Tips for Using Chicago Author-Date Style
Victoria Hay, Ph.D.
The Copyeditor’s Desk, Inc.
January 1, 2015
(modified by Elenes and Cuádraz, April 7, 2015)
Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social uses the Chicago Style Manual author-date style for citation and documentation. While this system superficially resembles APA style, it is not the same! MLA never uses an author-date format, and it differs from Chicago style in a number of important aspects. This short guide will highlight the main differences.
For a more detailed description with examples, please use the 16th Edition(!) of The Chicago Manual of Style. In the hard-copy version, author-date documentation is explained in chapter 15. If you’re unfamiliar with Chicago style, you’ll also need to refer to chapter 14 to view the standard format for reference list entries.
The Chicago Manual is available online. It has a paywall (the amount is nominal, and sometimes you can persuade your department to pay for it), but it’s also possible to sign up for a free trial. Chicago is the standard of the book publishing industry, and so if you are working on a monograph, writing a textbook, or compiling an anthology, purchasing the hard-copy version or subscribing to the website is well worth the investment.
In-text Citation
Chicago’s author-date in-text citation looks similar to APA’s:
| (Menchaca 2002, 125) |  | No comma after author’s name; last name only; comma between date and page number, numeral only for page. |
Notice that APA style is different in that it places a comma after the author and uses the abbreviation p. before the page number. MLA does not use the p abbreviation; note that MLA does not use author-date citation at all:
APA: (Menchaca, 2002, p.125)
MLA: (Menchaca 125). Not applicable for CLS. Please do not use MLA or APA style or try to adapt it for CLS.
Unlike APA, the in-text citation does not automatically go after mention of the source in the narrative; instead, placement resembles MLA’s style in that it goes at the end of the quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Note that Chicago places a comma after the date, while MLA does not enter a date:
Chicago style: Menchaca describes the construction of race in the United States (2002, 31-65).
APA style: Menchaca (2002, pp. 31-65) describes the construction of race in the United States.
MLA style: Menchaca describes the construction of race in the United States (31-65). For illustration only. Please do not use MLA or APA style for CLS.
References List
Chicana/Latina Studies titles each article’s bibliography (list of references) as References, not Works Cited.
Like the in-text citations, references in the Chicago author-date system look superficially similar to APA references, but there are important differences. Here are some highlights:
Chicago and MLA spell out authors’ names:
Chicago and MLA: Menchaca, Martha.
APA: Menchaca, M. Please do not use APA style for CLS.
Chicago does not place the year of publication in parentheses:
Chicago: Menchaca, Martha. 2002. Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. Austin: University of Texas Press.
APA: Menchaca, M. (2002). Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. Austin: University of Texas Press. Please do not use APA style for CLS.
MLA: Not applicable. MLA does not use author-date format.
Chicago DOES use caps and lower case for all titles, including subtitles, and Chicago DOES place titles of short works, such as articles, in quotation marks. APA does neither, except insofar as journal titles are set in caps and lower-case:
FOR ARTICLE TITLES:
Chicago and MLA article title: “The Social Climate of the Birthright Movement in the United States.”
APA article title: The social climate of the birthright movement in the United States.
FOR BOOK TITLES:
Chicago and MLA book title: Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans
APA book title: Recovering history, constructing race: The Indian, Black, and White roots of Mexican Americans
FOR JOURNAL TITLES:
Chicago and MLA journal title: Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social
APA journal title: Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social
Chicago does NOT italicize the volume of a journal, whereas APA does. Also, APA places a comma between the journal title and the volume and number; Chicago does not. Chicago places a colon after the volume and number; APA uses a comma. APA does not italicize the volume number and separates volume and number with a period:
Chicago: Menchaca, Martha. 2013. “The Social Climate of the Birthright Movement in the United States.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 12(2): 28-55.
APA: Menchaca, M. (2013). “The Social Climate of the Birthright Movement in the United States.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, 12(2), 28-55. For illustration only. Please do not try to adapt this format for CLS; use Chicago author-date.
MLA: Menchaca, Martha. “The Social Climate of the Birthright Movement in the United States.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 12.2 (2013): 28-55. For illustration only. Please do not try to adapt this format for CLS; use Chicago author-date.
