Skip to Main Content

Chicago Citation Style: Books, Book Chapters, Reference Book Entries

Books

  • Personal authors and editors: if the author is also an editor, add ed. for one editor and eds. for more than one editor.
  • Title: italicize the author (and subtitle if available) and give it in full as it appears in the source. Capitalize the first word of the title and subtitle and all principal words.
  • City: include only the first city. If the city may be confused with another city of the same name, add the abbreviation of the state, province, or (sometimes) country (example: Waterloo, ON). However, if the state or province name is part of the publisher’s name, the abbreviation is not needed (example: Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press). When the place of publication is not known, use n.p
  • Publisher: Write publishers’ names in full, but omit words like Company (Co.), Corporation (Corp.), Incorporated (Inc.), and Limited (Ltd.); retain words like Sons, Brothers, Books and Press. For example: Macmillan (not Macmillan Publishing Co.); W. W. Norton (not W. W. Norton & Company).
  • Date: For books, use only the year. If there is no date, use n.d.

  • DOI: Always include the DOI if available as the mode of access. For ebooks from library databases that do NOT have a DOI, include the name of the database instead. For ebooks accessed directly online (i.e. not through a database) with no DOI, give the URL. For ebooks read on a device, include the name of the device. 

    When citing an ebook that does not have fixed page numbers, use a chapter number, section heading or another reference marker in the footnote.

    ABOUT THE DOI: the current preferred format for ALL DOI hyperlinks uses https://doi.org/ as the prefix. Older works may use previous formats (e.g., “http:/dx.doi.org/” or “doi:” or “DOI:” before the DOI number). Standardize all your DOI hyperlinks into the current preferred format in your reference list

Example - Book with one author or editor
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.23 & 14.76

 

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Work: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

 

Creese, Gillian Laura. The New African Diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, Exclusion, and Belonging. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011.

                                                                                                         

1. Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

1. Gillian Laura Creese, The New African Diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, Exclusion, and Belonging (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), 32.

2. Creese, The New African Diaspora, 39.

 
Example - Book with two or three authors or editors
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.23 & 14.76 

 First Author Last Name, First Name, Second Author First Name Last Name, and Third Author First Name Last Name. Title of Book: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. 

 

Bramadat, Paul, and Matthias Koenig, eds. International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity.  Kingston, ON: Queen's University School of Policy Studies, 2009.

Hoefnagels, Anna, Judith Klassen, and Sherry Johnson, eds. Musical Expressions in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019.                          

1. First Author First Name Last Name, Second Author First Name Last Name, and Third Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

1. Paul Bramadtat and Mattias Koenig, eds., International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity (Kingston, ON: Queen's University School of Policy Studies, 2009), 227.

2. Anna Hoefnagels, Judith Klassen, and Shery Johnson, eds., Musical Expressions in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2019), 55.

 

3. Bramadat and Koenig, International Migration, 242.

4. Hoefnagels, Klassen, and Shery, Musical Expressions, 61.

  
Example - Book with more than three authors or editors
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.23 & 14.76

 

 First Author Last Name, First Name, Second Author First Name Last Name, Third Author First Name Last Name, and Fourth Author First Name Last Name. Title of Work: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. 

 

Dvoskin, Joel A., Jennifer L. Skeem, Raymond W. Novaco, and Kevin S. Douglas, eds. Using Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

                                                                                      

1. First Author First Name Last Name et al., Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

                                                                                                

1. Joel A. Dvoskin et al., eds., Using Social Science to Reduce Violent Offending (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 105.

2. Dvoskin et al., Using Social Science, 122.

  
Example - Book with an organization as an author
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.84

 

Name of Organization. Title of Book: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. 

 

World Health Organization. Traditional Herbal Remedies for Primary Health Care. New Delhi: World Health Organization, 2010.             

1. Name of Organization, Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

1. World Health Organization, Traditional Herbal Remedies for Primary Health Care (New Delhi: World Health Organization, 2010), 65.

2. World Health Organization, Traditional Herbal Remedies, 73.

 
  • For more info on authors, editors, titles, dates, publishers and DOI/URL/databases, look under the tab Books 
  • Placement of the page numbers is different in the bibliography entry.
Example - Book Chapter in single-author book, print
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.23

 

Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Book, page range of chapter. Place of Publication: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication.

 

Brower, Kate Andersen. “Backstairs Gossip and Mischief." In The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, 207–22. New York: Harper, 2015.       

 Author First Name Last Name, "Title of Chapter," in Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.                   

 

1. Kate Andersen Brower, “Backstairs Gossip and Mischief,” in The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House (New York: Harper, 2015), 211.

2. Brower, “Backstairs Gossip," 220.

 
Example - Book Chapter from multi-author edited book, print
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.23 & 14.107 

 

Chapter Author Last Name,  First Name. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Book: Subtitle, edited by Editor First Name Last Name, page range of chapter. # ed. if available. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.  

 

Brooks, Steven. "Imagining Each Other." In Canada and the United States: Differences That Count, edited by David M. Thomas and David N. Biette, 23-45. 4th ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.

