How to Cite Sources in Turabian Citation Style

Turabian is the citation style most students encounter without knowing its name. If you have ever been told to "use Chicago style" for a class paper, there is a good chance your instructor actually meant Turabian - a streamlined version of the Chicago Manual of Style designed specifically for students writing research papers, theses, and dissertations. The style is named after Kate L. Turabian, who served as the dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago for nearly three decades and wrote A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, now in its 9th edition.

This guide covers both of Turabian's citation systems - notes-bibliography and author-date - with worked examples for the source types students cite most often: books, journal articles, and websites. It also explains the key differences between Turabian and Chicago so you can use the right manual for your situation.

If you want to generate Turabian citations automatically, the AllCitations Turabian Notes generator can produce correctly formatted notes and bibliography entries from a URL, DOI, or ISBN. But understanding the rules behind the formatting is important for catching errors and handling unusual sources that automated tools sometimes miss.

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What Is Turabian Style?

Turabian is a citation and formatting style based on the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) but adapted for academic student writing. The Chicago Manual is a comprehensive reference aimed at publishers, editors, and professional authors - it covers everything from manuscript preparation to typesetting conventions, running to over 1,000 pages. Most of that material is irrelevant to a student writing a term paper or thesis.

Kate L. Turabian created her manual to extract and simplify the citation and formatting rules that students actually need. The result is a more focused guide that covers:

• How to cite sources in footnotes/endnotes or parenthetical references
• How to format a bibliography or reference list
• How to structure a research paper, including title pages, margins, headings, and page numbering
• How to handle tables, figures, and appendices

The current edition - the 9th edition, revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, William T. FitzGerald, and the University of Chicago Press editorial staff - was published in 2018. It aligns with the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style on citation rules but adds student-specific formatting guidance that CMOS does not provide.

Turabian is used primarily in the humanities, social sciences, and some natural sciences at the undergraduate and graduate level. It is especially common in history, theology, philosophy, and the arts.

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Choosing Between Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date

Turabian offers two citation systems, and your choice depends on your discipline and your instructor's preference.

Notes-Bibliography (NB)

The notes-bibliography system uses footnotes or endnotes for in-text citations, paired with a bibliography at the end of the paper. When you reference a source, you place a superscript number in the text, and the corresponding note at the bottom of the page (footnote) or at the end of the paper (endnote) provides the full citation details. The bibliography then lists all sources alphabetically.

This system is standard in the humanities - history, literature, philosophy, theology, and the arts. It is the system most people associate with "Chicago style" or "Turabian style."

For a detailed guide to the notes-bibliography system as defined in CMOS, see our guide on how to cite in Chicago notes-bibliography style.

Author-Date (AD)

The author-date system uses parenthetical in-text citations (Author Year, page) paired with a reference list at the end of the paper. This system works similarly to APA style, though the formatting details differ.

This system is standard in the sciences and social sciences - psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and the natural sciences.

For a detailed guide to the author-date system as defined in CMOS, see our guide on how to cite in Chicago author-date style.

How to Decide

If your instructor or department does not specify a system, use this general rule:

When in doubt, ask your instructor. Mixing the two systems in a single paper is not acceptable.

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Notes-Bibliography: Worked Examples

In the notes-bibliography system, each source has three possible formats: the full note (used the first time you cite a source), the shortened note (used for subsequent citations of the same source), and the bibliography entry.

Book with One Author

Full note:

1. Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking (New York: Penguin Books, 2001), 45.

Shortened note:

4. Solnit, Wanderlust, 52.

Bibliography entry:

Solnit, Rebecca. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.

Notice the differences: the note lists the author in first-last order and encloses the publication details in parentheses, while the bibliography entry lists the author in last-first order and does not use parentheses. The note includes a specific page number; the bibliography entry does not.

Book with Multiple Authors

For two or three authors, list all names. For four or more authors, list the first author followed by "et al." in notes, but list all authors in the bibliography (up to ten; for eleven or more, list the first seven followed by "et al.").

Full note (two authors):

2. Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, "Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor," Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 5.

Bibliography entry:

Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. "Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor." Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 1, no. 1 (2012): 1-40.

Journal Article

Full note:

3. Thanh Nguyen and Maria Rossi, "Screen Time and Adolescent Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study," Journal of Adolescent Health 72, no. 4 (2023): 483, https://doi.org/10.1016/example.

Shortened note:

7. Nguyen and Rossi, "Screen Time," 485.

Bibliography entry:

Nguyen, Thanh, and Maria Rossi. "Screen Time and Adolescent Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study." Journal of Adolescent Health 72, no. 4 (2023): 481-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/example.

