The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is the most commonly used legal citation style guide in the United States. Lawyers, law students, and legal publications follow Bluebook guidelines for creating citations to legal authorities such as case law, statutes, and other legal documents. While the Bluebook is primarily intended for legal citation, the footnote format it establishes is also commonly adopted for research papers in fields related to law and public policy.
For academic research papers that utilize Bluebook style footnotes, the basic citation format includes the following core elements for each source cited:
First and last name of author(s)
Title of source (book, article, etc.)
Name of publication where source was published
Date of publication
Other identifying information such as the page number(s) cited or volume and issue number for journal articles
These core elements are then structured in a specific order and with proper punctuation according to Bluebook rules. The first time a source is cited in a footnote, more detailed information is typically included compared to subsequent citations of the same source. Footnote numbers are superscripted and correspond to citation call-outs placed in the body text of the paper.
A few key Bluebook rules related to footnote format in research papers include:
Author’s first and last names are written fully out at the first citation and abbreviated to initials thereafter if there are multiple authors with the same last name.
Titles of books are written in italics and titles of articles are written in double quotation marks, with large/small caps used respectively for journal/newspaper titles.
The date of publication immediately follows the title of the source, without any intervening punctuation.
For legal sources, specific reporter abbreviation should be used in place of journal volume and issue numbers.
If citing the same source multiple times consecutively, subsequent footnote(s) can use abbreviated citation form of “Ibid” or “Id” with appropriate page number(s) rather than a full repetitive citation.
Footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the text in a single series of numeric symbols without parentheses or periods.
Some key Bluebook footnote format examples for a research paper include:
First citation:
John Smith, “Title of Article,” Journal of Law 12 (2020): 14.
Later citation:
2. Smith, supra note 1, at 15.
Monograph:
3. Jane Doe, Book Title (Publisher 2020).
Legal material:
4. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
Newspaper article:
5. Joe Schmoe, “Current Event,” New York Times, Jan. 5, 2020, at A1.
Website:
6. Organization Name, “Web Page Title,” URL (date accessed if no date available).
While the Bluebook style was developed specifically with legal citations in mind, its comprehensive system and standardized footnote format has made it widely adopted as the preferred citation method for law and policy research papers requiring citations. Careful adherence to Bluebook rules helps ensure research papers are consistently and professionally cited according to academic expectations.
Beyond a standard footnote format, the Bluebook citation manual also provides additional guidelines for less commonly cited source types as well as rules for signal words, parallel citations, abbreviations and more. The core aspects of Bluebook style footnotes as outlined here establish an effective foundational structure for research papers utilizing this important citation format. Following Bluebook rules ensures research papers in these fields maintain uniformity and support claims through proper attribution to source materials.