Chicago style provides two distinct citation methods: notes and bibliography, and author-date. The note system, often preferred in the humanities, uses numbered footnotes or endnotes to cite sources within the text. These notes correspond to entries in a bibliography at the end of the document. The author-date system, more common in the sciences, employs parenthetical citations within the text, including the author’s last name and year of publication. For example, (Smith 2023) would refer the reader to the full citation in the reference list at the end of the work.
The incorporation of source information directly into the text, regardless of system, ensures academic integrity and allows readers to quickly identify and verify referenced materials. This practice acknowledges intellectual contributions, avoiding plagiarism and lending credibility to the author’s work. Furthermore, these mechanisms offer historical context, revealing the foundations upon which the current research builds, and allow for a deeper understanding of the evolution of scholarly thought on a given topic.