CHICAGO 18TH EDITION GUIDE
Chicago Notes & Bibliography: 18th Edition Guide
Chicago Notes & Bibliography cites sources with numbered footnotes or endnotes and usually includes a bibliography at the end of the work. It is the Chicago system most strongly associated with history, literature, the arts, and other humanities fields.
SHORT ANSWER
A source can appear in three related forms: a full note, a shortened note, and a bibliography entry. The exact information and punctuation change depending on which form you are creating. Need the citation rather than the rules? Use the Chicago Citation Generator and select Notes & Bibliography to create full notes, shortened notes, and bibliography entries from the same reviewed source.
ON THIS PAGE
- How does Chicago Notes & Bibliography work?
- What is a Chicago note?
- What is the difference between a full note, shortened note, and bibliography entry?
- Do I need a full note the first time I cite a source?
- What information goes in a Chicago full note?
- How do shortened notes work in Chicago 18?
- Does Chicago still use “ibid.”?
How does Chicago Notes & Bibliography work?
The system connects a raised note number in your text to a numbered footnote at the bottom of the page or an endnote elsewhere in the document.
A typical workflow looks like this:
Text with superscript note number ↓ Full or shortened note ↓ Bibliography entry
The note tells the reader what source supports a particular statement and can point to the exact page, chapter, section, paragraph, timestamp, or other location being cited.
The bibliography identifies the source as a whole and makes it easier to find among the other works used in the paper.
If your assignment requires parenthetical citations such as (Bennett 2025, 73) rather than numbered notes, you need Chicago Author-Date instead.
What is a Chicago note?
A Chicago note is the source citation attached to a numbered reference in the text.
For example:
Historical interpretation often changes when newly available archival sources are examined.¹
The superscript 1 directs the reader to note 1.
That note may appear:
- at the bottom of the page as a footnote; or
- in a separate notes section as an endnote.
The citation itself is formatted the same basic way whether it appears as a footnote or an endnote, although the surrounding document layout differs.
For detailed guidance on note placement, note numbers, full versus shortened notes, and locators, see the dedicated Chicago Footnotes guide.
What is the difference between a full note, shortened note, and bibliography entry?
These three forms describe the same source for different purposes.
Full note
A full note provides detailed publication information.
Fictional book example
Maya Bennett, Cities at Dusk (Northfield Press, 2025), 73.
Shortened note
A shortened note identifies a source that has already been established or can otherwise be identified from the surrounding citation system.
Bennett, Cities at Dusk, 81.
Bibliography entry
A bibliography entry represents the source in the alphabetical source list at the end of the work.
Bennett, Maya. Cities at Dusk. Northfield Press, 2025.
Notice three important differences:
- the full note uses the author’s normal name order;
- the bibliography inverts the first author’s name for alphabetization;
- the page number belongs to the note when it identifies the passage being cited, not automatically to the bibliography entry.
Do I need a full note the first time I cite a source?
A common student workflow is to give a full note for the first citation of a source and a shortened note for later citations. The official Chicago sample citations are presented in this full-note → shortened-note → bibliography pattern.
However, Notes & Bibliography is flexible. In some publications that include a complete bibliography, notes can be shortened more aggressively because the full source details are already available in the bibliography.
For coursework, the practical rule is simple:
follow your instructor, department, dissertation office, journal, or publisher if they specify how the first and later notes should appear.
If no special variation is required, the full-note-first pattern is clear and easy to follow.
What information goes in a Chicago full note?
The exact elements depend on the source type, but a full note normally identifies the creator, work, publication details, and the specific location being cited when relevant.
For a modern book, the basic pattern is:
**First Name Last Name, Book Title (Publisher, Year), page.**
Fictional example
Maya Bennett, Cities at Dusk (Northfield Press, 2025), 73.
For a journal article, the pattern includes the article title, journal title, volume and issue information, publication year, specific cited page, and DOI or other appropriate online location when applicable.
For a webpage, the available author or organization, page title, site information, date, and URL may be relevant.
Use the dedicated source guides for complete source-specific rules:
- Chicago Book Citation
- Chicago Journal Article Citation
- Chicago Website Citation
- Chicago Book Chapter Citation
How do shortened notes work in Chicago 18?
A shortened note removes details that are no longer needed to identify the source.
