
For the rest of a Chicago bibliography — journals, newspapers, websites, and the list's hanging indent — use how to write a bibliography and how to cite a journal article in Chicago. Primary sources that only happen to be bound as books still need the archival layer in Chicago archives.
Generate the note and the bibliography row together
The two Chicago generators on this site keep Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date in separate styles so a history paper does not pick up parenthetical years. Paste an ISBN, DOI, or title, then check the 18th-edition slots above before you drop the result into a footnote.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I still put the city of publication in a Chicago 18 book citation?
- No for books published in 1900 or later. CMOS 14.30 dropped the place of publication. For books published before 1900, CMOS 14.31 prefers the city instead of the publisher, as in the official Melville Moby-Dick example (New York, 1851).
- What is the difference between a Chicago note and a bibliography entry for a book?
- A first note is one comma-separated sentence with the author's name in normal order, the publication facts in parentheses, and a locator. A bibliography entry inverts the first author, uses periods, drops the parentheses, and describes the book as a whole. Shortened notes omit the publication facts.
- How many authors do I list in a Chicago 18 book citation?
- In a note or Author-Date parenthetical, list one or two authors; for three or more, use the first author plus et al. In the bibliography or reference list, list up to six authors. If there are more than six, list the first three plus et al. (CMOS 13.23 and 13.107).
- Can I still use ibid. in Chicago 18?
- It is not forbidden, but CMOS 13.37 prefers a shortened note. The official options are author-title (Yu, Interior Chinatown, 48), author-only (Yu, 48), or title-only (Interior Chinatown, 48). Use author-title unless a nearby note already makes the source obvious.
- How do I cite a chapter in an edited book in Chicago 18?
- Cite the chapter author and chapter title, then the book title and editors. Put the page you used in the note only. CMOS 14.8 no longer requires the chapter's full page range in the bibliography. If the chapter author also edited the volume, CMOS 14.12 repeats the full name for each role. See the official Kathleen Doyle / The Book by Design example above.
- How do I cite a Chicago ebook that has no page numbers?
- Name the format (Kindle, EPUB) or the database, and put a chapter or section number in the note. The official Arundhati Roy example uses chap. 6, Kindle. Do not cite Kindle location numbers. A PDF that matches the printed pages can be cited as the print book (CMOS 14.58).
- How do I cite a book with an organization as the author?
- Put the organization in the author slot and do not invent Anonymous. The bibliography does not invert the name. A real example is American Medical Association, Essential Guide to Asthma (Pocket Books, 1998). A person with no printed name is a different problem; start from the title instead.
- Should a history paper use Notes-Bibliography or Author-Date?
- Notes-Bibliography, unless the instructor or journal says otherwise. History, art history, literature, and religious studies use notes so they can carry archival detail and discursive comments. Author-Date is the Chicago option for many social-science courses. Never mix the two in one paper.
- How do I cite a translated book when the author's name is already family-name-first?
- Do not invert it. CMOS 13.75 keeps Eastern order in the bibliography. The official example is Liu Xinwu, The Wedding Party, translated by Jeremy Tiang. The official first note has no page; the shortened note and the Author-Date parenthetical use Liu and page 279. The Author-Date list has no comma after Liu.
- How is a Chicago book citation different from APA or MLA?
- APA initials given names, uses a parenthetical year, and sentence-cases the title. MLA uses a container model and has no bibliography/note pair. Chicago Notes-Bibliography is the only common student style that puts a full book citation in a footnote. Chicago Author-Date keeps full names and title case. See the comparison table above and the APA vs Chicago guide.
- Where can I check an official Chicago 18 book example?
- The University of Chicago Press maintains free sample citations for Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. The book, chapter, translation, and ebook examples in this guide are those samples. The "What's New" page lists the 14.30, 14.8, 14.36, 14.12, 13.37, and 13.23 changes. Campus restatements include Phillips Academy, March 2026 and Douglas College's CMOS 18 books page.
Related guides
- How to cite a book in Chicago (worked example)
- How to cite a book chapter in Chicago
- How to cite a journal article in Chicago style
- How to cite a website in Chicago style
- How to cite a dissertation in Chicago style
- How to cite reprinted and translated works
- How to cite a book in MLA format
- Turabian vs Chicago