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How to Cite a Conference Paper in Chicago Style

Chicago cites a conference source by the object you actually opened: a paper in published proceedings (treat it like a chapter), a paper later printed as a journal article (cite the article), or an unpublished talk, poster, or slide deck (describe it after the title). This guide follows the Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (2024), especially §14.115, plus the live Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date Quick Guides opened on 15 September 2026. It is the Chicago conference page, not the APA conference tutorial.

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How to Cite a Conference Paper in Chicago: Quick Answer

First decide whether the paper was published. A contribution printed in conference proceedings is cited like a book chapter. A contribution reprinted as a journal article is cited like a journal article. An unpublished paper, poster, or slide deck is described after the title ("paper presented at," "poster presented at," "PowerPoint presentation") with the meeting name, location if there was one, and date. In CMOS 18 those meeting details are not wrapped in parentheses. Unpublished presentations are normally cited in a note or in the text only; they usually do not appear in the bibliography. A later recording of a talk is a different object: use the live Quick Guide's video pattern (CMOS 14.167–14.169), not the unpublished-meeting pattern.

CMOS 18 templates

Published paper in proceedings (first note):

First Name Last Name, "Title of Paper," in Title of Proceedings, ed. Editor Name (Publisher, Year), Page.

Published paper in proceedings (bibliography):

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Paper." In Title of Proceedings, edited by Editor Name. Publisher, Year.

Unpublished presentation (note):

First Name Last Name, "Title of Paper," paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Month Day, Year.

Recorded or posted talk (note; not §14.115):

First Name Last Name, "Title of Talk," virtual lecture, Month Day, Year, posted Month Day, Year, by Host, YouTube, Duration, URL.

Official CMOS 18 wording

What's New in the 18th Edition, §14.115

Information about a cited presentation is no longer enclosed in parentheses in a note.

University of Queensland reprint of CMOS 18 §14.115

A paper included in the published proceedings of a meeting may be treated like a book chapter. If published in a journal, it is treated as an article.

Citation Quick Guide, notes and bibliography

The notes and bibliography system, Chicago's oldest and most flexible, can accommodate a wide variety of sources, including unusual ones that don't fit neatly into the author-date system. For this reason, it is preferred by many working in the humanities, including literature, history, and the arts.

Citation Quick Guide, books

Note that a place of publication is no longer required in book citations (see CMOS 14.30).

Citation Quick Guide, chapters

The page range for a chapter in a book is no longer required in bibliography entries (see CMOS 14.8).

What's New in the 18th Edition, §14.85

An abstract for a journal article may be mentioned in text or in a note, but a bibliography or reference list entry should cite the article as a whole.

Those sentences come from the University of Chicago Press What's New list and the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide, both opened on 15 September 2026, plus the University of Queensland Chicago 18 conference-paper page. They are why a CMOS 17 note that reads ("paper presented at . . .") is now dated, why a proceedings bibliography no longer needs Amsterdam or 173–83 unless you want them, and why an abstract is not a substitute bibliography entry. For a shorter one-source page, see how to cite a conference paper in Chicago.

The Live Quick Guide Still Has No Conference Sample

On 15 September 2026 the public Quick Guide still jumps from books and chapters to journal articles, then dissertations, web pages, and video. There is no "conference paper" card. That is not a gap you should fill by inventing a CMOS sample. For a published proceedings chapter, copy the official chapter punctuation. For an unpublished talk, copy §14.115 as reprinted by UQ and SNHU. For a posted recording, copy the official video samples.

Official CMOS Quick Guide chapter analog (not a conference paper)

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.

A proceedings paper uses that same skeleton: quoted paper title, italic container, ed. / edited by, publisher and year in parentheses in the note, no city of publication, and no required page range in the bibliography. Swap in the proceedings title and the paper you opened. Do not paste Doyle into a conference bibliography.