For references with more than one author, Chicago lists only the first author’s in name last-name-first order; all the others are in normal order. APA lists all authors last-name-first, and APA uses an ampersand (&) instead of the word “and.” MLA is similar to Chicago.
Chicago: Rojas, Ana Clarissa, Audrey Silvestre, and Nadia Zepeda. 2014. “Chicana Feminist Praxis”…
APA: Rojas, A.C., Silvestre, A., & Zepeda, N. (2014). “Chicana Feminist Praxis”…
MLA: Not applicable; MLA does not use author-date style. Please do not use MLA or APA style for CLS.
In references Chicago lets you use et. al. after four authors; APA wants you to list a maximum of seven authors. APA rules for multiple authors in citations and references are extremely complicated; see the APA manual, 6th edition, 6.15, 6.27, et passim, and chapter 7, ex. 2. MLA allows et al. for more than three authors but in that case has only the first author listed in the Works Cited. Remember, however, that MLA does not use author-date style!
Chicago: Arredondo, Gabriela F., Aida Hurtado, Norma Klahn, Olga Nájera-Ramírez, et al.
APA: Arredondo, G.F., Hurtado, A., Klahn, N., Nájera-Ramírez, O., Zavella, P. (2003). Please do not use APA style for CLS
MLA: Arredondo, Gabriela F., et al. Please do not use MLA style for CLS.
Chicago’s standard author-date reference list for journals places the date directly after the author’s name. APA is similar, except that APA abbreviates first and middle names, places the date in parentheses after the author’s name, and uses the down style (sentence style) for book titles:
Chicago: Menchaca, Martha. 2002. Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. Austin: University of Texas Press.
APA: Menchaca, M. (2002). Recovering history, constructing race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. Austin: University of Texas Press. Please do not use APA style for CLS.
MLA: not applicable; MLA does not use author-date format.
Chicago uses “edited by” to indicate the editor of an edited book; APA and MLA styles are significantly different:
Chicago: Flores-Ortiz, Yvette G. 1998. “Voices from the Couch: The Co-Creation of a Chicana Psychology.” In Living Chicana Theory, edited by Carla Trujillo, 102-122. Berkeley: Third Woman Press.
APA: Flores-Ortiz, Y.G. (1998). Voices from the couch: The co-creation of Chicana psychology. In C. Trujillo (Ed.), Living Chicana theory (pp. 102-122). Berkeley: Third Woman Press. Please do not use APA style for CLS.
MLA: Flores-Ortiz, Yvette G. “Voices from the Couch: The Co-Creation of a Chicana Psychology. Ed. Carla Trujillo, 102-122. Berkeley, 1998: Third Woman Press. For illustration only. Please do not use MLA style for CLS.
Chicago does not favor elaborate references to electronic sources; a URL or (better, if available) a DOI will suffice. Chicago and APA no longer require an access date. MLA still requests an access date. APA inserts “retrieved from” before the URL; MLA inserts the access date (only) before the URL:
Chicago: Ulaby, Neda. 2009. “A Rising-Star Writer and a Miraculous Maid.” National Public Radio, April 18. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=103174270.
APA: Ulaby, N. 2009. “A Rising-Star Writer and a Miraculous Maid.” National Public Radio, April 18. doi 12.123456789.
or
APA: Ulaby, N. 2009. “A Rising-Star Writer and a Miraculous Maid.” National Public Radio, April 18. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=103174270.html/ For illustration only. Please do not use APA style for CLS.
MLA: Ulaby, Neda. “A Rising-Star Writer and a Miraculous Maid.” National Public Radio. 3 March 2015. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyld=103174270.html/For illustration only. Please do not use MLA style for CLS.
This list of tips is a very brief thumbnail sketch of some of the major differences between Chicago author-date, APA, and MLA styles. It doesn’t cover all the types of sources that you, as an advanced researcher, are likely to encounter. For all the details, be sure to consult The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. The edition number is important: please do not use Chicago 15 or Chicago 14.
Revised: August 4, 2015
