ONLINE!

Citation Styles

Using Chicago Style to Document Sources

This chapter's guidelines for citing Internet sources are based on the principles presented in the fourteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style.¹ The Chicago Manual offers two documentation styles, one using notes and bibliographies, the other using author-date citations and lists of references. The Chicago Manual also gives guidelines for spelling and punctuation and discusses the treatment of numbers, quotations, illustrations, tables, foreign languages, mathematical symbols, abbreviations, and so on.

To mark citations in the text, the Chicago Manual's note-bibliography style places a superscript number after each quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Citations are numbered sequentially throughout the text, and each citation corresponds to a numbered note containing publication information about the source cited. Such notes are called footnotes when printed at the foot of a page and endnotes when printed at the end of an essay, chapter, or book. These notes generally serve two purposes: to cite sources and to make cross-references to previous notes. This chapter follows the conventions of the Chicago Manual's note-bibliography style.

Although the Chicago Manual provides some advice for documenting information from computerized data services, computer programs, and electronic documents, it contains no advice on documenting Internet sources. The following recommendations adapt the Chicago Manual's guidelines and models to Internet sources.

1. Introduce the source of a sort quotation, paraphrase, or summary by using either a signal phrase set off by a comma or a signal verb with a that clause.

The following example shows how signal phrases can be used to introduce cited material. (See 4e for a discussion of signal phrases and verbs.)

Here is the note for this source:

1. Brendan P. Kehoe, Zen and the Art of the Internet, January 1992, <http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_toc.html> (4 June 1999), Network Basics.

Box 7.1
Using italics and underlining in Chicago style

Chicago style recommends italicizing certain elements (e.g., book and journal titles) in printed text. Use underlining if your instructor requires it or if your typewriter or word-processing program can’t produce italics. However, the use of underlining to represent italics becomes a problem when you compose texts for online publication. On the World Wide Web, underlining in a document indicates that the underlined word or phrase is an active hypertext link. (All HTML editing programs automatically underline any text linked to another hypertext or Web site.)

When composing Web documents, avoid underlining. Instead, use italics for titles, for emphasis, and for words, letters, and numbers referred to as such. When you write with programs such as email that don’t allow italics, type an underscore mark _like this_ before and after text you would otherwise italicize or underline.

2. Link an in-text citation of an Internet source to a corresponding note.

According to Chicago style, the first note for a given source should include all the information necessary to identify and locate the source: the author's full name, the full title of the book, the name of the editor, the place of publication, the name of the publisher, the publication date, and page numbers indicating the location of the quoted information. In subsequent references to the source, give only the author's last name followed by a comma, a shortened version of the title followed by a comma, and the page reference.

Indent the first line of each note five spaces (or one paragraph indent). Begin with a number followed by a period. Leave one space before the first word of the note. If you are double-spacing your manuscript, double-space the notes as well.

Here is how you would document the first reference to a source:

According to Professor Tom Wilson, "the idea of the electronic library has emerged as a model for future systems, already implemented in some forms and to some degree in various places."¹

Here is the corresponding note:

1. Tom Wilson, "'In the Beginning Was the Word': Social and Economic Factors in Scholarly Electronic Communication," ELVIRA Conference Keynote Paper, 1009, 10 April 1995, <http://www.shef. ac.uk/~is/wilson/publications/elvira.html> (23 May 1999), Introduction.

Here is a second reference to the source:

Professor Wilson contends that "a new system of scholarly communication, based on electronic systems and networks, not only necessitates new models for the concepts of journals, library, and publishing, but also new interpersonal and institutional mores, customs, and practices."²

Here is the note:

2. Wilson, "'In the Beginning,'" Introduction.

3.	Substitute Internet text divisions for page numbers.

The Chicago Manual requires that a note include a page reference or similar information for locating material in a source. Because Internet sources are rarely marked with page numbers, you will not always be able to show exactly where cited material comes from. If a source has internal divisions, use these instead of page numbers in your citation. Be sure to use divisions inherent in the document and not those provided by your browsing software.

In the following example, the Introduction serves as a text division for an Internet source.

As TyAnna Herrington observes, "Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital provides another welcome not only into an age of technological ubiquity, but into a way of 'being' with technology."¹

Here is the note:

1. TyAnna K. Herrington, "Being Is Believing," review of Being Digital, by Nicholas Negroponte, Kairos: A Journal for Teaching Writing in Webbed Environments 1, no.1 (1996), <http://english. ttu.edu/kairos/1.1> (24 May 1999), Introduction.