What Counts as a Conference Source

"Conference paper" is not one source type in Chicago. It is a family of objects that share a meeting and then diverge by publication status:

  • Paper in published proceedings. The meeting issued a book or online volume. Cite the paper as a chapter in that volume.
  • Paper in a journal special issue. The "proceedings" are actually a journal. Cite the journal article and ignore the meeting unless the issue title needs it.
  • Unpublished paper or talk. You heard it, received a handout, or found a file that was never formally published. CMOS 18 §14.115 covers this case.
  • Poster, keynote, or slides. Same pattern as an unpublished paper; change only the descriptive phrase.
  • Posted recording of a talk. You watched a YouTube, TED, or institutional video after the meeting. That is CMOS 14.167–14.169, not an unpublished presentation.
  • Whole proceedings volume. You are citing the book, not one paper. Cite it as an edited book.

In computer science and engineering, peer-reviewed proceedings (IEEE, ACM, USENIX) often are the archival publication. In history and literature, the archival version is more often a later journal article or book chapter. When both exist, cite the published version you used.

What CMOS 18 Changed

The 18th edition was published by the University of Chicago Press in September 2024 and replaced the 17th edition (2017). Three citation rules change how conference sources look on the page: presentation details lose their parentheses, modern books lose the city of publication, and a chapter in an edited volume no longer needs its page range in the bibliography.

Chicago 17 (do not copy this)

1. Linda A. Teplin et al., "Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study" (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, La Jolla, CA, March 2005).

Chicago 18 (current)

1. Linda A. Teplin et al., "Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study," paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, La Jolla, CA, March 2005.

The SNHU Shapiro Library reprint of CMOS 18 §14.115 states the same rule in classroom language: previous editions required parentheses around the meeting details; the 18th edition does not. Columbia College (BC) adds that citations of papers or posters presented at meetings are normally included only in footnotes. Murdoch University's CMOS 18 notes-and-bibliography table still prints a parenthetical Teplin note; that cell is leftover 17th-edition punctuation. Copy the CMOS 18 column above, not Murdoch's unpublished-paper row.

Notes-Bibliography: Paper in Published Proceedings

Use this form when the paper appears in a named proceedings volume with a publisher. The paper title is in quotation marks; the proceedings title is italicized. Name the editor after ed. in a note and after edited by in the bibliography. CMOS 18 omits the city of publication for modern books. A note cites the page you used; the bibliography no longer requires the paper's full page range.

Template

First note:

First Name Last Name, "Title of Paper," in Title of Proceedings, ed. Editor Name (Publisher, Year), Page.

Shortened note:

Last Name, "Shortened Title," Page.

Bibliography:

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Paper." In Title of Proceedings, edited by Editor Name. Publisher, Year.

Published proceedings: Jill Mann in This Noble Craft

The standard published-proceedings teaching example is Jill Mann's paper in the 1989 Utrecht symposium volume edited by Erik Kooper and issued by Rodopi in 1991. Murdoch University's CMOS 18 notes-and-bibliography guide still reprints it without a city of publication. The paper occupies pages 173–88 of that volume; the first note below cites page 175, the page Murdoch uses.

Murdoch CMOS 18 reprint

First note:

1. Jill Mann, "Chaucer and the 'Woman Question,'" in This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Tenth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics, ed. Erik Kooper (Rodopi, 1991), 175.

Shortened note:

2. Mann, "Chaucer and the 'Woman Question,'" 188.

Bibliography:

Mann, Jill. "Chaucer and the 'Woman Question.'" In This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Tenth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics, Utrecht, January 19-20, 1989, edited by Erik Kooper. Rodopi, 1991.

If your instructor still requires CMOS 17, add the city (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991) and, in the bibliography, the page span of the paper. Do not mix 17th-edition cities with 18th-edition punctuation in the same paper.

Published proceedings with a DOI: IEEE example

STEM proceedings often have a DOI and no named volume editor. Cite the paper as a chapter in the proceedings title, then add a DOI URL. The Chicago Quick Guide prefers a URL based on the DOI (see CMOS 13.7) over a bare doi: prefix. Crossref and OpenAlex still register this 2009 IEEE Homeland Security paper as a proceedings article under 10.1109/ths.2009.5168032. Neither register supplies page numbers, so the note below has no invented page. If IEEE Xplore shows a page when you open the PDF, cite that page; do not guess 182.

