Chicago citation style

A guide to citing sources using the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition

Web pages

Include as much of the following information as you can. The words "website" or "web page" may be added in parenthesis after the Title or Owner/Sponsor of the site if the source is unclear.

Citation format:

Author. Year of publication. “Title" or Description of web page. Title or Owner/Sponsor of Website, Month day, year. URL.

Sample reference list entry:

Higgins, Jenny. 2008. “Women’s Suffrage.” Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/suffrage.html.

A date of last revision or modification should only be included if no other date is provided.

Sample reference list entry:

Janzen, Olaf U. 2014. “Beothuk and Mi’kmaq.” Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland (website). Last modified January 13. http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/nfld_history/history/nfld_history_beothuk.htm.

Web pages with no author

If there is no person or organization obviously identified as the author, start with the title of the web page or document instead.

Sample reference list entry:

“Newfoundland Government Rejects Environmental Impact Statement for Nickel Plant.” 2008. Mining Watch Canada, November 28, 2008. http://www.miningwatch.ca/fr/newfoundland-government-rejects-environmental-impact-statement-nickel-plant-0.

Web pages with no date

If there is no date available, include the date that you accessed the web page. In your in-text citation, use "n.d."

Sample reference list entry:

Kaufield, Kathy, and Alain Bosse. “Atlantic Lobster Food Service Guide.” Lobster Council of Canada (website). Accessed March 11, 2020. https://lobstercouncilcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Atlantic_Lobster_Guide_P12_compressed.pdf.

Social media posts

Retain a copy of the social media content cited, in case your cited post gets deleted. Social media posts can usually be limited to the text of your paper.

Sample in-text citation:

Local news organization VOCM's Question of the Day on Twitter was "With provincial vaccination rates nearing 80 percent, are you comfortable and ready to head back into the workplace?" (@VOCMNEWS, September 14, 2021).

If it is necessary to include in the reference list, include the following information. If only a screen name is known, use the screen name in place of an author's name.

Citation format:

Author's Real Name (@Username). Year. "Up to the first 160 characters of the post, including spaces." Site Name and description if it is a photo or video, Month day, year of post. URL.

Sample reference list entry:

Archives and Special Collections, Queen Elizabeth II Library, MUN (@MUNarchivesandspecialcollections). 2020. "JR Smallwood, Clara (Oates) Smallwood and their baby. Probably Ramsey. From the JR Smallwood backlog." Facebook photo, September 13, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/MUNarchivesandspecialcollections/photos/a.985705874831536/3366479666754133/.

YouTube videos

Social Media citations can often be limited to the text.

If you are citing music, see specific examples for citing music audio and video recording.

Sample in-text citation:

BBC Ideas’ YouTube video, “The Quiet Power of Introverts” (2020) explains how dopamine and acetylcholine affect the brain differently.

Blog posts

Blog posts are cited like online newspaper articles, and are rarely included in the reference list. Refer to them in your in-text citation only. Indicate the author, “Post Title”, Blog Title, and date. The URL can be included in parenthesis.

Sample in-text citation:

In her Love of History blog, Dr. Katsari made an interesting February 9, 2015 post on “Ancient Artifacts from the Erotic Museum in Paris” (http://loveofhistory.com/ancient-artifacts-from-the-erotic-museum-in-paris/).