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Chicago Author-Date Citation Style

Formatting In Text Citations

Chicago Author-Date style is a parenthetical style like APA, and is commonly used social science, anthropology, politics, economics, and other disciplines that rely on secondary sources and material that has been recently published. That is the style covered by this guide.

Author-Date citations appear in text, within parentheses at the end of the phrase referring to the source. The reference list provides all the bibliographical information on the source, so the in-text citation only requires only the author's last name and the publication year. The page number is only given if a specific quotation or section of a source is referenced.

This is the sentence that I am citing (Smith 2016).

This is the sentence that I am citing (Smith and Jones 2016).

The page number is only given if a specific quotation or section of a source is referenced.

According to Smith, "we have much to learn on this topic" (2016, 10).

More Online Guides

Quick guides for basic citation questions, including both parenthetical and footnote citations

Sample papers