Crossref-verified IEEE proceedings article

First note:

3. James W. Morentz et al., "Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) a Department of Homeland Security initiative in information sharing," in 2009 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (IEEE, 2009), https://doi.org/10.1109/ths.2009.5168032.

Shortened note:

4. Morentz et al., "Unified Incident Command."

Bibliography:

Morentz, James W., Christopher Doyle, Lawrence Skelly, and Nabil Adam. "Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) a Department of Homeland Security initiative in information sharing." In 2009 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security. IEEE, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1109/ths.2009.5168032.

Four authors: the note uses the first name plus et al.; the bibliography lists all four. The Quick Guide's author-count rule is the same for conference papers as for journal articles: list up to six authors in a bibliography entry and, for more than six, the first three plus et al. Keep the Crossref title's sentence-case "a Department" rather than title-casing the subtitle yourself.

Notes-Bibliography: Unpublished Paper, Poster, or Slides

CMOS 18 §14.115 covers papers, posters, and slide decks presented at a meeting but not issued as published proceedings. After the quoted title, add the type of presentation, the sponsor or conference name, the location if there was one, and the date. If a stable URL exists, add it. Do not put that descriptive clause in parentheses.

Official restatements of §14.115

University of Queensland, CMOS 18 conference paper

Usually, citations to papers presented at a conference are limited to the text.

University of Queensland, CMOS 18 §14.115

Details of the sponsorship, location, and date of the meeting at which a speech was given or a paper, slides, or poster presented follow the title. In previous editions of Chicago this information was put in parentheses. This is no longer the case. If the information is available online, include a URL. (14.115).

SNHU Shapiro Library, CMOS 18 §14.115

These citations are normally limited to the text or a note, and are not included in a bibliography. Previous editions of the Chicago Manual of Style required parentheses around this added information, but parentheses are no longer used for this citation.

Template

Note (usually the only citation you need):

First Name Last Name, "Title of Paper," paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Month Day, Year.

Bibliography (only if your instructor requires one):

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Paper." Paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Month Day, Year.

Unpublished paper: Teplin et al.

Chicago's long-standing unpublished-paper example is the Teplin, McClelland, Abram, and Washburn presentation to the American Psychology-Law Society. CMOS 18 keeps the source and drops the 17th-edition parentheses. Because the paper is unpublished, a note is enough unless a teacher or journal asks for a bibliography entry. The same research later appeared as a Pediatrics article; if you read that article, cite the article, not the talk.

Note:

5. Linda A. Teplin et al., "Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study," paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, La Jolla, CA, March 2005.

Shortened note:

6. Teplin et al., "Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth."

Bibliography (optional):

Teplin, Linda A., Gary M. McClelland, Karen M. Abram, and Jason J. Washburn. "Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, La Jolla, CA, March 2005.

Unpublished paper with a URL: Armstrong

If the file is in a repository, add the URL. The University of Queensland's CMOS 18 guide still uses Aurelia Armstrong's 2003 Australian Society for Continental Philosophy paper, archived in UQ eSpace as UQ:204758. UQ Experts lists the meeting as 20–22 November 2003; the library citation uses the first day, 20 November 2003. Cite the date on the file you opened.

University of Queensland CMOS 18 example

Note:

7. Aurelia Armstrong, "Foucault and the Question of Autonomy," paper presented at the Australian Society for Continental Philosophy Conference, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 20 November 2003, https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:204758.

Bibliography (optional):

Armstrong, Aurelia. "Foucault and the Question of Autonomy." Paper presented at the Australian Society for Continental Philosophy Conference, University of Queensland, St Lucia, 20 November 2003. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:204758.

PowerPoint, poster, or keynote

Keep the same elements and change only the label after the title. CMOS 18's own presentation example, reproduced by the SNHU Shapiro Library from §14.115 and still live on 15 September 2026, is a PowerPoint, not a paper.

