History: Chicago Style

NOTE: The BU History and Global studies department prefer the numbered footnotes (NB) system rather than the Author-date system so be sure to focus on that when you use these resources.

The Chicago Style is the preferred style of the Bishop's University History and Global studies department.  More precisely, they prefer the numbered footnotes (NB) system rather than the Author date system.

Citations – History & Global Studies

Historians generally use Chicago style citations. Citations and bibliographies must consist of all works used in the essay. Those from which you have quoted obviously must be included, but so must other titles that you have consulted in preparation for the essay. The proper bibliographic style is given in the following examples. Titles may be underlined or italicized.

Bibliographies

For a book:
McNeill, William. Plagues and Peoples New York: Anchor 1976.

For an article in a scholarly journal:
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. “The Myth of the English Reformation” Journal of British Studies. XXX:1 (Spring, 1991): 1-19.

For an article/chapter in a collection of essays:
Furet, Francois. “The French Revolution is Over” In The French Revolution and Intellectual History, edited by J.R. Censer.  Chicago: The Dorsey Press 1989

For a website:
Miller, Geoffrey. “The Battle of Third Ypres (Passchendaele)” <http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/ypres3.html> (November 1993)

Footnotes

Consecutively numbered footnotes at the bottom of each page or endnotes at the end of the text and before the bibliography must be used in essays. Because historians generally use Chicago style, brackets within the text, e.g. (Smith, 1990, p. 45) are NOT ACCEPTABLE.

For the first use of a work, complete author/title/publication place and date/page number(s) are furnished, e.g.:

³W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage through Armageddon: the Russians in War and Revolution 1914-1918 (New York, 1986), p. 338.

If the VERY NEXT reference is to the same work:

⁴Ibid., pp. 342-343.

If, however, the work is cited more than once, but with another title intervening, one uses a “short title” format for the second reference, and for subsequent references if they do not immediately follow, in which case Ibid. is used once more:

⁷Lincoln, Passage through Armageddon, p. 356.

Citations for articles in scholarly journals and for chapters in an edited work follow similar styles:

¹¹Barbara Engel, “Peasant Morality and Pre-Marital Relations in Late 19th Century Russia”, Journal of Social History XXIII: 4 (Summer, 1990), pp. 698-699.

“Short title” format:

¹⁵Engel, “Peasant Morality”, p. 701.

For a chapter in a collection of essays:

¹⁷Perez Zagorin, “The Leveller Theorists: Lilburne, Overton and Walwyn”, in W. Owens, ed., Seventeenth-Century Studies (New York, 1981), p. 169.

“Short title” format:

²¹Zagorin, “Leveller Theorists”, pp. 172-173.

For a website:

²⁶Geoffrey Miller, “The Battle of Third Ypres (Passchendaele)”, <http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/comment/ypres3.html> (November 1993).

“Short title” format:

²⁹Miller, “Battle of Third Ypres”.

For any questions, please consult the Chicago Manual of Style. The library has the 15th edition (2003) in the reference section. The call number is Z 253 .C48 2003.

You can also use the online citation guide: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Citing the works that were used in the creation of your research papers is imperative, as it ensures that the authors of the sources your consulted are given credit for their contribution to your knowledge.  Not citing another's work will lead the reader of your work to erroneously assume the ideas are your original thought.  This is a subtle form of PLAGIARISM. 

Simply stated, plagiarism is using someone else's works (ideas) and passing them off as your own.   Plagiarism includes but is not limited to the following practices:

• Using another's work without acknowledgement
• Copying material without quotation marks
• Paraphrasing too closely the exact words of the originating author
• Submitting as one's own work written in whole or in part by another individual 

To avoid being accused of plagiarism, properly acknowledge the sources that were consulted by using a citation style.  Using a citation style ensures that all of the citations follow the same format and the reader of your paper can easily find the information about the sources you used. 

Plagiarism is a serious offense that carries consequences.  Consult the University's regulations pertaining to academic integrity  to learn about your responsibilities.