For journal articles, the article title is in quotation marks and the journal name is italicized. Volume number, issue number, year, and page range are all included.

Website

Full note:

5. World Health Organization, "Mpox (Monkeypox)," World Health Organization, last modified September 27, 2024, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox.

Shortened note:

9. World Health Organization, "Mpox (Monkeypox)."

Bibliography entry:

World Health Organization. "Mpox (Monkeypox)." Last modified September 27, 2024. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox.

For websites, include the author or organization, the title of the page or article, the name of the website (if different from the author), a publication or modification date, and the URL. If no date is available, include an access date instead.

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Author-Date: Worked Examples

In the author-date system, each source has two formats: the in-text citation (parenthetical) and the reference list entry.

Book with One Author

In-text citation:

(Solnit 2001, 45)

Reference list entry:

Solnit, Rebecca. 2001. Wanderlust: A History of Walking. New York: Penguin Books.

In the author-date system, the year moves to immediately after the author name in the reference list. This is the most visible difference from the bibliography format used in the notes-bibliography system, where the year appears later in the entry.

Journal Article

In-text citation:

(Nguyen and Rossi 2023, 483)

Reference list entry:

Nguyen, Thanh, and Maria Rossi. 2023. "Screen Time and Adolescent Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study." Journal of Adolescent Health 72, no. 4: 481-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/example.

Website

In-text citation:

(World Health Organization 2024)

Reference list entry:

World Health Organization. 2024. "Mpox (Monkeypox)." Last modified September 27, 2024. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/monkeypox.

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Key Differences Between Turabian and Chicago

Although Turabian's citation rules are drawn directly from the Chicago Manual of Style, the two manuals differ in important ways. The differences are primarily about document formatting, not citation formatting.

The bottom line: if your instructor says "use Chicago style," Turabian is almost always sufficient for a student paper, and in many cases it is what they actually mean. The citation formatting is identical. The differences lie in the document formatting guidance that Turabian adds for students and the extensive publishing-oriented material in CMOS that students do not need.

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Formatting Your Paper in Turabian

Beyond citations, Turabian provides formatting rules for the paper itself. These are areas where Turabian differs most from Chicago, because CMOS does not address student paper formatting in detail.

Title Page

Turabian papers typically include a title page (unlike MLA, which uses a header on the first page). Center the title about one-third of the way down the page. Below the title, include your name, the course name, the instructor's name, and the date. Do not include a page number on the title page.

Margins and Spacing

Use 1-inch margins on all sides. For theses and dissertations, your institution may require a larger left margin (typically 1.5 inches) to accommodate binding. Double-space the body text. Block quotations, table titles, and figure captions may be single-spaced, depending on your institution's requirements.

Headings

Turabian defines five levels of headings for organizing your paper. The most commonly used are:

• Level 1: Centered, bold, headline-style capitalization
• Level 2: Centered, regular (not bold), headline-style capitalization
• Level 3: Flush left, bold, headline-style capitalization

Use headings consistently and do not skip levels.

Page Numbering

Front matter pages (title page, table of contents, acknowledgments) use lowercase roman numerals (ii, iii, iv) or are left unnumbered. The title page is counted as page i but the number is not displayed. The body of the paper uses arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) starting from the first page of the introduction or first chapter.

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Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Mixing notes-bibliography and author-date. Each paper should use one system consistently. Do not put footnotes on some pages and parenthetical citations on others. Choose a system based on your discipline and instructor's preference, and use it throughout.

Using full notes after the first citation. The full note format is used only the first time you cite a source. Every subsequent citation of that same source should use the shortened form: author's last name, a shortened title, and the page number. Writing out the full publication details every time clutters your notes and is incorrect.

Omitting the bibliography or reference list. Even though your notes contain full citation details, you still need a bibliography (for NB) or reference list (for AD) at the end of the paper. The bibliography provides a single alphabetized location where readers can find all your sources.

Confusing Turabian note format with bibliography format. Notes use first-last name order and parentheses around publication information. Bibliography entries use last-first name order and do not use parentheses. These formats are not interchangeable. Getting them mixed up is one of the most common errors students make.

Forgetting to include page numbers in notes. When you reference a specific passage, your note should include the page number. General references to an entire work do not require page numbers, but specific claims, quotations, and paraphrases do.

Using "Ibid." excessively. Turabian 9th edition still allows "Ibid." (meaning "in the same place") to refer to the immediately preceding note, but many instructors discourage its use because it can create confusion if notes are reordered during revision. The shortened note format is always a safe alternative.

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