Cite a website in Chicago (author-date)
Citing a plain website in Chicago (author-date) is harder than it looks because most pages lack a clear author, date, or publisher. Chicago (author-date) (17th ed.) tells you what to do when those fields are missing, and how to format the access date when the page might change later.
Chicago (author-date) rules for a website
- Use the page author if there is one, otherwise the organisation, otherwise the page title.
- Use the publication date if visible, otherwise the copyright year, otherwise n.d.
- Page title is in quotes, site name (container) is italicized.
- Include the full URL at the end without a trailing period in APA.
- Add an access or retrieval date if the page content is likely to change.
- Author-date format uses '(accessed Month DD, YYYY)' before the URL.
Worked example
Chicago (author-date) · websiteA real website formatted using the Chicago (author-date) rules above.
NASA. 2024. "About NASA." NASA. accessed January 15, 2025. https://www.nasa.gov/about/.
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