 

                                                                                               

1. Chapter Author First Name Last Name, "Title of Chapter," in Title of Book: Subtitle, ed. Editor First Name Last Name, # ed. if available (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page #.                                  

 

1. Steven Brooks, "Imagining Each Other," in Canada and the United States: Differences That Count, ed. David M. Thomas and David N. Biette, 4th ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), 30.

2. Brooks, "Imagining Each Other," 39.

 

 

  • Mode of Access: Always include the DOI if available as the mode of access. For ebooks from library databases that do NOT have a DOI, include the name of the database instead. For ebooks accessed directly online (i.e not through a database) with no DOI, give the URL. For ebooks read on a device, include the name of the device. 

  • When citing an ebook that does not have fixed page numbers, use a chapter number, section heading or another reference marker in the footnote.

  • ABOUT THE DOI: the current preferred format for ALL DOI hyperlinks uses https://doi.org/ as the prefix. Older works may use previous formats (e.g., “http:/dx.doi.org/” or “doi:” or “DOI:” before the DOI number). Standardize all your DOI hyperlinks into the current preferred format in your reference list

Example - Ebook
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.107 & 14.59-14.163

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Work: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Mode of Access.

With DOI:

Salter, Diane. Cases on Quality Teaching Practices in Higher Education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3663-3.

Askari, Hossein. Collaborative Colonialism: The Political Economy of Oil in the Persian Gulf.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.  https://doi.or/10.1057/9781137353771.

 

From a database, no DOI: 

Nickerson, Billeh. McPoems. Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009. Proquest.

Arrow, Kenneth J., Kristen Renwick Monroe, and Nicholas Monroe Lampros.  On Ethics and Economics: Conversations with Kenneth J. Arrow. New York: Routledge, 2016. Proquest.

 

From the open internet, no DOI: 

Brooker, Bertram. Think of the Earth. Toronto: Nelson & Sons, 1936. http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/brookerb-thinkoftheearth/brookerb-thinkoftheearth-00-e.epub.

 

From an ebook reader:

Begley, Adam. Updike. New York: Harper, 2014. iBooks.

   

1. Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #, Mode of Access.

 

1. Diane Salter, Cases on Quality Teaching Practices in Higher Education (Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013), 38, https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3663-3.

2. Hossein Askari, Collaborative Colonialism: The Political Economy of Oil in the Persian Gulf (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), chap. 3, https://doi.or/10.1057/9781137353771.

3. Billeh Nickerson, McPoems (Vancouver, BC: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009), 41, Proquest.

4. Kenneth J. Arrow, Kristen Renwick Monroe, and Nicolas Monroe Lampros, On Ethics and Economics: Conversations with Kenneth J. Arrow (New York: Routledge, 2016) 75, Proquest.

5. Bertram Brooker, Think of the Earth (Toronto: Nelson & Sons, 1936), 96, http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/brookerb-thinkoftheearth/brookerb-thinkoftheearth-00-e.epub.

6. Adam Begley, Updike (New York: Harper, 2014), 85.

7. Salter, Cases on Quality Teaching, 47.

8. Askari, Collaborative Colonialism, chap. 3.

9. Nickerson, McPoems, 63.

10. Arrow, Monroe, and Lampros, On Ethics and Economics, 56.

11. Brooker, Think of the Earth, 105.

12. Begley, Updike, 96.

 

 

  • For more info on authors, editors, titles, dates, publishers and DOI/URL/databases, look under the tab Books 
  • Placement of the page numbers is different in the bibliography entry.
Example - Chapter in multi-author book, from a database or the Web with DOI
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.107 & 14.161

 

Chapter Author Last Name,  First Name. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Book: Subtitle, edited by Editor First Name Last Name, page range of chapter. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. DOI.

 

Ehrenfeld, John A. "The Roots of Unsustainability." In The Handbook of Design for Sustainability, edited by Stuart Walker and Jacques Giard, 15-26. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474294102.ch-001.

                                           

1. Chapter Author First Name Last Name, "Title of Chapter," in Title of Book: Subtitle, ed. Editor First Name Last Name (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #, DOI.

 

1. John A. Ehrenfeld, "The Roots of Unsustainability," in The Handbook of Design for Sustainability, ed. Stuart Walker and Jacques Giard (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 17, https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-366.

2. Ehrenfeld, "The Roots," 18.
Example - Chapter in multi-author book, from a database (no DOI) 
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.107, 14.159-14.163

 

Chapter Author Last Name,  First Name. "Title of Chapter." In Title of Book: Subtitle, edited by Editor First Name Last Name, page range of chapter. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.  Database Name.

 

Atwood, Margaret. “To the Light House.” In The Worlds of Carol Shields, edited by David Staines, 5-8. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2014. DesLibris.

Miki, Art. "The Internment of Japanese Canadians: A Human Rights Violation." In Civilian Internment In Canada: Histories and Legacies, edited by Rhonda L. Hinther and Jim Mochoruk, 391-412. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2020. DesLibris.