Chicago’s regular short form is the author-title form:
**Last Name, Shortened Title, locator.**
For the fictional book above:
Bennett, Cities at Dusk, 81.
For a journal article or chapter, the shortened title remains in quotation marks:
Cho, “Memory and Public Space,” 219.
Chicago 18 clarifies that shortened citations used instead of ibid. may take three forms depending on context:
- author + title;
- author only;
- title only.
The author-title form remains Chicago’s regular short form and is the clearest default for a general-purpose citation generator.
For more examples and repeated-citation cases, see Chicago Footnotes.
Does Chicago still use “ibid.”?
Chicago still recognizes ibid., but shortened citations are often clearer because they identify the source directly instead of making the reader look back to the previous note.
For example:
Clear shortened note
Bennett, Cities at Dusk, 81.
A shortened note remains understandable even when notes are moved, inserted, deleted, or separated during revision.
If your instructor or publisher specifically prefers ibid., follow that requirement. Otherwise, the regular author-title short form is a practical default.
How do page numbers and other locators work?
A locator identifies the particular place in a source that supports your statement.
The most familiar locator is a page number:
Bennett, Cities at Dusk, 81.
But Chicago notes can also identify other locations when pages are unavailable or not the most useful unit.
Examples include:
- page or page range;
- chapter;
- section;
- paragraph;
- volume;
- figure;
- line;
- document number;
- timestamp.
Why locators should stay separate from source metadata
Suppose you use the same book three times:
- first citation: page 73;
- second citation: page 81;
- third citation: chapter 6.
The source is still the same book.
Only the citation occurrence has changed.
That is why the Chicago Citation Generator treats the cited page or location separately from the permanent source record. You can change the locator without creating a duplicate book.
How should a Chicago bibliography be formatted?
A bibliography is the alphabetical list of sources associated with the Notes & Bibliography system.
Bibliography entries normally:
- begin with the author or other element used for alphabetization;
- invert the first Western-order personal name;
- use periods between major citation elements more often than notes do;
- omit note-specific locators such as the particular page you quoted from a book;
- use a hanging indent in the formatted bibliography.
For the fictional example:
Bennett, Maya. Cities at Dusk. Northfield Press, 2025.
The detailed mechanics of alphabetical ordering, hanging indents, repeated authors, works without authors, and multiple works by the same creator belong in the Chicago Bibliography guide.
Does every source in a note need to appear in the bibliography?
Not necessarily.
Chicago Notes & Bibliography is flexible enough to handle sources that are best documented in notes only.
Examples can include certain:
- personal communications;
- reader comments;
- informal or ephemeral sources;
- sources described sufficiently in the text or notes.
The official Chicago examples, for instance, treat personal communications as sources that are usually cited in the text or a note rather than included in a bibliography.
Your bibliography requirements can also depend on your instructor or publisher.
For conventional books, journal articles, chapters, and other research sources, a bibliography entry is usually appropriate when a bibliography is required.
How are authors handled in Chicago 18 Notes & Bibliography?
Chicago 18 changed the author thresholds.
In notes
For one author:
List the author.
For two authors:
List both authors.
For three or more authors:
**List the first author followed by et al..**
In bibliography entries
For one to six authors:
List all authors.
For more than six authors:
**List the first three followed by et al..**
| Number of authors | Note | Bibliography |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 author | 1 author |
| 2 | Both authors | Both authors |
| 3–6 | First author + et al. | List all |
| 7+ | First author + et al. | First 3 + et al. |
These thresholds are an important Chicago 18 change. Older handouts and generators may still show 17th-edition author rules.
See Chicago 18th Edition for other changes that affect current citations.
How are author names ordered in notes and bibliographies?
In a note, a Western-order personal name normally appears in its natural order:
Maya Bennett
In the bibliography, the first such author is inverted for alphabetization:
Bennett, Maya
For multiple authors, the remaining names are generally not inverted in the same way as the first.
Chicago 18 also clarifies that names that naturally follow Eastern order, with the family name first, are not normally inverted simply to make them resemble Western-order names.
The goal is to preserve the appropriate name order while still making the bibliography usable.
How do book citations work in Notes & Bibliography?
A modern book citation usually needs the author, title, publisher, year, and a specific locator in the note when one is relevant.
Full note
Maya Bennett, Cities at Dusk (Northfield Press, 2025), 73.
