Q. When writing a paper, do you footnote information that you have learned in multiple sources?
A. If what you learned is common knowledge, then there’s no need to cite sources, but if it’s something that most people would need to look up or that different sources treat differently, then you should identify which sources you used. Obviously, this calls for judgment and partly depends on who your readers are and what you can expect them to know. For help with student papers, please see our free student pages.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m wondering how to style a webinar series name and the title of an episode in that series. Should the series name be italicized and the episode title be in quotes?
A. CMOS is silent, but your suggestion is one possibility. Or you could make the series title roman like book series titles and titles of academic courses.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am wondering why one needs to provide the URL for a journal or newspaper if one consults it online, but not the name of the library, say, if one consults it in print form? Typically everything about the articles is the same, and so the place where one found them should be irrelevant. Indeed, if I understand the logic, if one downloaded the PDF of a book, one would need to provide the URL, but if one made a PDF of a book and then read that, one wouldn’t have to. What am I missing?
A. The problem is that electronic editions of an article aren’t always the same. Writers or editors may tinker with them, adding updates and corrections. In contrast, a specific impression of a printed book or article will be the same as other physical copies of that impression. For now, the best way for a reader to know exactly which version of an electronic document was consulted (and to be able to find it) is to have the DOI or URL.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I have a question about copyright notices in image credit lines. CMOS 3.32 says that credit lines “occasionally” require a copyright date, but I’m not sure when they do and when they don’t. The first example doesn’t have a copyright date, while the second example, which is formatted identically in other respects, does. Is this determined by the permission grantor, or are there other factors involved?
A. It is indeed determined by the permission grantor, who may specify that the copyright date be included in the credit line. For advice on a specific situation that isn’t clear, please consult an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If a portion of a book is quoted in text and the author and the name of the book are given in the text (e.g., “Sensory perception is a matter of selectively throwing away information,” write Terry Bossomaier and David Green in their book Patterns in the Sand), is there a need for an endnote, as well?
A. You do need a complete citation when you quote someone else’s work in text. It needn’t be in the form of an endnote, but an endnote (or footnote) is an excellent way to add the publication information (city, publisher, date) and page or location number of the quotation if you can’t squeeze it all into the text.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Is there any acceptable way for an author to distinguish between endnotes that convey additional information and those that simply provide a reference citation? I get very tired of chasing down a dozen who-cares citations to occasionally glean a gem of real information.
A. It’s fairly common for writers of scholarly books to use footnotes for discursive material and endnotes for citations. But to flag two different types of endnotes somehow in the text? That seems potentially fussy and confusing.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In an essay, an author cited a report by an organization that has, since that report, changed its name, and later the author cited a second report written and published by the organization under its new name. Should the entries in References be under two different names, or both under the new name, perhaps with the first including a note such as, “Formerly . . .”?
A. The author should cite each report under the name that appears on the report. Annotating the new name with “Formerly . . .” is a good idea. Add blind entries in the reference list, if necessary:
New Name. See also Old Name
Old Name. See also New Name
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Chicago is very clear on the styling of editor- or author-translated titles in notes, but the examples provided are all books with italicized titles. In the case of a paper where the foreign title is enclosed in double quotes, is the bracketed translation placed before or after the closing quotes?
A. A translation would be placed within the quotation marks only if it were actually part of the title. You can find examples of bracketed translations of titles in quotation marks at CMOS 14.99.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hello. I’m organizing a bibliography with multiple sources from the same author, including several introductions she’s written. Would all the introductions be alphabetized under I for Introduction?
A. Yes, and then all the introductions should be sorted into alphabetical order by book or article title. See CMOS 14.110 for how to style a bibliography entry for a book introduction.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I’m editing a dissertation that quotes letters and interviews and other private documents. I understand that authors’ names in the bibliography do not include clerical titles such as Father, Bishop, and Archbishop. Does that apply to footnotes as well? And should the clerical titles be omitted for the recipients of the letters? Given that the dissertation concerns all manner of ecclesiastical matters, it includes many references to clergy at all levels of the hierarchy.
A. You were right to inquire! In scholarship, it’s much more important to include information that is relevant to the work than to follow a style guide’s preferences. Style must accommodate the work, not the other way around. As you suspect, in a dissertation concerning ecclesiastical matters, the titles of people can be very important, indicating their place in the clerical hierarchy, their manners, their viewpoints, or their power relative to the addressee. If the writer included them, they should not be removed without consultation, and the writer’s wish to keep them should take precedence over a style preference.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]