''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (abbreviated in writing as ''CMOS'' or ''CMS'', or sometimes as ''Chicago'') is a

style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...

for

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...

published since 1906 by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

. Its 17 editions have prescribed writing and

citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

styles widely used in publishing. It is "one of the most widely used and respected style guides in the United States". The guide specifically focuses on American English and deals with aspects of editorial practice, including grammar and usage, as well as document preparation and formatting. It is available in print as a hardcover book, and by subscription as a searchable website as ''The Chicago Manual of Style Online.'' The online version provides some free resources, primarily aimed at teachers, students, and libraries.

Availability and uses

''The Chicago Manual of Style'' is published in hardcover and online. The online edition includes the searchable text of both the 16th and 17th—its most recent—editions with features such as tools for editors, a citation guide summary, and searchable access to a Q&A, where University of Chicago Press editors answer readers' style questions. ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' also discusses the parts of a book and the editing process. An annual subscription is required for access to the online content of the ''Manual''. (Access to the Q&A, however, is free, as are various editing tools.) Many publishers throughout the world adopt "Chicago" as their style. It is used in some social science publications, most North American historical journals, and remains the basis for the ''Style Guide of the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, ...

'', the ''Style Sheet'' for the

Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad inc ...

, and corporate style guides, including the ''Apple Style Guide''. ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' includes chapters relevant to publishers of books and journals. It is used widely by academic and some trade publishers, as well as editors and authors who are required by those publishers to follow it. Kate L. Turabian's ''

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations ''A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations'' is a style guide for writing and formatting research papers, theses, and dissertations and is published by the University of Chicago Press. The work is often referred to ...

'' also reflects Chicago style. ''Chicago'' style offers writers a choice of several different formats. It allows the mixing of formats, provided that the result is clear and consistent. For instance, the 15th edition of ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' permits the use of both in-text citation systems and/or footnotes or endnotes, including use of "content notes"; it gives information about in-text citation by page number (such as

MLA style ''MLA Handbook'' (9th ed., 2021), formerly ''MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers'' (1977–2009), establishes a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. It is published by the Modern Language Association, which is based in the ...

) or by year of publication (like

APA style APA style (also known as APA format) is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences, including sociol ...

); it even provides for variations in styles of footnotes and endnotes, depending on whether the paper includes a full bibliography at the end.

Table of contents (17th ed.)

* List of Tables * List of Figures * Preface * Acknowledgements * Part I: The Publishing Process ** 1. Books and Manuals ** 2. Manuscript Preparation, Manuscript Editing, and Proofreading ** 3. Illustrations and Tables ** 4. Rights, Permissions, and Copyright Administration ''by William S. Strong'' * Part II: Style and Usage ** 5. Grammar and Usage ''by Bryan A. Garner'' ** 6. Punctuation ** 7. Spelling, Distinctive Treatment of Words, and Compounds ** 8. Names, Terms, and Titles of Works ** 9. Numbers ** 10. Abbreviations ** 11. Languages Other than English ** 12. Mathematics in Type ** 13. Quotations and Dialogue * Part III: Source Citations and Indexes ** 14. Notes and Bibliography ** 15. Author-Date References ** 16. Indexes * Glossary * Bibliography * Index

Citation styles

Two types of citation styles are provided. In both cases, two parts are needed: first, notation in the text, which indicates that the information immediately preceding was from another source; and second, the full citation, which is placed at another location.

Author-date style

Using author-date style, the sourced text is indicated parenthetically with the last name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication with no intervening punctuation. Research has found that students do not always cite their work properly (Smith 2016). When page numbers are used, they are placed along with the author's last name and date of publication ''after'' an interposed comma. Research has found that students do not always cite their work properly (Smith 2016, 24). If the author's name is used in the text, only the date of publication need be cited parenthetically (with or without the page number). Research done by Smith found that students do not always cite their work properly (2016). In-text citations are usually placed just inside a mark of punctuation. An exception to this rule is for

block quotation A block quotation (also known as a long quotation or extract) is a quotation in a written document that is set off from the main text as a paragraph, or block of text, and typically distinguished visually using Indentation (typesetting), indenta ...

s, where the citation is placed outside the punctuation. The full citation for the source is then included in a references section at the end of the material. As publication dates are prominent in this style, the reference entry places the publication date ''following'' the author(s) name. Heilman, James M., and Andrew G. West. 2015. "Wikipedia and Medicine: Quantifying Readership, Editors, and the Significance of Natural Language." ''Journal of Medical Internet Research'' 17 (3): e62. doi:10.2196/jmir.4069.