Official CMOS 18 §14.115 presentation example

Note (SNHU reprint of CMOS 18):

8. David G. Harper, "The Several Discoveries of the Ciliary Muscle," PowerPoint presentation, 25th Anniversary Meeting of the Cogan Ophthalmic History Society, Bethesda, MD, March 31, 2012.

Same pattern for a poster:

First Name Last Name, "Title of Poster," poster presented at Conference Name, Location, Month Day, Year.

Same pattern for a keynote:

First Name Last Name, "Title of Address," keynote address, Conference Name, Location, Month Day, Year.

Panel comments and floor remarks are even less documentary. Name the speaker, describe the comment, and give the panel title, meeting, place, and date in the note. Skip the bibliography unless you are writing a conference report that catalogs every session.

Recorded Talk Versus Unpublished Meeting Paper

Students often paste "paper presented at" onto a YouTube URL. If you watched a recording, CMOS wants the host, the post date, the platform, the duration, and the URL. The live Notes-Bibliography Quick Guide's video samples, pointed at CMOS 14.167–14.169, include this University of Chicago virtual lecture. The video page was still live at https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg on 15 September 2026.

Official CMOS Quick Guide virtual lecture (recorded talk)

First note:

9. Eric Oliver, "Why So Many Americans Believe in So Many 'Crazy' Things," moderated by Andrew McCall, virtual lecture, February 23, 2022, posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago, YouTube, 1:01:45, https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg.

Shortened note:

10. Oliver, "Why."

Bibliography:

Oliver, Eric. "Why So Many Americans Believe in So Many 'Crazy' Things." Moderated by Andrew McCall. Virtual lecture, February 23, 2022. Posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago. YouTube, 1:01:45. https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg.

Use Oliver's pattern when the recoverable object is the video. Use Harper or Teplin when the recoverable object is the unpublished session itself. Do not combine them into one citation that pretends a posted lecture is a footnote-only conference paper.

Chicago Author-Date: Conference Papers

Author-Date is the Chicago system used in many social and physical sciences. The in-text citation is (Last Name Year, Page) — no comma after the name, and no p. before the page. The year moves to the slot after the author in the reference list. CMOS 14.89 adds that an author-date entry which already includes a month and day does not repeat the year with that date. Use this system only when the assignment or journal asks for Chicago Author-Date, not as a substitute for APA.

Official CMOS Author-Date wording

Citation Quick Guide, author-date

Because it credits researchers by name directly in the text while at the same time emphasizing the date of each source, the author-date system is preferred by many in the sciences and social sciences.

Citation Quick Guide

Most authors choose the system used by others in their field or required by their publisher. Students should check with their instructor before deciding which system to use.

University of Queensland, CMOS 18 author-date conference paper

As there are no directions given in Chicago author-date for conference papers, these instructions have been adapted from the notes-bibliography style.

UQ's author-date conference page, opened on 15 September 2026, is explicit: CMOS does not give a separate author-date recipe for conference papers. Adapt the notes-bibliography facts, then move the year after the author. Do not copy UQ's reference-list punctuation for Armstrong (it keeps a note-style comma after the title and omits the year after the name). Do not copy the University of Waikato in-text pair that dates Armstrong to 1996.

Template

In-text citation:

(Last Name Year, Page)

Published proceedings, reference list:

Last Name, First Name. Year. "Title of Paper." In Title of Proceedings, edited by Editor Name. Publisher.

Unpublished presentation, reference list:

Last Name, First Name. Year. "Title of Paper." Paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Month Day.

Published proceedings (Mann)

In-text:

(Mann 1991, 175)

Reference list:

Mann, Jill. 1991. "Chaucer and the 'Woman Question.'" In This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Tenth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics, Utrecht, January 19-20, 1989, edited by Erik Kooper. Rodopi.

Unpublished paper (Teplin et al.)

