If you have a useful source text, you may need to cite it more than once in your work. And the Chicago Manual of Style has specific rules for doing this! Here, then, is our guide to repeat citations in Chicago style referencing.
In Chicago footnote referencing, after giving full source information in the first footnote, you can shorten subsequent citations of the same source to prevent repetition. These shortened footnotes should include the author’s surname, a shortened title, and the page(s) cited:
1. Alan C. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City: Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insects and Plants in an Urban Landscape (London: Holt & Company, 1983), 13.
2. Esther Woolfson, Corvus: A Life with Birds (London: Granta Publications, 2008), 234.
3. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City, 102.
If citing two people with the same surname in your work, make sure to include the initial of the person you are citing again as well as their surname.
When citing the same source repeatedly, you can shorten the citation even further to just the author’s name and a page number:
1. Alan C. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City: Animals, Birds, Reptiles, Insects and Plants in an Urban Landscape (London: Holt & Company, 1983), 13.
2. Esther Woolfson, Corvus: A Life with Birds (London: Granta Publications, 2008), 234.
3. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City, 102.
4. Jenkins, 112.
5. Woolfson, Corvus, 235.
6. Woolfson, 117.
7. Jenkins, Wildlife in the City, 84.
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The key is making sure the source you’re citing is clear each time.
Chicago referencing also has an author–date system, which uses in-text citations. To reference the same source more than once in this, all you have to do is give the same citation again:
Alan Jenkins (1983) describes how birds of prey survive in urban settings. He says that peregrine falcons are a “spectacular example of adaptive behavior” (Jenkins 1983, 13).
All you need to do with repeat author–date citations, then, is make sure they are consistent! And if you’d like any extra help making sure the referencing in your work is correct, we have expert proofreaders available. Sign up for a 500-word free trial to find out how our proofreading service works.