Notes and bibliography style

Using notes and bibliography style, the sourced text is indicated by a

superscript A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, whil ...

ed note number that corresponds to a full citation either at the bottom of the page (as a footnote) or at the end of a main body of text (as an endnote). In both instances, the citation is also placed in a bibliography entry at the end of the material, listed in alphabetical order of the author's last name. The two formats differ: notes use commas where bibliography entries use periods. The following is an example of a journal article citation provided as a note and its bibliography entry. The third example of the bibliography entry is marked up with color to identify its parts. 1. James M. Heilman and Andrew G. West, "Wikipedia and Medicine: Quantifying Readership, Editors, and the Significance of Natural Language," ''Journal of Medical Internet Research'' 17, no. 3 (2015): e62, doi:10.2196/jmir.4069. Heilman, James M., and Andrew G. West. "Wikipedia and Medicine: Quantifying Readership, Editors, and the Significance of Natural Language." ''Journal of Medical Internet Research'' 17, no. 3 (2015): e62. doi:10.2196/jmir.4069. Heilman, James M., and Andrew G. West "Wikipedia and Medicine: Quantifying Readership, Editors, and the Significance of Natural Language." ''Journal of Medical Internet Research'' 17 no. 3 (2015) e62 doi:10.2196/jmir.4069 * Author(s) first listed author's name inverted in the bibliography entry * Article title inside

quotation mark Quotation marks (also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to set off direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an ...

s * Journal title in

italic type In typography, italic type is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right. Italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed tex ...

Volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The de ...

Issue Issue or issues may refer to: Publishing * ''Issue'' (company), a mobile publishing company * ''Issue'' (magazine), a monthly Korean comics anthology magazine * Issue (postal service), a stamp or a series of stamps released to the public * '' ...

* Year along with month, if specified * Page numbers specific page number in a note; page range in a bibliography entry *

Digital object identifier A digital object identifier (DOI) is a persistent identifier or handle used to uniquely identify various objects, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). DOIs are an implementation of the Handle System; they a ...

History

What now is known as ''The Chicago Manual of Style'' was first published in 1906 under the title ''Manual of Style: Being a compilation of the typographical rules in force at the University of Chicago Press, to which are appended specimens of type in use''. From its first 203-page edition, the ''CMOS'' evolved into a comprehensive reference style guide of 1,146 pages in its 17th edition. It was one of the first editorial style guides published in the United States, and it is largely responsible for research methodology standardization, notably

citation style A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

. The most significant revision to the manual was made for the 12th edition, published in 1969. Its first printing of 20,000 copies sold out before it was printed. In 1982, with the publication of the 13th edition, it was officially retitled ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', adopting the informal name already in widespread use. More recently, the publishers have released a new edition about every seven to ten years. The 15th edition (2003) was revised to reflect the emergence of computer technology and the internet in publishing, offering guidance for citing electronic works. Other changes include a chapter on American English grammar and use, and a revised treatment of mathematical copy. In August 2010, the 16th edition was published simultaneously in the hardcover and online editions for the first time in the ''Manual''s history. In a departure from the earlier red-orange cover, the 16th edition features a robin's-egg blue dust jacket (a nod to older editions with blue jackets, such as the 11th and 12th). The 16th edition featured "music, foreign languages, and computer topics (such as

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

characters and URLs)". It also expands recommendations for producing electronic publications, including web-based content and

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

s. An updated appendix on production and digital technology demystified the process of electronic

workflow A workflow consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence of ...

and offered a primer on the use of

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

markup. It also includes a revised glossary, including a host of terms associated with

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

and print publishing. The ''Chicago'' system of documentation is streamlined to achieve greater consistency between the author-date and notes-bibliography systems of citation, making both systems easier to use. In addition, updated and expanded examples address the many questions that arise when documenting online and digital sources, from the use of DOIs to citing

social networking site A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

s. Figures and tables are updated throughout the book, including a return to the ''Manual''s popular hyphenation table and new, selective listings of Unicode numbers for special characters. In 2013, an adapted Spanish version was published by the

University of Deusto The University of Deusto ( es, Universidad de Deusto; eu, Deustuko Unibertsitatea) is a Spanish private university owned by the Society of Jesus, with campuses in Bilbao and San Sebastián, and the Deusto Business School branch in Madrid. The Un ...

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, Spain. In April 2016, the publisher released ''The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation'', Bryan A. Garner's expansion of his ''Chicago Manual of Style'' chapter on the topic, and coinciding with the release of the new edition of ''Garner's Modern American Usage''. The 17th edition was published in September 2017. It offers new and expanded style guidelines in response to advancing technology and social change. It also includes new and revised content reflecting the latest publishing practices and electronic workflows and self-publishing. Citation recommendations, the glossary of problematic words and phrases, and the bibliography have all been updated and expanded. In the 17th edition, email lost its hyphen, internet became lowercase, the singular "they" and "their" are now acceptable in certain circumstances, a major new section on syntax has been added, and the long-standing recommendation to use "ibid" has changed due to electronic publishing.

Recent printed editions

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Explanatory notes

References

External links

*
''Chicago Manual of Style'' 17th Edition
at Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) {{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Manual of Style Chicago Manual of Style, The Academic style guides Chicago Manual of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, The