Guidelines for Building a Citation
Numbers in parentheses refer to specific chapters and sections in The Chicago Manual (18th ed.)
Each entry in your Bibliography usually contains the following information, in this order: author(s) or editor(s), title of work, and facts of publication.
There are specific rules around the formatting of each part of the citation. The general format for a book is given below; refer to The Chicago Manual of Style for more information. Other types of sources will include different citation elements.
Author or Editor Information (13.74)
Author's names are given as they appear on the title page (13.75). In the Bibliography, invert the order of the first author's names (e.g. last name first) so that they will appear correctly in the alphabetical list. Subsequent authors and editors may be written normally, without inverting the first and last name (13.78).
E.g. Elms, Jack, and Lauren D. Curtis.
If there is no author, begin the entry with the title, ignoring any introductory articles (e.g. The, A, An) (13.81).
When no author appears on the title page but the book has an editor (or editors), insert the editor's name in place of the author's name, followed by a comma and the abbreviation "ed." (without the quotation marks) (14.5).
Title of Work (13.87)
Capitalize first and last words in titles and subtitles, and capitalize all other major words (13.89).
Titles and subtitles of books and periodicals are italicized (13.88).
Arrange your Bibliography in one alphabetical sequence by the surname of the author, or by title or keyword if there is no author (13.66).
For an edition other than the first, identify the edition of your source by number (e.g. 2nd ed.) or by name (e.g. Rev. ed. for "revised edition") (14.15). The edition statement usually comes after the title of the work (14.15).
Facts of Publication (publisher, date, {medium/format}) (14.29)
List the publisher’s name, and year of publication as they appear on the title page or copyright page. (14.29).
If the city of publication is not required unless the book was published prior to 1900. Usually books published before 1900 were published by a publisher that is no longer in existence - therefore the city of publication is usually the only information included separated from the year of publication with a comma. If there is a reason to include the publisher so a city AND publisher is listed, separate it from the publisher with a colon and the publisher from the year with a comma (14.30, 14.31).