In-text:

(Teplin et al. 2005)

Reference list:

Teplin, Linda A., Gary M. McClelland, Karen M. Abram, and Jason J. Washburn. 2005. "Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, La Jolla, CA, March.

Proceedings paper with a DOI (Morentz et al.)

In-text:

(Morentz et al. 2009)

Reference list:

Morentz, James W., Christopher Doyle, Lawrence Skelly, and Nabil Adam. 2009. "Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) a Department of Homeland Security initiative in information sharing." In 2009 IEEE Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ths.2009.5168032.

Recorded virtual lecture (Oliver)

In-text:

(Oliver 2022)

Reference list (live Quick Guide):

Oliver, Eric. 2022. "Why So Many Americans Believe in So Many 'Crazy' Things." Moderated by Andrew McCall. Virtual lecture, February 23. Posted March 21, 2022, by University of Chicago. YouTube, 1:01:45. https://youtu.be/hfq7AnCF5bg.

Citing the Whole Proceedings Volume

When you refer to the book rather than one paper, cite the editors and italicize the proceedings title. The International Comparative Literature Association lists Anna Balakian as editor of the 1982 New York congress proceedings, published by Garland in 1985. Murdoch's CMOS 18 guide uses Balakian and James J. Wilhelm as the two named editors in the bibliography.

Note:

11. Anna Balakian and James J. Wilhelm, eds., Proceedings of the Xth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, New York, NY, 1982 (Garland, 1985), 24.

Bibliography:

Balakian, Anna, and James J. Wilhelm, eds. Proceedings of the Xth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, New York, NY, 1982. Garland, 1985.

When the Paper Later Appeared as a Journal Article

Cite the published article you read, not the talk that preceded it. Readers cannot recover an unpublished session from a footnote that names only the meeting. The CMOS unpublished example is the case: Teplin's group presented at the American Psychology-Law Society in March 2005, then published the study in Pediatrics that June. Crossref, reopened on 15 September 2026, still registers the article as 10.1542/peds.2004-1459 with a different fourth author than the conference example (Darinka Mileusnic, not Jason J. Washburn) and the title word Among rather than in. If you used the journal, cite the journal.

Crossref-verified later article (not the AP-LS talk)

First note:

12. Linda A. Teplin et al., "Early Violent Death Among Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study," Pediatrics 115, no. 6 (June 2005): 1586, https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2004-1459.

Bibliography:

Teplin, Linda A., Gary M. McClelland, Karen M. Abram, and Darinka Mileusnic. "Early Violent Death Among Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study." Pediatrics 115, no. 6 (June 2005): 1586–93. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2004-1459.

If you must mention the conference as historiography ("first presented at . . ."), put that sentence in the note after the article citation. For the article pattern itself, use How to Cite Journal Articles in Chicago Style.

Special Cases

Proceedings issued as a journal special issue

Some societies print "proceedings" as an ordinary journal volume or a themed issue. That is a journal article: author, article title, journal title, volume, issue, year, pages, DOI. Do not force the meeting name into a book-chapter slot. The special-issue title can sit where Chicago already allows an issue title.

Virtual or online conferences

CMOS 18 asks for location only if applicable. A fully online meeting has no city to invent. Give the conference name and date, add a URL if you consulted a recording or posted paper, and omit a fake venue. If the organizer billed the meeting as a virtual conference, you may write online or virtual in the location slot rather than leaving it blank — but do not manufacture a hotel or campus. If you later watched a posted video of that session, switch to the Oliver pattern.

Abstracts versus full papers

An abstract in a program is not the paper. If that is all you have, say so ("abstract of paper presented at"). Prefer the published paper, the repository file, or a later article. CMOS 14.85, on the What's New list, says an abstract may be mentioned in a note, but a bibliography entry should cite the article as a whole. Citing an abstract as if it were a 20-page argument misrepresents the evidence.

Turabian

Turabian is the student companion to Chicago. The conference patterns match CMOS: published proceedings as a chapter, unpublished presentations described after the title. Follow your department's Turabian edition for paper format (margins, title page), and cite the sources as Chicago 18 unless the handout still shows 17th-edition parentheses.

