Q. How would I cite from a curator’s statement of an art exhibit and specifically note that the curator’s statement is included in the exhibit, and is not simply a statement made in an article or interview? Perhaps something like this? Ann MacDonald, curatorial statement, Souvenir involontaire, by Melanie Rocan (Saskatoon, SK: Kenderdine Art Gallery).
A. That’s a good start. Include the usual facts (person, place, date) and explain them clearly. As you have it, however, Souvenir involontaire might be the title of the statement. If MacDonald was commenting on an exhibit of Rocan’s art, rewrite for clarity: Ann MacDonald, curatorial statement displayed in Melanie Rocan’s Souvenir involontaire exhibit, Kenderdine Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK. If possible, add a date.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Dear Editors: I’m familiar with chapter 14 of the manual, but how can I format a citation to an entire issue of a journal: no editors, no special title?
A. Cite it as usual, but without an article title: Critical Inquiry 39, no. 1 (Autumn 2012).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If you are presenting a quotation that contains footnotes within the original passage, do you retain those footnotes in the quoted passage, or is it all right to drop them as long as you provide the usual attribution via your own paper’s citations?
A. It’s conventional to drop the notes from quoted text. If you want to refer to the content of a note, however, quote and cite it separately.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I can’t seem to find any definitive answer on how to cite occasional papers. These are more than working papers and have a date and place of publication.
A. Any paper with a date and place of publication may follow the usual citation format: author (or organization), title, place, publisher, date. If CMOS doesn’t have an example of your specific type of paper, find something similar and model your citation on it (perhaps at paragraph 14.178 or 14.179). A published title of a stand-alone occasional paper is italicized; titles of unpublished papers are quoted. Don’t worry about a “definitive answer”—the main thing is to include the information that will document your source and help readers find it.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. When including a direct quote translated into English from a source written in a foreign language, how should this be indicated? Is it necessary to make it clear that the author of the work in which the source is cited, rather than the author of the source or a translator, has translated the quote from the original? If so, how?
A. Yes; in a scholarly publication this is required. You can write in parentheses “translated by the author” or “Smith’s translation” or whatever applies. If there are many such translations you can explain in a note: “All quotations of Petroski are Smith’s translations unless stated otherwise.”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I am editing a professor’s CV. In many cases, he gives two years for an article he has published. He gives the year corresponding to the issue number, as well as the year the issue was actually published. What is the correct way to include this information in a citation?
A. It’s not conventional to mention the year an article was printed, although an exception might be made if a publication was delayed many years or appeared in advance of the issue date, or if the timing of the printing was critical to some development in the discipline. Otherwise, it’s potentially confusing and unhelpful to have two dates. Libraries and online databases use the publication date, not the printing date. If your professor can’t defend his inclusion of the printing date, devise a style that is crystal clear, such as “(printed in 2012).”
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Browsing both the 15th and 16th editions for citation rules, I don’t see instruction on how to cite live performance. Given that performance studies, dance/theater criticism, and musicology/ethnomusicology are established disciplines, and that observing live performance is a necessary research method, I don’t see why that source (and its creators/producers) should not be cited.
A. It’s not that Chicago rejects live performance as a legitimate source; there simply isn’t room for examples of every kind. If live performances are the backbone of your research, the lack of a citation form in CMOS should not prevent you from citing them. You can mimic the standard order of citation elements (performer, title, place, date) or order them in a way that makes sense for your work, such as chronologically for works by the same person.
[Update: CMOS now covers how to cite live performances. See the 17th edition, paragraphs 14.266 and 15.57.]
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I have an examiner of a doctoral thesis criticizing footnotes because they renumber at every new chapter, starting at 1. Presumably he wants them to flow from one (1) to the last number sequentially through the entire thesis. Who is right?
A. Many universities have strict rules and formats for dissertations, so it’s possible that the examiner had no choice in the matter. Almost all the books that we publish at the University of Chicago restart the numbering of notes (whether footnotes or endnotes) at 1 at the beginning of each chapter. Rarely do the notes number all the way through a book. That said, there’s no single “correct” way; it’s simply a matter of style.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. How does one cite a translation of a translation?
A. You could model your citation after the examples in CMOS 14.99. If your data doesn’t fit into the example exactly, just try to make sure that (1) you get all the information in, (2) the format mimics other citations in your document, and (3) readers will be able to understand it and track it down for themselves.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What is the difference between a discussion and an interview? I am putting endnotes into a book by an investigative journalist who has conducted several interviews, but it appears that the examples given in the manual under the interview section are for discussions. Is a discussion less formal? For instance, without a set time and date?
A. Generally speaking, a discussion is a less formal and less scripted talk or debate between two or more equal participants where either no one is in charge or there is a moderator, whereas an interview is more formally conducted by a person who asks questions, sometimes from a prepared list, although interviews can also be informal and spontaneous. There is no doubt some overlap between the two. CMOS 14.211 shows examples of citations of an interview (notes 8 and 9) as well as of a discussion.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]