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Chicago Author-Date Citation Generator

Enter one source to get its Chicago author-date reference, parenthetical citation and narrative citation. This tool covers Chicago's author-date system; for footnotes and a bibliography, use the Chicago Notes and Bibliography Citation Generator.

Free, no account
What are you citing?
Authors

In the order shown on the source. Leave blank if no person or organization is named.

Author 1
Author type

As the source gives them, such as Amy J.

As it appears on the source, including any subtitle after a colon, in headline-style capitals.

Date of publication

Leave blank if the source shows no date: Chicago then uses n.d.

More details (optional)

A number, such as 2. Leave blank for a first edition.

Such as 10.1086/725865, or the full https://doi.org/ link.

Only if there is no DOI.

Chicago Author-Date Reference

Fill in the form, or load the example, to see the reference and text citations.

How references are formatted

  • The year follows the author in the reference list, and the same author and year make up the text citation, so readers can match one to the other.
  • The first author is inverted. Up to six authors are listed, with “and” before the last; with more than six, the first three and “et al.”.
  • In text, one or two authors are named; three or more become the first author and “et al.”. There is no punctuation between name and year, and a comma before a page: (Yu 2020, 45).
  • Book titles are italicized; article and web page titles are in quotation marks. Journal volume, issue and pages are written 202 (4): 471–85.
  • A DOI, as a https://doi.org/ link, is preferred to a URL. Without a date, n.d. stands in for the year, and a web page gets an access date.

What the generator can't check

  • Notes and bibliography. This tool covers Chicago's author-date system only. For footnotes and a bibliography, use the Chicago Notes and Bibliography Citation Generator.
  • Same author, same year. Letters such as 2024a and 2024b depend on your whole reference list, so the generator can't assign them.
  • Capitalization and short titles. Titles are used as you type them; headline style and shortened titles need your judgment.
  • Other sources and contributors. Chapters, editors, translators, news articles and other formats aren't supported yet.
  • Your instructions. An instructor or publisher may require changes to standard Chicago; their instructions come first.
  • Whether the details are right. The generator formats what you enter; check names, dates and numbers against the source.

Privacy

Your citation is generated entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to ResearchKit or anyone else, or stored.