Cite a book in Chicago (author-date)
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Citation fields
Books are the simplest source type to cite, but they still trip people up on edition numbers, editor vs author roles, and where the publisher city goes. Chicago (author-date) (17th ed.) has clear rules, and once you know them a book reference takes under a minute to format by hand.
Chicago (author-date) rules for a book
- Author last name comes first, with initials or first name depending on the style.
- Year of publication goes right after the author block, in parentheses for author-date styles.
- Book title is italicized, sentence case for APA, title case for MLA/Chicago/Harvard.
- Publisher name appears after the title; no need for the publisher city in APA 7.
- Include the edition number in parentheses after the title if it is not the first edition.
- Chicago author-date keeps the publisher city: 'City: Publisher, Year'.
Worked example
Chicago (author-date) · bookA real book formatted using the Chicago (author-date) rules above.
Sagan, Carl. 1995. *The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark*. New York: Ballantine Books.
Build your own Chicago (author-date) reference
Paste a URL, DOI, or ISBN into the generator at the top of this page. It is already set to Chicago (author-date).