Chicago 17th Author-Date

In-text citations are included throughout the course of your writing, to acknowledge the sources of information you have used to build and support your ideas. An in-text citation provides information about the author, the year the information was published, and sometimes location information such as a page number.

An in-text citation can be presented in different ways:

• Stark and Lannister (2019) – the author(s) names are part of the sentence, appearing outside the brackets
• (Stark and Lannister 2019) – all the referencing information appears within the brackets

Additional information and examples of how to reference in-text when quoting and paraphrasing in the Chicago 17th Author-Date style are presented below.

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Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you present the ideas of others in your own words.

• In-text citation includes author and year of publication
• Check with your lecturer to see whether you should also include a page number (which is recommended in the Chicago manual, but not required)

Paraphrasing example

Palladino and Wade (2010) argue that mental well-being is linked with flexible thinking.

OR

It could be argued that mental flexibility is a key factor in well-being (Palladino and Wade 2010).

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Quoting (40 words or less)

Quoting is when you copy the exact words (including spelling and punctuation) from another source into your work.

• Short quotations should be run in (incorporated) within the text
• Place quotation marks around the quote
• In-text citation includes author, year of publication and page number
• Use paragraph number for sources where the page number is not available

Quoting example - with page numbers

According to Palladino and Wade (2010, 147), “a flexible mind is a healthy mind.”

OR

In fact, “a flexible mind is a healthy mind” (Palladino and Wade 2010, 147).

Quoting example - with paragraph numbers

Lee (2015, para. 1) states that “double quotation marks are used to enclose quoted material.”

OR

“In the APA and Chicago referencing styles, double quotation marks are used to enclose quoted material” (Lee 2015, para. 1).

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Quoting (40 words or more)

Use a freestanding block of text which:

• Starts on a new line
• Is indented from the left margin
• Does not include quotation marks

Your in-text citation will appear in brackets after the final punctuation mark and will include the author, year of publication, and page/paragraph number (note: there is no punctuation mark after the in-text citation)

Block quotation example

In-text citations are important in academic writing, drawing the parallel between the author’s work and the sources which support it:

The function of any citation-signaller is to alert the reader to some kind of association between the citing text and the cited text. Citation-signallers may additionally, by using page references or chapter numbers, single out a particular part of the text as especially relevant. (Langham 2005, 361)

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Multiple sources for the same information

When including multiple sources to support a particular point in your writing or demonstrating a consensus:

• Include all sources in the same set of brackets. You can choose to order these names alphabetically by author, chronologically by date of publication, or by importance, whichever best supports your work
• Separate the citations with semi colons
• Include a reference list entry for each source

Multiple sources example

There is an established consensus that the current trend towards a warming climate is directly linked to human activity (Hegerl 1996; Levitus et al. 2017; NASA, n.d; Robinson, Hall, and Mote 2014; Santer et al. 2003).

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Multiple works by the same author(s)

• Order chronologically in the reference list
• For a publication with no date (n.d.), list this after the author’s multiple works

In-text citations

(Bull 2008).

Bull (2015) states…

Reference list

Bull, Melissa. 2008. Governing the Heroin Trade: From Treaties to Treatment. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/curtin/detail.action?docID=438571.

Bull, Melissa. 2015. Punishment and Sentencing: Risk, Rehabilitation and Restitution. South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/curtin/detail.action?docID=1985996.

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Multiple works by the same author(s) - published in the same year

• Add a, b, c and so on after the year to differentiate works by the same author(s) published in the same year
• Order alphabetically by the title of the work in the reference list
• For references that have no date (shown by n.d.), use the following forms for the date in the in-text citation and reference list: (n.d.-a), (n.d.-b) etc.

In-text citations

(Clarke and Fawcett 2014b).

OR

Clarke and Fawcett (2014a) suggest that…

Reference list

Clarke, Pamela, and Jacqueline Fawcett. 2014a. “Life as a Mentor.” Nursing Science Quarterly 27 (3): 213-215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318414534492.

Clarke, Pamela, and Jaqueline Fawcett. 2014b. “Life as a Nurse Researcher.” Nursing Science Quarterly 27 (1): 37-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318413509708.

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Different authors with the same surname

If referring to two or more publications where the primary (first) authors have the same surname, include the first author’s initials in all in-text citations, even if the year of publication differs.

In-text citation

(B. Johnson 2015). OR According to B. Johnson (2015)…

(M. Johnson, Sanchez, and Zheng 2016). OR M. Johnson, Sanchez, and Zheng (2016) state…

Reference list

Johnson, B. M. 2015. “Buoyancy Instability of Homologous Implosions.” Journal of Fluid Mechanics 774 (6): R4-1-R4-12. https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2015.309.

Johnson, Maree, Paula Sanchez, and Catherine Zheng. 2016. “The Impact of an Integrated Nursing Handover System on Nurses’s Satisfaction and Work Practices.” Journal of Clinical Nursing 25 (1-2): 257-268. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13080.

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Authors citing other authors

Academic content such as books and journal articles will often contain a lot of citations. When do you need to give credit to the original author (primary source)? Cite the original author when:

• They are quoted by your source (the secondary source)
• When a specific study is discussed in the secondary source and you reproduce findings or arguments from that study without accessing the primary source

When citing a secondary source:

• The in-text citation should include author details and the year from the primary source, as well as the author, year of publication and page/paragraph number from the secondary source
• Only the secondary source is included in the reference list

In-text citation

…“event in nature or in society” (Blaikie et al. 1994, as quoted by Maldonado et al. 2013, 602).

OR

Lazrus (2012, as quoted by Maldonado et al. 2013, 610) outlines the exemptions for certain populations.

Reference list

Maldonado, Julie, Christine Shearer, Robin Bronen, Kristina Peterson, and Heather Lazrus. 2013. “The Impact of Climate Change on Tribal Communities in the US: Displacement, Relocation, and Human Rights.” Climatic Change 120 (3): 601-614. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0746-z.

Packer, Joanne, Gerry Turpin, Emilie Ens, Beatrice Venkataya, Mbabaram Community, Yirralka Rangers, and Jennifer Hunter. 2019. “Building Partnerships for Linking Biomedical Science With Traditional Knowledge of Customary Medicines: A Case Study With Two Australian Indigenous Communities.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 15:69-81. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-019-0348-6.