Which Chicago System Should You Use?

Usual Chicago system by field, unless the syllabus says otherwise
FieldUsual systemWhy conference sources look different
History, art history, literature, religionNotes-BibliographyUnpublished talks stay in notes; published proceedings look like chapters
Musicology and many book manuscriptsNotes-BibliographyDiscursive notes can carry program and session detail
Sociology, political science, some economicsAuthor-DateYear sits next to the name; unpublished items still need a meeting date
Computer science and engineering using ChicagoAuthor-Date or a numbered STEM styleArchival IEEE/ACM proceedings are cited as published chapters with DOIs
Student papers assigned TurabianMatch the assigned Chicago systemTurabian does not invent a third conference format

The assignment sheet wins. Do not switch from notes to Author-Date halfway through a paper, and do not "fix" a Chicago notes paper by pasting APA parentheses. If you need the APA form of the same source type, use How to Cite Conference Papers in APA or APA vs Chicago.

Common Errors

1. Leaving CMOS 17 parentheses in a CMOS 18 paper

The 18th edition's own changelog says presentation details are no longer enclosed in parentheses. A note that reads ("paper presented at the Annual Meeting . . .") is the 17th-edition form. Drop the parentheses; keep the comma after the title. This includes classroom tables that still wrap Teplin in parentheses.

2. Citing an unpublished talk as if it were proceedings

Italics belong on a published proceedings title, not on the name of a meeting. "American Historical Association Annual Meeting" is not a book. If there is no publisher and no proceedings title, use the unpublished pattern.

3. Putting every unpublished paper in the bibliography

CMOS 18 limits most unpublished presentations to the text or a note. A bibliography stuffed with one-off talks that readers cannot obtain is not more scholarly; it is harder to use. Include the entry when the file is archived at a stable URL or when the instructor requires a full list.

4. Forcing a city into an 18th-edition proceedings citation

CMOS 14.30 dropped the place of publication for modern books. IEEE, 2009 is enough. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, 2009 is 17th-edition (or house-style) extra. Keep cities for pre-1900 books, not for a 2009 IEEE volume, unless your editor still wants CMOS 17.

5. Inventing a publisher or a page number

The conference name is not automatically the publisher. Use the society, university press, or platform printed on the title page or landing page (IEEE, ACM, Rodopi, a university). If nothing was published, do not invent a press so the citation looks "complete." If Crossref and the PDF do not show pages, omit the page rather than borrowing a number from another UICDS paper.

6. Citing the abstract, the slides, the later article, and the YouTube as if they were one source

Those are four objects. Pick the one you used. If you used the article, the slides do not belong in the same citation. If you used only the abstract, say so. The Teplin talk and the Pediatrics article are not interchangeable author lists. Harper's PowerPoint and Oliver's posted lecture are not interchangeable either.

7. Using APA punctuation inside a Chicago note

Chicago notes use full given names, title case, and no p. before page numbers. (Teplin et al., 2005) is APA. (Teplin et al. 2005) is Chicago Author-Date. A superscript note is Notes-Bibliography. APA also italicizes an unpublished presentation title and wraps the type in square brackets; Chicago keeps the unpublished title in quotation marks. Pick one system and stay there.

Should You Cite a Conference Paper at All?

Conference papers are grey literature until a press or journal archives them. That does not make them unusable. It does change how much weight they can carry.

  • Prefer the later journal article or book chapter when it exists and when you have access to it.
  • Treat selective, peer-reviewed proceedings (many IEEE and ACM venues) as published scholarship, not as hallway talk.
  • Treat an unpublished seminar paper as evidence of a claim in progress. Say what you saw (talk, poster, preprint) so a reader can judge the review status.
  • If the only copy is a personal PDF, you may still cite it, but a repository URL or DOI is what makes the citation recoverable.

For source evaluation more generally, see How to Evaluate Sources and How to Find Scholarly Sources.