1. Chapter Author First Name Last Name, "Title of Chapter," In Title of Book: Subtitle, ed. Editor First Name Last Name (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page #. Database Name.                   

 

1. Margaret Atwood, “To the Light House,” in The Worlds of Carol Shields, ed. David Staines (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2014), 7, DesLibris.

2. Atwood, "To the Light House," 8.

3. Art Miki, "The Internment of Japanese Canadians: A Human Rights Violation," in Civilian Internment In Canada: Histories and Legacies, ed. Rhonda L. Hinther and Jim Mochoruk (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2020), 395, DesLibris.

4. Miki, "The Internment," 398.

 

 

  • if the edition is not the first, you need to include this information after the title, for example 2nd ed., 3rd ed., rev. ed.
  • For more info on authors, editors, titles, dates, publishers and DOI/URL/databases, look under the tab Books
Example - Edition other than the first
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.113

 

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle.  Edition info. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. 

 

Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

                                                            

1. Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book: Subtitle, edition info (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

1. William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed. (New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2000), 152.

2. Strunk, The Elements of Style,158.
Example - Specific volume
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

 

 

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle.  Volume #, Title of Volume, edited by First name Last Name. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. 

 

Eicher, Joanne B., ed. Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Vol. 3, The United States and Canada, edited by Phyllis G. Tortora. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.

       

Note: Eicher is the series editor; Tortora is the editor of volume 3.                                   

1. Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book: Subtitle, volume #, Title of Volume, ed. First Name Last Name (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

1. Joanne B. Eicher, ed., Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, vol. 3, The United States and Canada, ed. Phyllis G. Tortora (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014), 57.

2. Eicher, Encyclopedia, 58. 
Example - Specific volume
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

 

 

Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle.  Volume #, Title of Volume, edited by First name Last Name. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. 

 

Grene, David, and Richmond Lattimore, eds. The Complete Greek Tragedies. 3rd ed., edited by Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most. 9 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013

   

Note: Grene and Richmond are the editors of the original volumes; Griffith and Most are the editors of the 3rd. edition.                                   

1. Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book: Subtitle, volume #, Title of Volume, ed. First Name Last Name (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

2. David Grene and Richmond Lattimore, eds., The Complete Tragedies, 3rd ed., ed. Mark Griffith and Glenn W. Most (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 5:57.

2. Grene and Richmond, Complete Tragedies, 5:58. 
  • Well known reference books are only put in Notes and publication information is omitted (see examples 1, 2, 3 below for Encyclopaedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster and Wikipedia).
  • Use s.v. (sub verbo, “under the word”) before the entry title.
  • For online sources include a posted publication or revision date for the entry; a time stamp may also be included for frequently updated resources (see the Wikipedia example); if no date is available, supply an access date.
  • Give full citation information for lesser known reference sources (see examples 4 and 5 below)
Example - Well known reference books in print
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.232

No bibliographic entry needed

                                                                                                         

1. Reference Book Name, # ed. (Year of Publication), s.v. "Title of Entry." 

 

1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed. (2003), s.v. "Hockey."  

2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, s.v. "Hockey."  
Example - Well known reference books online
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.232-233

 

 

No bibliographic entry needed

 

 

 

                                                                                                         

1. Reference Book Name, s.v. "Title of Entry," last modified date (if available; otherwise accessed date), Mode of Access.

 

1. Merriam-Webster, s.v. "app (n.)," accessed August 20, 2020, http://merriamwebster.com/dictionary/app.

2. Wikipedia, s.v. "Ice Hockey," last modified October 26, 2020, 14:22, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ice_hockey.  

3. Merriam-Webster, s.v. "app (n.)."

4. Wikipedia, s.v. "Ice Hockey."
Example - Lesser known reference books with author
Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote

Chapter

14.234

 

Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Entry." In Reference Book Title, edited by First Name Last Name of Editor. # ed. Vol. #, Volume Title if applicable. Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. 

 

Dougal, April S. "Canada Dry." In Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands, edited by Janice Jorgensen. Vol.1, Consumable Products. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994.

1. Author First Name Last Name, "Title of Entry," in Title of Reference Book: Subtitle, ed. First Name Last Name, # ed., vol. #, Volume Title if applicable  (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), s.v. "entry."                                                                                          

1. April S. Dougal, "Canada Dry," in Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands, ed. Janice Jorgensen, vol.1 Consumable Products (Detroit: St. James Press, 1994), 94-95.

2. Dougal, "Canada Dry," 95.

 


  • If a source has no date, write n.d. 
  • For more info on authors, editors, titles, dates, publishers and DOI/URL/databases, look under the tab Books 
Example - Book with no author or editor

                                                                                                                           

Chicago Manual Bibliography Footnote
            

Chapter

            

 

            

 

            		           
Title of Book: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.             

            

 

China Business Guide. 2nd ed. Singapore: Chinaknowledge Press, 2004.

            
          		                        

1. Title of Book: Subtitle (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page #.

 

1. China Business Guide, 2nd ed. (Singapore: Chinaknowledge Press, 2004), 128. 

            

2. China Business Guide, 135.