How to Cite Sources in Turabian Style
Turabian 9 gives student researchers two citation systems: Notes & Bibliography and Author-Date. Choose the system required by your instructor or institution before formatting the source.
Method
- Confirm that the assignment requires Turabian 9 and identify whether it uses Notes & Bibliography or Author-Date.
- For Notes & Bibliography, create the bibliography entry and use a full note the first time a source is cited; later notes are normally shortened.
- For Author-Date, create the reference-list entry and pair it with an author-year parenthetical citation, adding the specific page or range when needed.
- For books and chapters in Turabian 9, include the place of publication as required by the ninth-edition patterns.
- For journal articles, use the article page range in the bibliography/reference list but the specific cited page in a note or in-text citation.
- Prefer a DOI URL for an online journal article when one is available, and verify imported metadata against the original source.
Worked example
Notes & Bibliography book pattern: Author. Title. Place: Publisher, Year. Full note: Author, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), cited page.
Author-Date book pattern: Author. Year. Title. Place: Publisher. In text: (Author Year, cited page).
A journal bibliography/reference entry uses the article page range; a note or in-text citation uses only the page(s) supporting the cited passage.
Notes
- Turabian 9 is aligned with Chicago 17 rather than Lynara’s separate Chicago 18 generator.
- The official Turabian Quick Guide covers both Notes & Bibliography and Author-Date and recommends using the system assigned by the instructor.
- Source type, edition, local thesis-office rules and unusual source details can require additional review beyond these common-source templates.
Choose Turabian Notes-Bibliography or Author-Date before formatting
Turabian 9 supports both Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date systems. Notes-Bibliography is common in many humanities contexts, while Author-Date is used in some social and natural sciences. The source metadata can be shared, but the outputs are structured differently.
Confirm the required system from the assignment before generating notes, parenthetical citations or reference entries. Mixing systems can create a paper that looks inconsistent even when each individual source is recognizable.
Distinguish notes, bibliography entries and page locators
A full note can include a specific page cited, while a bibliography entry for a chapter or journal article can contain the full page range of the work. A shortened later note serves another purpose again. Do not force one page field into every output.
Turabian follows Chicago closely but is aimed at student research and has its own edition-specific guidance. When a course explicitly asks for Turabian 9, use that requirement rather than substituting a generic Chicago example.
Authoritative references
Primary or authoritative references for the external standard, scoring rule or identifier convention used on this page.
Editorial review and limitations
Continue with the related tools
Use the linked tools for your own inputs and scenarios.
- Chicago Citation Generator — Generate Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition bibliography or author-date references for journal articles, webpages, books and chapters.
- MLA Citation Generator — Generate MLA Handbook 9th edition Works Cited entries and matching parenthetical in-text citations for journal articles, webpages, books and book chapters.
- Harvard Citation Generator — Generate Harvard references and matching author-date in-text citations for journals, websites, books and chapters using a Cite Them Right-style variant.