Box 7.2
Using hypertext to document sources on the Web

The hypertext environment of the World Wide Web doesn’t just alter the way you do research, it also lets you document sources in a new way—by using hypertext links. Electronic journals published on the Web are already replacing traditional notes, bibliographies, appendixes, and other supporting text with links to the documents being cited. To read more about hypertext documentation, see Chapter 10 in this book. For an example of how it works, see the sample paper for this chapter (described in 7d), look at the format of the Harvard Educational Review at http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~hepg/her.html.

See 7a-2 for the basic Chicago-style models for documenting printed books and periodicals. For additional information about documenting print sources, see Chapters 15 and 16 of the Chicago Manual.

Extending the citation practice of the Chicago Manual to include Internet sources produces the following model:

1. Author's name (in normal order), document title, date of Internet publication, <URL> or other retrieval information (date of access), text division (if applicable).

This model combines the stylistic elements of Chicago-style author-date citation² with the elements necessary for identifying an Internet source. The publication date appears close to the title of the document, while the date of access follows the URL or other access information. The text division occupies the final position in the note, as page numbers would for a printed source.

Internet sources differ in the kinds of information that are important for retrieval, and the model for each type of source reflects the information needed to retrieve that source. The following models enable you to document Internet sources in a manner consistent with the principles of Chicago style.

1. World Wide Web site

To document a file available for viewing and downloading via the World Wide Web, provide the following information:

Author's name
Title of document, in quotation marks
Title of complete work (if relevant), in italics or underlined
Date of publication or last revisionD
URL, in angle brackets
Date of access, in parentheses

Personal site

1. Joseph Pellegrino, "Homepage," 12 May 1999, <http://www.english.eku.edu/pellegrino/default.htm> (12 June 1999).

Professional site

1. Gail Mortimer, The William Faulkner Society Home Page, 16 September 1999, <http://www.utep.edu/mortimer/faulkner/main faulkner.htm> (19 November 1997).

2. National Association of Investors Corporation, NAIC Online, 20 September 1999, <http://www.better-investing.org> (1 October 1999).

Book

An online book may be the electronic text of part or all of the printed book, or a book-length document available only on the Internet (e.g., a work of hyperfiction).

1. Peter J. Bryant, "The Age of Mammals," in Biodiversity and Conservation April 1999, < http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~sustain/bio65/index.html> (11 May 1999).

Article in an electronic journal (ejournal)

1. Tonya Browning, "Embedded Visuals: Student Design in Web Spaces," Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 3, no. 1 (1997), <http://english.ttu.edu/kairos /2.1/features/browning/index.html> (21 October 1999).

Article in an electronic magazine (ezine)

1. Nathan Myhrvold, "Confessions of a Cybershaman," Slate, 12 June 1997, <http://www .slate.com/CriticalMass/97-06-12/CriticalMass.asp> (19 October 1997).

Newspaper article

1. Christopher Wren, "A Body on Mt. Everest, a Mystery Half-Solved," New York Times on the Web, 5 May 1999, <http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+ site+87604+0+wAAA+%22a%7Ebody%7Eon%7Emt.%7Eeverest%22> (13 May 1999).

Review

1. Michael Parfit, review of The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest, by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt, New York Times on the Web, 7 December 1997, <http://search.nytimes.com/ books/97/12/07/reviews/971207.07parfitt.html>

Government publication

1. George Bush, "Principles of Ethical Conduct for Government Officers and Employees," Executive Order 12674, 12 April 1989, pt. 1, <http://www.usoge.gov/exorders/eo12674.html> (30 October 1997).

To cite information appearing in a frame within a larger Web document, use the guidelines in 7b-10 for linkage data.

2.	Email message

To document an email message, provide the following information:

Author's name
Subject line, in quotation marks
Date of sending
Type of communication (personal email, distribution list, office communication)
Date of access, in parentheses

1. Norman Franke, "SoundApp 2.0.2," 29 April 1996, personal email (3 May 1996).

2. Danny Robinette, "Epiphany Project," 30 April 1999, office communication (29 May 1999).

3.	Web discussion forum posting

To document a posting to a Web discussion forum , provide the following information:

Author's name
Title of posting, in quotation marks
Date of posting
URL, in angle brackets
Date of access, in parentheses

1. Daniel LaLiberte, "HyperNews Instructions," 23 May 1996, <http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ HyperNews/get/hypernews /instructions.html> (24 May 1996).

2. Art Saffran, "It's Not That Hard," 5 January 1996, <http://union. nsca.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/hypernews/instructions/90/1/1.html> (24 May 1996).

4.	Listserv message

To document a listserv message, provide the following information:

Author's name
Subject line, in quotation marks
Date of posting
Listserv address, in angle brackets
Date of access, in parentheses

1. Victor Parente, "On Expectations of Class Participation," 27 May 1996, <philosed@sued.syr.edu> (29 May 1996).

1. Norman Holland, "Re: Colorless Green Ideas," 30 May 1999, <http://web.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/psyart.htm> (1 June 1999).