Official Sources and Further Reading

When a classroom handout and a website disagree, the manual wins. These are the public sources behind the examples in this guide, opened on 15 September 2026:

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you cite a conference paper in Chicago style?
Cite what you used. A paper in published proceedings is formatted like a book chapter: author, paper title in quotation marks, italic proceedings title, editor, publisher, year, and a page in the note if you have one. An unpublished paper, poster, or slide deck adds "paper presented at" (or "poster presented at," "PowerPoint presentation") plus the conference, location if any, and date — without parentheses in CMOS 18. A paper that later appeared as a journal article should be cited as that article. A posted recording uses the Quick Guide video pattern, not §14.115.
Does an unpublished conference paper go in the Chicago bibliography?
Usually no. CMOS 18 §14.115, as restated by UQ and SNHU, says citations of papers or posters presented at meetings are normally limited to the text or a note. Add a bibliography entry when the file is archived at a stable URL, when a journal or instructor requires a full list, or when the unpublished paper is a major source of the argument.
Does Chicago 18 still put "paper presented at" in parentheses?
No. The official What's New list for the 18th edition states that information about a cited presentation is no longer enclosed in parentheses in a note. Write a comma after the paper title, then "paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Date." Classroom tables that still wrap Teplin in parentheses are leftover CMOS 17.
How do you cite conference proceedings in Chicago?
If you used one paper, cite that paper as a chapter in the proceedings volume (Mann in This Noble Craft is the standard teaching example). If you used the volume as a whole, cite the editors and italicize the proceedings title (Balakian and Wilhelm's ICLA 1982 volume is the standard example). CMOS 18 does not require a city of publication for modern books.
How do you cite a poster presentation in Chicago style?
Use the unpublished-presentation pattern and write "poster presented at" instead of "paper presented at." Include the poster title in quotation marks, the conference name, location if applicable, and date. A PowerPoint uses "PowerPoint presentation" in the same slot, as in the official Harper / Cogan Society example.
How do you cite a virtual conference or a recorded talk in Chicago?
For an unpublished live session with no city, give the author, title, presentation type, conference name, and date; you may use "online" or "virtual" as the location. For a posted recording you actually watched, use the live Quick Guide's Oliver virtual-lecture sample: host, post date, platform, duration, and URL (CMOS 14.167–14.169). Do not hang a YouTube link on a "paper presented at" clause.
Do I include a DOI when I cite a conference paper in Chicago?
Yes, when the version you used has one. CMOS prefers a URL based on the DOI (https://doi.org/ plus the identifier; see CMOS 13.7). IEEE and ACM proceedings almost always supply a DOI; unpublished talks usually do not. Do not mint a DOI, invent a page number the register does not show, or paste a publisher marketing URL in its place.
What is the difference between citing a conference paper in APA and in Chicago?
APA 7 italicizes an unpublished presentation title and adds a bracketed description such as [Conference presentation]. Chicago keeps the unpublished title in quotation marks and writes "paper presented at" in the sentence. APA in-text citations use (Author, Year); Chicago Author-Date drops the comma; Chicago notes use a superscript number. See the APA conference-paper guide if your assignment is APA.
Should I cite the conference paper or the later journal article?
Cite the version you actually read. If the research has been published as a journal article or book chapter, that published version is the recoverable, preferred source. The Teplin AP-LS talk and the 2005 Pediatrics article are a worked case: same research program, different object, and even a different fourth author. Cite the talk only when it is the version you used.
Is Chicago 17th or 18th edition current for conference citations in 2026?
The 18th edition (September 2024) is current. The conference-specific change is the dropped parentheses around presentation details. Some departments still accept 17th-edition forms if a handout has not been revised. When the assignment does not name an edition, use CMOS 18.

Generate a Chicago conference-paper citation

Create a CMOS 18 Notes-Bibliography or Author-Date citation for a paper, poster, or proceedings chapter, then compare the parentheses, the publisher city, and the DOI with the official examples above.

Conference paper citation generator →Chicago citation generator →