Subject guides: Chicago 18th (B) Author-Date: Journal and magazine articles

Journal and magazine articles

Some journals have replaced online article page numbers with a unique article ID. These PDFs are all paginated starting at 1. In a reference list include the article ID only, in place of the page range.
Names that follow Eastern order (surname first) rather than Western order (surname last) should not be inverted in a reference list.
Many of the guidelines for citing journal articles apply to magazines also, however there are some differences. See the format below.

Journal articles

In-text citation

Format

(Author Surname Year, Pages)

Example

(Stern 2011, 355)

Reference list

Format

Author Surname, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication Volume (Issue): Article Page Range. DOI or URL if online.

Example

Glass, Jennifer, and Philip Levchak. 2014. “Red States, Blue States, and Divorce: Understanding the Impact of Conservative Protestantism on Regional Variation in Divorce Rates.” American Journal of Sociology 119 (4): 1002–46. https://doi.org/10.1086/674703.

Tips

For quotations and references to specific passages, only the page(s) concerned are given in the in-text citation. The reference list entry is made to the article as a whole and includes the first and last page span.
References to online journal articles include a URL or a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI). If allocated, the DOI is preferred. Note that a DOI should be included in the form of a URL starting with https://doi.org/.
Where the source is only available in a Library subscription database that requires a login, it may be preferable to list the name of the database rather than a URL.

Multiple authors

In-text citation

Format

Two authors

(First Author Surname and Second Author Surname Year, Pages)

More than two authors

(First Author Surname et al. Year, Pages)

Example

Two authors

(Hayden and Wright 1976, 925)

More than two authors

(Gmuca et al. 2015, 162)

Reference list

Format

Two to six authors

First Author Surname, First Name, and Subsequent Author Full Names. Year. "Title of Article.” Title of Publication Volume (Issue): Article page range. DOI or URL if online.

More than six authors

First Author Surname, First Name, Second Author Full Name, Third Author Full Name, et al. Year. "Title of Article.” Title of Publication Volume (Issue): Article page range. DOI or URL if online.

Example

Two to six authors

Gmuca, Natalia V., Linnea E. Pearson, Jennifer M. Burns, and Heather E. M. Liwanag. 2015. “The Fat and the Furriest: Morphological Changes in Harp Seal Fur with Ontogeny.” Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 88 (2): 158–66. https://doi.org/10.1086/680080.

More than six authors

Dror, Amiel A., Nicole Morozov, Amani Daoud, et al. 2022. “Pre-Infection 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 Levels and Association with Severity of COVID-19 Illness.” PLOS ONE 17 (2): e0263069. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263069.

Tips

Multiple authors are listed in the same order as they appear on the title page, which may not necessarily be alphabetical order.
For articles with more than two authors, the in-text citation should list only the first author, followed by “et al.”
Only the first-listed name is inverted in the reference list (i.e. Surname, First Name).
Name up to six authors in the reference list; if there are more than six, list only the first three, followed by “et al.”
Note that the example for 'more than six authors' above includes an article ID in place of a page range, see Chicago Manual rule 14.71

Journal articles with no volume or issue number

Reference list

Format

No volume

Author Surname, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication, no. Issue (Month or Season): Article Page Range. DOI or URL if online.

No issue

Author Surname, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication Volume (Month or Season): Article Page Range. DOI or URL if online.

Example

No volume

Li, Jie. 2020. “The Hot Noise of Open-Air Cinema.” Grey Room, no. 81 (Fall): 6–35. https://doi.org/10.1162/grey_a_00307.

No issue

Zhao, Tan. 2023. “Professionalizing China’s Rural Cadres.” China Journal 89 (January): 45–69. https://doi.org/10.1086/722215.

Tips

You can also omit the month or season if these are not available.
If no volume number and no month or season is available; the issue number is followed by a comma rather than a colon.
If no issue number and no month or season is available; the page range follows the colon after the volume, with no intervening space.

Ahead-of-print, forthcoming, and preprints

In-text citation

Format

Ahead-of-print and preprint articles

(Author Surname Year)

Forthcoming articles

(Author Surname, forthcoming)

Example

Ahead-of-print and preprint articles

(Mullan et al. 2023)

Forthcoming articles

(Smith, forthcoming)

Reference list

Format

Ahead-of-print articles

Author Surname, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication, ahead of print, Month DD. DOI or URL.

Forthcoming articles

Author Surname, First Name. Forthcoming. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication Volume.

Preprints

Author Surname, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Preprint, preprint server name, Month DD. DOI or URL.

Example

Ahead-of-print articles

Mullan, Ryan, Alex D. Davis, Tracey T. Sutton, and Sönke Johnsen. 2023. “An Investigation into the Mechanism Mediating Counterillumination in Myctophid Fishes (Myctophidae).” Biological Bulletin, ahead of print, April 5. https://doi.org/10.1086/724803.

Forthcoming articles

Smith, Margaret. Forthcoming. “Permission to Play.” Design 98.

Preprints

Fiallo, Kathy, and Alexia Galati. 2022. “The Influence of Auditory Processing Difficulties on Perceptual Learning.” Preprint, PsyArXiv, September 4. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/p723u.

Tips

Use ‘ahead-of-print’ when an article is posted online before the print version. This usually means that volume, issue and page numbers do not yet exist, however you can include these if available.
Use ‘forthcoming’ where an article has been accepted for publication but not yet published.
Use ‘preprint’ where the article has been posted to a preprint server. Articles not posted to a preprint server are best treated as unpublished manuscripts.

Magazine articles

In-text citation

Format

(Author Surname Year, Pages)

Example

(Lewis 2022)

Reference list

Format

Author Surname, First Name. Year. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication, Month DD. URL if online.

Example

Lewis, Helen. 2022. “The Second Elizabethan Age Has Ended.” Atlantic, September 8. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/queen-elizabeth-ii-death-british-royal-family-transition/671370/.

Tips

Specific page numbers may not be available but may be cited if they are.
A month or season may replace a full date where the date is not available.