Common Citation Issues

11. Author Sequence

The rules for one author are listed in the Chicago Citation Guide. For works with more than one author, follow the rules below.

Two or Three Authors: give all author names in both the footnote and bibliography

1. First Last and First Last, Title of Book (Publishing City: Publisher, Date), page #.

Last, First and First Last. Title of Book. Publishing city: Publisher, date.

Four or more authors: In the footnote, give the first author's name followed by "et. al." In the bibliography, list all author's names.

1. First Last et. al., Title of Book (Publishing City: Publisher, Date), page #.

Last, First, First Last, First Last, and First Last. Title of Book. Publishing city: Publisher, date.

Middle names, initials, and suffixes

Egan, William. (one author, no middle name or initial)

Egan William, and David Gusitsch. (two authors, no middle name or initial)

Jagger, Mick, and Keith Richards. (two authors, no middle name or initial)

Harris, Neal P. (one author with middle initial)

Harris, Neal Patrick. (one author with middle name)

Egan, William J., and Neal P. Harris. (two authors with middle initials)

Egan, William James, and Neal Patrick Harris. (two authors with middle names)

Connick, Harry, Jr. (suffix)

King, Martin Luther, Jr. (middle name and suffix)

*Remember that the order of names changes in the footnote.

10. Corporate Author

Do not reverse corporate authors. Associated Press is correct. (not Press, Associated). A corporate author is a tricky concept. The Central Intelligence Agency is the author of The World Factbook, but a periodical such as New York Times is never listed as a corporate author. On the other hand, the Associated Press, which is a news agency, is a corporate author. United States government agencies are tricky. Use the agency as a corporate author and the United States as the publisher. There are often agencies within agencies (e.g., Choose My Plate -> Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion -> Department of Agriculture -> United States.) This complicates the container listing. If you are confused, ask for help.

Also, several websites provide incorrect recommendations for citations. Biography.com, History.com, and Encyclopaedia Britannica are just three of the many websites that lead students astray on citations. This is especially relevant when it comes to the corporate author piece. History.com suggests that you include “History.com Staff” as the corporate author. Encyclopedia Britannica makes a similar recommendation on their Cite link. Don’t do what they tell you! Just skip the author and start with the title of the article.

18. Source Type

In Chicago citation style, each different type of source has a different citation. Make sure that you are using the correct format for each type of source. We should be able to tell what type of source it is based on the citation.

Databases will often cite sources incorrectly because they will be citing them as a different type of source; for example, they will cite a magazine article as a journal.

Remember that if a primary source fits another category, like a newspaper or magazine article, it should be cited as that type of source.

19. Sequence

The elements in this citation are not in the correct order for this source type. Check the guide to get them in the correct order.

Check out the guide for more help: http://bit.ly/ChicagoCitationGuide

7. Missing Information

A properly cited source implicitly identifies the resource type (e.g., magazine, journal, newspaper, website, book, e-Book, etc.). This one does not. Make sure that you are using the correct citation format for that specific type of resource: https://webbschool.libguides.com/UScitations/Chicago

If you still aren’t sure what type of resource it is, ask your instructor or a librarian.

8. Extra Information

Citations include more information than what is called for. Often, when students copy and paste the URL from a citation generator or a database to create a citation, the generator lumps extra information into the title.

For example, databases often cite magazine articles the same way as journal articles even though in Chicago they are cited differently.

Make sure that you are citing the correct type of source and not including extra info.

5. Citation Style

Change into Chicago. You may have used MLA or APA (Usually happens when the wrong database citation is copied and pasted. MLA does not include the publication place, and APA has the date in parentheses.

20. Databases & Permalinks

When citing something that you found in a database, you need to include both the name of the database and the permalink for that item. Database names are not italicized in Chicago format.

When you go to college, they might allow you to use the DOI, but here at Webb your teachers want the database name and permalink.

Example:

Last, First. “Article Title.” Magazine Title, Publication Date, page range. Database name. URL.

For databases, make sure that you use the actual database name. Ebsco and Gale are not database names, they are companies that run several separate databases. The pictures below show where to find the specific database name. These examples show Gale in Context: Biography, from the Gale company, and Advanced Placement Source, from the Ebsco company.

14. URLs

Make sure that you link directly to the source itself and not just the database.

Web sources: Remove hyperlinks and omit “greater than” and “less than” symbols < >.

15. Page Numbers

Do not include a p. or pp. when placing page numbers into your citation or footnotes - only write the number.

Scott, Margaret Loraine. "Conflict, Violence, and Terrorism: Health Impacts." In Worldmark Global Health and Medicine Issues, edited by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 110-17. Boston, MA: Gale, 2016.

13. Date Format

Date is required in every citation - if you don't have a publication date, you need to have an access date.

For books, only include the year. Use the most recent year that you see on the publisher page, usually next to the copyright symbol.

For journals, magazines, newspapers, and web sources, fully write out any dates that you have (February 13, 2010). If you don’t have a full date, write Month Year (February 2010) or just include the year.

For database sources, you do not need a date of access if you have a publication date.

For web sources, if using a last modified or accessed date, denote that in your citation. At Webb, your teachers also want you to include an access date at the end of your citation for any web sources that didn't come from a database.

Bibliography

Gibney, Mark, and Gil Loescher. Global Refugee Crisis. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2010.

Murtaza, Naqsh. "The Harrowing Road to Asylum." New York Times, August 22, 2015. Global Issues in Context.

Scott, Margaret Loraine. "Conflict, Violence, and Terrorism: Health Impacts." In Worldmark Global Health and Medicine Issues, edited by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 110-17. Boston, MA: Gale, 2016.

"Women and Girls." Refugees International, last modified October 12, 2015. www.refugeesinternational.org/ Women-girls. Accessed January 22, 2017.

16. Domain Name Extension

Omit domain extensions from website names (.org, .com, .edu, etc.)

Wrong:

"Women and Girls." Refugees International.org, last modified October 12, 2015. www.refugeesinternational.org/ Women-girls.

Correct:

"Women and Girls." Refugees International, last modified October 12, 2015. www.refugeesinternational.org/ Women-girls.