notesandbibliography

Notes and bibliography, often referred to as the Chicago notes-and-bibliography system, is one of two documentation approaches in the Chicago Manual of Style. In this system, citations appear as footnotes or endnotes at the point of reference, with a corresponding bibliography at the end of the work. The first citation to a source typically appears in full in a note, including author, title, publication details, and page numbers; subsequent notes to the same source can use a shortened form. The bibliography provides complete citations for all sources cited, listed alphabetically by the author’s last name, and may include additional details such as edition or translator.

This citation style is widely used in humanities disciplines, including history, literature, philosophy, and the arts, because it supports close engagement with sources and allows readers to locate sources without interrupting the main text. It accommodates a broad range of source types, including books, journal articles, primary documents, and online resources, with exact formatting guided by the edition of the Chicago Manual of Style being followed. The notes-and-bibliography system is distinct from the author-date system, which uses brief parenthetical citations within the text and a separate reference list, a format more common in the sciences and social sciences. The choice between systems depends on disciplinary conventions, publisher requirements, and the nature of the sources cited.