Turabian Citation Style: Footnotes, Bibliography and Paper Format

Turabian citation style is the student version of Chicago style, set out in Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Its citations follow Chicago, and it adds clear rules for formatting student papers.

This guide covers both Turabian citation systems, examples for common sources, shortened notes and the layout rules for title pages, margins and spacing.

Turabian and Chicago

The ninth edition of Turabian (2018) follows the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style for citations. If your instructor asks for a newer edition of either, follow that version.

Notes-Bibliography: How Footnotes Work

Place a superscript number in the text after the material you are citing, usually at the end of the sentence after the punctuation. The matching note at the foot of the page, or in endnotes, gives the source.

The first note for a source gives full details. Later notes for the same source use a shortened form: the author's surname, a short title and the page.

Notes list the author first name first and use commas; bibliography entries list the surname first and use full stops.

Book

For two or three authors, list them all. For four or more, the note gives the first author followed by "et al.", while the bibliography lists the authors in full, up to the limit your edition sets.

Journal Article

Note: 1. First Last, "Title of Article," Journal Name Volume, no. Issue (Year): page, https://doi.org/xxxx.
Bibliography: Last, First. "Title of Article." Journal Name Volume, no. Issue (Year): page range. https://doi.org/xxxx.

The example above uses a fictional article to show the pattern. Prefer a DOI to a database URL when the article has one.

Website

Give the author or organization, the page title in quotation marks, the site name, a publication or modified date and the URL. If the page shows no date, add an access date instead.

Author-Date System

In author-date, the in-text citation gives the surname, year and page with no comma between surname and year. The reference list moves the year to straight after the author's name.

Shortened Notes and Ibid.

Current Chicago and Turabian guidance prefers shortened notes to "ibid." for repeated citations. A shortened note is clear even when notes are reordered during editing.

If your instructor allows ibid., use it only when the note immediately before cites the same source, adding a page number if it changes: "Ibid., 41."

Turabian Paper Format

• Margins: at least 1 inch on all sides, unless your institution sets larger margins for theses.
• Font: a readable serif font such as Times New Roman, usually 12 point for body text.
• Spacing: double-space the body; single-space notes and bibliography entries, with a blank line between them.
• Indents: indent the first line of each paragraph; use hanging indents in the bibliography.
• Title page: title about a third of the way down, with your name, course and date lower on the page, all centered.
• Page numbers: in the header or footer, consistently placed; leave the number off the title page.

Departments often publish their own Turabian templates. Where one exists, it takes priority over general rules.

Common Turabian Mistakes

• Writing notes in bibliography order (surname first) or vice versa.
• Leaving out the page number in a note.
• Mixing notes-bibliography and author-date in one paper.
• Adding a comma between surname and year in author-date citations.
• Using ibid. after a note that cites a different source.
• Forgetting hanging indents in the bibliography.

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