Online video: how to cite in Chicago Style – author-date (17th ed.)?

Create a spot-on reference in Chicago 18, 17 and 16

Select a source type:

General rules

To create a bibliographic reference to an online video in Chicago Style – author-date (17th ed.), collect the following data from the cited material: name of the video’s author (it may be the title of the channel, the person who uploaded the video, or another person credited as the author in the video), title of the video, title of the website where the video was published, date of publication, video duration, and the video’s URL address.

Just as in the other system of Chicago Style – Notes and bibliography, – if the video features a recording of another standalone work, provide the details of such a work in the bibliographic reference. See more in this article.

Use the following template for a bibliographic reference to an online video:

Author. Year. "Video Title." Recording detailsWebsite Titledate of publication. Video, duration. URL.

The date when the webpage was accessed is usually omitted, except cases when the material’s date of publication is unknown.

Examples in a list of references

History Vids. 2015. "Battle of Waterloo in 2 Minutes." YouTube, 7 February 2015. Video, 2:08. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8c-VtXwBtI.

Atlas. 2016. "Barcelona Design Museum." Vimeo, 13 December 2016. Video, 0:54. https://vimeo.com/195432980.

Other citation styles: