How to Reference in Turabian

This resource provides information on how to reference, using the formatting of the Turabian 9th Edition, 2018 (notes-bibliography). The Turabian style is a companion to the Chicago style manual, which is currently in its 17th edition.

When you have read through the instructions and examples, you can check out this Sample Essay using Turabian from Liberty University.

Next: What's new in Turabian 9th Edition 

The information in this style guide is taken from:

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 9th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2018.


Available as a reference book through the AC Library.

For further information about how to reference in Turabian, check out the Citation Quick Guide from the Turabian website.


General Notes
  • The bibliography should be sorted in alphabetical order by surname. References that do not include an author should be sorted by the first letter of the title.
  • Any designations such as Dr, Professor, Mrs, or academic qualifications etc., are omitted from your citation of the author
    • i.e. Grey, Jacqueline, not Grey, Dr Jacqueline
  • Title of the book is italicised
    • e.g. Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament: Introducing the Conceptual World of the Hebrew Bible
  • The title of the book retains the original spelling
    • e.g. for the book, What Color is Your Parachute?: Guide to Job-Hunting Online, the spelling of 'colour' should not be altered to the Australian spelling
  •  Each word in the title of the book should be capitalised, except for the articles, prepositions and coordinating conjunctions
    • For example, the words: ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘for’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘it’, ‘a’, ‘is’, etc., are not capitalised within the title unless it is the first word of the title.
    • e.g. Reckoning with the Past: Historical Essays on American Evangelicalism from the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals
  • Footnotes can include more than one reference within the same footnote. Placing footnotes side by side can be confusing (e.g. 12 could be 1 and 2, or 12) or distracting (e.g. if you want to cite five sources16,17,18,19,20,21). Instead, you can incorporate the references into the same footnote, separated by a semi-colon (;), e.g. 

1Grey, Them, Us & Me, 172; Greenberger, Networks for Research and Education, 35; Konz, "The Even Greater Commission," 338.

  • Do not include ISBN numbers, postcodes or copyright symbols etc.


Differences Between Footnotes and Bibliography

Note the differences in the examples given below.

  1. The author's name is in a different order.
  2. The facts of publication (place, publisher and date) ARE put in parentheses or brackets in the footnotes, but NOT in the bibliography.
  3. The footnotes use commas while the bibliography uses full stops.
  4. In the footnotes, you must include the page number where you found the information in that resource. By contrast, the only time page numbers appear in a bibliography is for a journal article or a book chapter (see instructions in this manual).

In the footnote

Jacqueline Grey, Them, Us and Me: How the Old Testament Speaks to People Today (Sydney, NSW: APPS & SCD Press, 2007), 45.

In the bibliography

Grey, Jacqueline. Them, Us and Me: How the Old Testament Speaks to People Today. Sydney, NSW: APPS & SCD Press, 2007.

Next: What's new in Turabian 9th Edition