The Chicago style, sometimes called Turabian style after noted scholar Kate L. Turabian who wrote the authoritative guide on the style, is commonly required for history and other humanities papers. While the style has its origins in journalistic writing, it is also widely used by researchers and students in the social sciences like sociology, anthropology, political science, economics and others when formatting research papers, theses, dissertations and journals.
The Chicago style provides guidelines for two documentation systems; notes and bibliography style or author-date style. Notes and bibliography style uses footnotes or endnotes to cite sources and a bibliography at the end of the paper to provide full details of all sources cited. Author-date style uses in-text parenthetical citations to briefly identify sources and a reference list instead of a bibliography.
Some key formatting elements for Chicago style social science papers are:
1-inch margins all around the page.
12-point font, Times New Roman or similar easily readable font style.
Double spaced lines throughout the paper including block quotes, notes, bibliography/reference list.
Page numbers in the top right or bottom center of each page.
Title page with title centered, your name, course number and instructor.
Running head on subsequent pages with your last name and page number in the top right corner.
Headers should not be used unless required by your instructor. Footnotes or endnotes rather than in-text citations are used to identify sources.
When structuring the paper itself, Chicago style requires:
Introduction to establish research topic, thesis and overview of paper organization.
Body paragraphs with topic sentences, context, analysis and evaluation. Sources cited with corresponding footnotes or endnotes.
Conclusion paragraph to reiterate thesis and key findings or analysis.
Bibliography or reference list on a new page at the end providing full details of all sources cited arranged alphabetically by author’s last name.
Additionally for notes and bibliography style papers:
Footnotes are preferred over endnotes and numbered consecutively throughout the text.
Corresponding superscript footnote numbers in the body text link to full citations in the footnotes.
Bibliography lists all sources cited following the same formatting rules as footnotes.
For author-date style papers:
In-text parenthetical citations identifying author’s last name, year of publication and page number if a direct quote.
Reference list on a new page at end provides publication details for all sources cited arranged alphabetically by author’s last name.
Some key formatting rules for notes and bibliography style footnotes and bibliographic entries include:
Author’s first and last name, unless using an organization as author.
Title in title case and in quotation marks for articles, chapters etc. Italicized for books, journals, etc.
City of publication for publishers, followed by a colon and publisher name.
Year of publication in parentheses.
Page or volume numbers if citing a specific page or volume.
DOIs or URLs for electronic resources and date accessed.
Properly citing sources using Chicago style footnote and bibliography format is important for social science research papers to give credit to authors and ideas while also allowing readers to easily locate cited works in the bibliography. Following the style guidelines meticulously ensures academic integrity and improves the overall strength and credibility of a paper’s research and analysis.