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Citing Sources

Referencing, avoiding plagiarism, and presentation of the Chicago Style

Text Citations

An author-date citation in the text or at the end of a block quotation consists of the surname of the author, followed by the year of publication of the work in question. There is no punctuation between the author and the date. Abbreviations such as ed. are omitted. Author-date citations must match exactly, both in name and date, with the corresponding entries in the reference list, and there must be an entry for each textual citation.

Example
(Gourévitch 2006)
(Steven and Gunaratna 2004)

When a specific page is cited, it follows the date, preceded by a comma.

Example
(Gourévitch 2006, 57)

Author-date citations are usually placed just before a punctuation mark.

Reference List

A reference list is usually placed at the end of a work, before the index, if there is one. Since text citations consist of the author's surname and the date of publication, a reference list is always alphabetical, rarely divided into sections, and the date of publication appears immediately after the name.

Book
Last Name, First Name. Date of publication. Title: Subtitle. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example
Gourévitch, Jean-Paul. 2006. La France en Afrique: cinq siècles de présence;  vérités et mensonges. Paris: Acropole.

Journal Articles
Last Name, First Name. Date of publication. "Title of the article". Title of the periodical volume, number (month or season of publication): page reference. URL or DOI.

Example
Farr, Vanessa. 2006. "Scared half to death: The gendered impacts of prolific small arms". Contemporary Security Policy 27 (April): 45-59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13523260600602263.

E-books

The citation must follow the general recommendations for citing books, and include the format of the e-book (e-pub, PDF...) and the URL if the book was consulted online at the end of the citation.

Example (bibliography):
Grainger, John D., The Battle for Syria, 1918-1920. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2013. PDF. www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt24hfx6