Shortened note
Bennett, Cities at Dusk, 81.
Bibliography
Bennett, Maya. Cities at Dusk. Northfield Press, 2025.
Chicago 18 no longer normally requires a place of publication for modern book citations.
For edited books, translated books, editions, ebooks, multiple authors, and books without standard publication details, see the Chicago Book Citation guide.
How do journal article citations work?
A journal article citation normally identifies:
- author;
- article title;
- journal title;
- volume;
- issue;
- year;
- specific cited page in the note;
- full article page range or article identifier in the bibliography when applicable;
- DOI-based URL or other appropriate online location.
Fictional example
Full note
Daniel Cho and Elena Ruiz, “Memory and Public Space,” Journal of Urban History 51, no. 2 (2025): 214, https://doi.org/10.0000/example-doi.
Shortened note
Cho and Ruiz, “Memory and Public Space,” 219.
Bibliography
Cho, Daniel, and Elena Ruiz. “Memory and Public Space.” Journal of Urban History 51, no. 2 (2025): 201–24. https://doi.org/10.0000/example-doi.
The DOI above is intentionally fictional and shown only to demonstrate citation structure.
For real journal metadata, DOI handling, article page ranges, article identifiers, and multi-author examples, use the Chicago Journal Article Citation guide.
How do book chapter citations work?
When you cite a chapter written by one person inside an edited book, the chapter and the book are separate levels of the citation.
You may need:
- chapter author;
- chapter title;
- book title;
- editor or editors;
- publisher;
- year;
- specific page in the note.
Chicago 18 introduced an important change: the full page range for a chapter is no longer required in a standard bibliography entry.
A specific page can still be important in a note when you are citing a particular passage.
See Chicago Book Chapter Citation for full note, shortened note, and bibliography examples.
How do website citations work?
Web content varies widely, so the available metadata matters.
A formal webpage citation may use:
- individual author;
- organization or site owner;
- page title;
- website title or section;
- publication, revision, or effective date;
- access date when needed;
- URL;
- archived URL in appropriate cases.
If a webpage has no publication or revision date, Chicago’s official examples show an access date as one available approach. An archived version may also be cited when useful.
See the Chicago Website Citation guide for detailed examples.
What changed in Chicago 18 for Notes & Bibliography?
Several changes directly affect this system.
More authors can appear in the bibliography
Chicago now lists up to six authors in bibliography entries. With more than six authors, the first three are listed followed by et al.
Notes shorten author lists sooner
Notes list up to two authors. With more than two, use the first author followed by et al.
Book publication place is usually omitted
Modern book citations no longer normally require the city of publication.
Chapter page ranges are no longer required in bibliography entries
A chapter’s complete page range can be omitted from a standard bibliography entry, while a specific cited page still belongs in the note when relevant.
Repeated authors are written again
Chicago now prefers repeating an author’s name in a bibliography instead of replacing it with a 3-em dash.
Shortened citations are clarified
Chicago 18 explicitly describes author-title, author-only, and title-only shortened forms, with author-title as the regular short form.
Journal month or season can usually be omitted
For journal articles, a month or season can now usually be left out.
For a complete comparison with older conventions, read Chicago 18th Edition: What Changed.
What are common Notes & Bibliography mistakes?
Mixing Author-Date into a Notes & Bibliography paper
A citation such as:
(Bennett 2025, 73)
belongs to Author-Date, not standard Notes & Bibliography.
If your paper uses numbered notes, keep the citation system consistent.
Treating a bibliography entry as a footnote
Notes and bibliography entries contain similar metadata but use different name order, punctuation, and locator treatment.
Do not paste a bibliography entry into a footnote unchanged.
Repeating the full note every time automatically
Later citations can usually be shortened once the source has been established. Use the Chicago Footnotes guide for repeated-source examples.
Putting every cited page into the bibliography
A bibliography entry for a whole book normally describes the whole book. The specific page used for a quotation or argument belongs in the relevant note.
Using outdated author thresholds
Chicago 18 uses first author + et al. in notes for three or more authors and lists up to six authors in a bibliography.
Adding the city to every modern book citation
That is an older habit. Chicago 18 no longer normally requires a place of publication for modern books.
Using a 3-em dash for repeated authors
Chicago 18 now prefers repeating the author’s name in bibliography entries.