5.	Newsgroup message

To document information posted in a newsgroup discussion, provide the following information:

Author's name
Subject line, in quotation marks
Date of posting
Name of newsgroup, in angle brackets
Date of access, in parentheses

1. Robert Slade, "UNIX Made Easy," 26 March 1996, <alt.books.reviews> (31 March 1996).

If, after following all the suggestions in 4c-3, you cannot determine the author's name, then use the author's email address, enclosed in angle brackets, as the main entry. When you alphabetize such sources in your Bibliography, treat the first letter of the email address as though it were capitalized.

2. <lrm583@aol.com> "Thinking of Adoption," 26 May 1996, <alt.adoption> (29 May 1996).

6.	Real-time communication

To document a real-time communication, such as those posted in MOOs, MUDs, and IRCs, provide the following information:

Name of speaker(s) (if known), or name of site
Title of event (if appropriate), in quotation marks
Date of event
Type of communication (group discussion, personal interview), if not indicated elsewhere in entry
URL (in angle brackets) or other Internet address
Date of access, in parentheses

1. LambdaMOO, "Seminar Discussion on Netiquette," 28 May 1996, <telnet://lambda.parc .xerox.edu:8888> (28 May 1996).

2. Andrew Harnack, "Words," 4 April 1999, group discussion, <telnet moo.du.org/port=8888> 5 April 1999).

7.	Telnet, FTP, and gopher sites

Telnet site
The most common use of telnet is for participation in real-time communication (see 7b-6). Although the use of telnet for document retrieval has declined dramatically with increased Web access to texts, numerous archived documents are available only by telnet. To document a telnet site or a file available via telnet, provide the following information:

Name of author or agency
Title of document
Date of publication
Telnet address in angle brackets, with directions for accessing document
Date of access, in parentheses

1. Aquatic Conservation Network, "About the Aquatic Conservation Network," National Capital Freenet, n.d., <telnet://freenet.carleton.ca> login as guest, go acn, press 1 (28 May 1999).

FTP site

To document a file for downloading via file transfer protocol, provide the following information:

Name of author or file
Title of document
Size of document (if relevant)
Date of publication (if available)
Any print publication information, italicized or underlined where appropriate
Complete FTP address
Date of access, in parentheses

1. everest2.gif [535K], 4 April 1993, <ftp.ntua.gr/pub/images/views/ sorted.by.type/Mountains/everest2.gif> (3 June 1999).

2. John Mathews, preface to Numerical Methods for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1992), <ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/netlib/textbook/index.html> (6 June 1999).

Gopher site

The gopher search protocol brings text files from all over the world to your computer. Popular in the early 1990s, especially in universities, gopher was a step toward the World Wide Web's hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Although the advent of HTML documents and their retrieval on the Web has diminished the use of gopher, many documents can still be accessed.

To document information obtained by using the gopher search protocol, provide the following information:

Author's name
Title of document
Any print publication information, italicized or underlined where appropriate
Date of online publication
Gopher address, in angle brackets, with directions for accessing document
Date of access, in parentheses

1. Jack Goody, "History and Anthropology: Convergence and Divergence," Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology 75, no. 2 (Spring 1993): n.p., <gopher://gopher.sinica.edu.tw/00/ioe/engbull/75b.txt> (2 June 1999).

Since the first note reference to a source includes all the information necessary to verify or retrieve a citation, your Chicago-style research paper may not include a Bibliography. If you decide to include one (or are required to do so by an instructor or editor), an alphabetized list of sources will do the trick. (The Bibliography may also be titled Sources Consulted, Works Cited, or Selected Bibliography, if any of those titles more accurately describes the list.)

Bibliography entries differ from first note references in the following ways:

1. Authors' names are inverted.
2. Elements of entries are separated by periods.
3. The first line of each entry is flush with the left margin, and subsequent
lines are indented three or four spaces.

If the rest of your manuscript is typed double-spaced, double-space the Bibliography as well.

Compare the following note with the corresponding Bibliography entry:

2. Jason Crawford Teague, "Frames in Action," Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 2, no. 1, August 20, 1998. <http://english .ttu.edu/kairos/2.1> (7 October 1999).

Teague, Jason Crawford. "Frames in Action." Kairos: A Journal for

Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments 2, no. 1, August
20,1998. <http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/2.1> (7 October 1999).

¹ The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). When this online chapter of Online! cites the Chicago Manual, it does so in footnotes such as this one. (Return to text.)

² See Chicago Manual, sections 15.154 and 15.231. (Return to text.)