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Chicago Style Citation Guide 16th Edition: Additional Info - Footnotes

Shorten Structure of Footnotes

To reduce the bulk of documentation in scholarly works that use footnotes or endnotes, subsequent citations of sources already given in full should be shortened whenever possible

Basic structure of the short form

The most common short form consists of the last name of the author and the main title of the work cited, usually shortened if more than four words, as in examples 4–6 below. For more on authors’ names, see 14.27. For more on short titles, see 14.28. For more on journal articles, see 14.196.

1. Samuel A. Morley, Poverty and Inequality in Latin America: The Impact of Adjustment and Recovery (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 24–25.

2. Regina M. Schwartz, “Nationals and Nationalism: Adultery in the House of David,” Critical Inquiry 19, no. 1 (1992): 131–32.

3. Ernest Kaiser, “The Literature of Harlem,” in Harlem: A Community in Transition, ed. J. H. Clarke (New York: Citadel Press, 1964).

4. Morley, Poverty and Inequality, 43.

5. Schwartz, “Nationals and Nationalism,” 138.

6. Kaiser, “Literature of Harlem,” 189–90.

 

Where and When Can I Use Ibid

The abbreviation ibid. (from ibidem, “in the same place”) usually refers to a single work cited in the note immediately preceding. It must never be used if the preceding note contains more than one citation.

 It takes the place of the name(s) of the author(s) or editor(s), the title of the work, and as much of the succeeding material as is identical.

If the entire reference, including page numbers or other particulars, is identical, the word ibid. alone is used.

To avoid a succession of ibid. notes, the content of notes 6–8, 10, and 11 below might instead be placed parenthetically in the text in place of the note references (see 13.64).

5. Farmwinkle, Humor of the Midwest, 241.
6. Ibid., 258–59.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 333–34.
9. Losh, Diaries and Correspondence, 1:150.
10. Ibid., 2:35–36.
11. Ibid., 2:37–40.
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