Chicago citation generator for footnotes and bibliography
History and humanities papers often require Chicago style, which means footnotes, shortened notes for repeat citations and a bibliography with different punctuation from the notes. Send your todo.is agent your sources and the pages you quote, and this prompt writes every note and the bibliography in the right order.
The prompt
- Create Chicago style citations for my paper. Style: [CHICAGO SYSTEM], [EDITION]. Sources: [SOURCES]. In my paper I cite them in this order with these pages: [CITATION ORDER AND PAGES]. For notes-bibliography, give me a numbered list of footnotes: a full note the first time a source appears, a shortened note (author, short title, page) after that. Then a bibliography sorted alphabetically with hanging indents. For author-date, give the in-text citations and a reference list. Find missing details (publisher, volume, page range, DOI) from the source itself and flag anything you could not confirm. Deliver a Word file, and if I attach my paper, insert the footnotes in the right places.
What to change
- [CHICAGO SYSTEM]: "notes-bibliography" (common in history and the humanities) or "author-date" (common in sciences and social sciences).
- [EDITION]: "18th edition" (current) or "17th edition" if your teacher still uses it.
- [SOURCES]: Paste links, ISBNs, DOIs, archive references, or attach PDFs and photos of title pages.
- [CITATION ORDER AND PAGES]: e.g. "Marsh p. 54, Rivera p. 118, Marsh p. 61, letter from the city archive". Or attach your paper.
Example result
- Footnotes (notes-bibliography, 18th edition)
- 1. Elena Marsh, *Rivers of Salt: Trade in the Medieval Baltic* (Northgate Academic, 2019), 54.
- 2. Tomás Rivera, "Salt Prices and Guild Power in Lübeck," *Journal of Northern History* 41, no. 2 (2020): 118, https://doi.org/10.0000/jnh.2020.412.
- 3. Marsh, *Rivers of Salt*, 61.
- 4. Hanna Vogt, "The Hanseatic Ledger Project," in *Trade Records of Northern Europe*, ed. Peter Lund (Brightfield Press, 2021), 77.
- 5. Rivera, "Salt Prices," 121.
- 6. Council minutes, March 14, 1412, City Archive of Lübeck (example archive reference, check the catalog number).
- Bibliography
- Marsh, Elena. *Rivers of Salt: Trade in the Medieval Baltic*. Northgate Academic, 2019.
- Rivera, Tomás. "Salt Prices and Guild Power in Lübeck." *Journal of Northern History* 41, no. 2 (2020): 110–34. https://doi.org/10.0000/jnh.2020.412.
- Vogt, Hanna. "The Hanseatic Ledger Project." In *Trade Records of Northern Europe*, edited by Peter Lund, 70–92. Brightfield Press, 2021.
- Same sources in author-date
- • In text: (Marsh 2019, 54) · (Rivera 2020, 118)
- • Reference list: Marsh, Elena. 2019. *Rivers of Salt: Trade in the Medieval Baltic*. Northgate Academic.
- What changes between note and bibliography
- • Names: First Last in notes, Last, First in the bibliography
- • Punctuation: commas and parentheses in notes, periods in the bibliography
- • Pages: the exact page you cite in notes, the full page range of an article or chapter in the bibliography
- Rules applied
- • Shortened notes instead of "ibid." for repeat citations, as the 18th edition prefers
- • Place of publication left out (optional in the 18th edition)
- • En dash for page ranges; DOIs as full links
How to do it with todo.is
- Choose notes-bibliography or author-date, list your sources and the pages you cite.
- Send it in todo.is with your paper attached if you want the footnotes inserted for you.
- Check the flagged items, especially archive references and editions.
- Add sources later with "new note after footnote 4" and your agent renumbers the rest.
Tips for a better result
- Ask your teacher which system they want. History usually means footnotes; social sciences often mean author-date.
- Cite the edition you actually read. Page numbers change between editions and reprints.
- Archive and primary sources vary a lot. Give your agent the archive's catalog details and check them against the finding aid.
- Attach your paper so footnote numbers follow the real order of your citations, not the order of your source list.
Chicago citation generator: FAQ
- What is the difference between Chicago notes-bibliography and author-date? Notes-bibliography uses footnotes or endnotes plus a bibliography and is common in history and the arts. Author-date uses short in-text citations like (Marsh 2019, 54) plus a reference list.
- Does Chicago style still use ibid.? The 18th edition discourages ibid. and recommends shortened notes instead, though it is still accepted. Follow your teacher's preference.
- Do I need a bibliography if I have footnotes? Usually yes, though Chicago allows full notes without a bibliography in some cases. Most teachers and journals expect both.
- Can it put the footnotes into my Word document? Yes. Attach your paper and your agent returns a copy with real Word footnotes at the right places.
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