Which Chicago edition is supported?

Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (2017), the current standard. The tool uses the author-date variant; the notes-bibliography variant is similar but uses footnote callouts instead of in-text parenthetical citations.

Author-date or notes-bibliography?

The tool emits author-date entries. They are the most common in the sciences and social sciences. Use them with in-text references like (Smith 2024, 120).

How are 4+ authors handled?

Lists of four or more collapse to "First Author et al." in the bibliography. The tool applies this rule automatically.

Do I need a publication city for journals?

No — city only matters for books in Chicago author-date. The tool omits the city field for non-book sources.

How are DOIs formatted?

As a clickable resolver URL using https://doi.org/ followed by the bare DOI. Any URL prefix in your input is stripped so you do not get a doubled-up link.

Chicago Citation Tool

Generate Chicago 17 author-date citations for books, journals, websites, and newspaper articles.

Written by Golam Rabbani, Founder & Lead Engineer

This interactive tool requires JavaScript. Read the formula and worked example below; you can compute the result by hand.

How to use this chicago citation tool

Pick the source type — Book, Journal article, Website, or Newspaper article.
Enter the author(s); separate multiple authors with semicolons.
Add the year, title, and source-specific fields (publisher, city, journal, etc.).
Press Generate Chicago citation.
Use Copy to paste the reference into your bibliography.

About this chicago citation tool

The Chicago citation tool follows the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (CMOS 17) author-date system, the variant commonly used in the sciences and social sciences. The author-date system places the year directly after the author block rather than at the end, which makes parenthetical in-text citations like (Smith 2024, 120) line up cleanly with the bibliography entry.

For books the pattern is Author. Year. Title. Edition ed. City: Publisher. For journal articles it is Author. Year. "Article Title." Journal Name volume, no. issue: pages. DOI/URL. Authors are formatted "Last, First" for the first author and "First Last" for the rest, with "and" before the final name; four or more authors collapse to "First Author et al." per CMOS 17 §15.9. DOIs are normalised to the bare identifier and prefixed with https://doi.org/ to give a clickable resolver link.

For example, with author "Jane Q. Smith", year 2024, title "Reading habits in early childhood", journal "Journal of Child Development", volume 12, issue 3, pages 120-145, and DOI 10.1000/xyz123, the tool produces: Smith, Jane Q. 2024. "Reading habits in early childhood." Journal of Child Development 12, no. 3: 120-145. https://doi.org/10.1000/xyz123.

FAQ

Which Chicago edition is supported?: Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (2017), the current standard. The tool uses the author-date variant; the notes-bibliography variant is similar but uses footnote callouts instead of in-text parenthetical citations.
Author-date or notes-bibliography?: The tool emits author-date entries. They are the most common in the sciences and social sciences. Use them with in-text references like (Smith 2024, 120).
How are 4+ authors handled?: Lists of four or more collapse to "First Author et al." in the bibliography. The tool applies this rule automatically.
Do I need a publication city for journals?: No — city only matters for books in Chicago author-date. The tool omits the city field for non-book sources.
How are DOIs formatted?: As a clickable resolver URL using https://doi.org/ followed by the bare DOI. Any URL prefix in your input is stripped so you do not get a doubled-up link.