Chicago Style (18th Edition) Citation Guide: Short Form & Ibid.

In Chicago style, the first time that an item is cited, provide a full citation for the item. For subsequent citations, use a shortened version of the footnote, which includes:

• Author's last name (for edited works, use the editor's last name, but omit the "ed." after the name)
• Shortened form of title (Only shorten titles that contain 4+ words; use 2-4 keywords from the full title. Omit initial articles such as A, An, or The)
• Page number (when available)

Examples of full footnotes followed by short form footnotes:

1. John Bright, Jeremiah. The Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), 60.

2. Danna Nolan Fewell and David M. Gunn, “Boaz, Pillar of Society: Measures of Worth in the Book of Ruth,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 45 (1989): 46.

3. Arthur A. Just, ed., “Overview, Luke 3:1-20,” in Luke, Ancient Christian Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 57.

4. Bright, Jeremiah, 60.

5. Fewell and Gunn, “Boaz, Pillar of Society,” 46.

6. Just, “Luke 3:1-20,” 57.

The abbreviation ibid. was previously used to refer to the same source cited in the previous footnote.

The Chicago Manual of Style discourages the use of ibid., which can obscure the identity of a source.

Short form is recommended instead of ibid.