Create a spot-on reference in Chicago 18, 17 and 16
Chicago Style – author-date (17th ed.) stipulates the following rules for placing and ordering references in a list of references:
- The references in a bibliography should be ordered alphabetically.
- For several references with the same first author, put first the reference where this person is the only author. The rest of sources with this author are sorted alphabetically by the last names of the subsequent authors.
- If a bibliography contains multiple works by the same author, order such references chronologically from oldest to newest, in contrast to Chicago Style – notes and bibliography, where alphabetical sorting applies in this case. Give the name of the author only in the first reference and replace it with three long dashes in the subsequent references. This rule also applies to editors, compilers, or translators, if their names are given at the beginning of the reference (do not omit the elements designating the roles of such contributors: ed(s)., comp(s)., etc.).
- For multiple works by the same author published during the same year, add a Latin minuscule from 'a' to 'z' to the year value of each such source for distinguishing them and order the references alphabetically by title.
The Chicago Manual of Style does not provide any explicit recommendations on how to format a bibliography page (indents, spacing, margins, fonts, etc.); therefore, contact your tutor or read the requirements of the journal where you are submitting your article for more details.
In order for you to avoid the manual ordering of sources in your list of references, we have developed the 'Sort according to citation style' option, which orders your bibliography in accordance with the rules described above and other nuances of Chicago Style – author-date (and of all other citation styles available on our website). Every bibliography created on the website Grafiati will be sorted and ordered in accordance with all the rules: it will suffice for you to copy and paste it into your paper or download as a .docx document.
Example of an ordered list of references
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1966a. The Languages of Africa. 2nd ed. New York: Humanities Press.
———. 1966b. Universals of Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Pratchett, Terry. 1988. Mort. London: Corgi.
———. 2007. The Truth. New York: HarperCollins.
Pratchett, Terry, and Neil Gaiman. 2015. Good Omens. London: Corgi.