Trusting imported metadata without checking it
Citation software can format only the metadata it receives. Review names, titles, dates, editions, publishers, journal information, DOI/URL fields, and other details before submitting your work.
Notes & Bibliography vs Author-Date
Both systems belong to Chicago, but they solve the in-text citation problem differently.
| Feature | Notes & Bibliography | Author-Date |
|---|---|---|
| In-text signal | Superscript number | Parenthetical citation |
| Citation details | Footnote or endnote | Author + year in text |
| Later citation | Shortened note | Repeat author-year citation |
| End list | Bibliography | Reference list |
| Year position in end list | Usually later in entry | Immediately after author |
| Common disciplines | Humanities | Sciences/social sciences |
If you are still deciding which system you need, start with the main Chicago Style Guide.
If your assignment specifically requires parenthetical citations, continue to Chicago Author-Date.
How to generate Notes & Bibliography citations
The Chicago Citation Generator is designed so you do not need to create three separate source records for a full note, shortened note, and bibliography entry.
1. Find or enter the source
Use a DOI, URL, ISBN, title/keywords, PMID/PubMed information, supported import, or manual entry.
2. Review the source metadata
Check:
- authors and contributors;
- title;
- publisher or journal;
- publication date;
- edition;
- volume and issue;
- DOI;
- URL;
- ISBN;
- other relevant source fields.
3. Select Notes & Bibliography
The same reviewed record can generate:
- Full Note
- Shortened Note
- Bibliography Entry
4. Add the cited location
Enter the page, chapter, section, paragraph, timestamp, or other locator needed for that citation occurrence.
Changing the locator does not change the permanent source record.
5. Copy or save the output
Copy the individual citation you need or add the source to your bibliography.
For a transparent explanation of metadata retrieval, CSL formatting, duplicate handling, and source management, read How the Chicago Citation Generator Works.
Notes & Bibliography examples by source type
For complete source-specific examples, use these guides:
- Chicago Book Citation — whole books, editions, ebooks, editors, and multiple authors.
- Chicago Journal Article Citation — DOI, journal metadata, page ranges, volume, issue, and article identifiers.
- Chicago Website Citation — authors, organizations, dates, access dates, archives, and URLs.
- Chicago Book Chapter Citation — chapter authors, editors, book titles, and Chicago 18 page-range changes.
You can also browse Chicago Citation Examples for side-by-side Notes & Bibliography and Author-Date examples.
Frequently asked questions
What is Chicago Notes & Bibliography?
Chicago Notes & Bibliography is one of Chicago’s two citation systems. It uses numbered footnotes or endnotes to cite sources and usually includes an alphabetical bibliography.
Is Notes & Bibliography the same as Chicago footnotes?
Footnotes are one part of the Notes & Bibliography system. The system also covers shortened notes, endnotes, bibliography entries, author treatment, source formatting, and other citation mechanics.
Should I use footnotes or endnotes?
Both can carry Chicago notes. Your instructor, department, journal, or publisher may specify which one to use. The citation content follows the same basic Notes & Bibliography system.
Do I need a bibliography if I have footnotes?
Usually, Notes & Bibliography includes a bibliography, but Chicago can accommodate cases where some or all source information appears only in notes. Follow the requirements for your assignment or publication.
What is a shortened Chicago note?
A shortened note is a compact citation used after a source has been established or where the fuller details are available elsewhere. Chicago’s regular short form typically uses the author and shortened title, plus a locator when relevant.
How many authors go in a Chicago 18 footnote?
A note lists up to two authors. For three or more authors, Chicago 18 uses the first author followed by et al.
How many authors go in a Chicago 18 bibliography?
List up to six authors. If there are more than six, list the first three followed by et al.
Does Chicago 18 require the city of publication for books?
No, a place of publication is no longer normally required for modern book citations.
Do I include the page I quoted in the bibliography?
For a whole book, normally no. The specific cited page belongs in the note. Journal articles are different: the bibliography normally includes the page range for the article as a whole when the article has page numbers.
Can I cite the same book at different pages?
Yes. Keep one source record and change the locator for each citation occurrence, such as page 73 in one note and page 81 in another.
Official Chicago sources
This guide was researched using current Chicago 18th-edition material, including:
- Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide
- Notes and Bibliography: Sample Citations
- What’s New in the 18th Edition
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