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Turabian Citation Generator

This Turabian citation generator formats references in Turabian 9th edition, the student adaptation of the Chicago Manual of Style used for history, theology and humanities coursework. Paste a DOI, ISBN or title and the generator formats the record it finds. Turabian offers two systems, and choosing the wrong one is the most common mistake in submitted work.

Your formatted reference will appear here, with the database record it came from.

Turabian citation examples

Real Turabian (A Manual for Writers) 9th edition references, formatted the way undergraduate humanities writing coursework expects them.

Footnote (first, full)

1. Jane Smith, Rivers and Empire: Water in the Colonial Imagination (Boston: Meridian, 2024), 42.

Footnote (shortened)

2. Smith, Rivers and Empire, 57.

Bibliography entry

Smith, Jane. Rivers and Empire: Water in the Colonial Imagination. Boston: Meridian, 2024.

Turabian notes and author-date

Turabian supports notes-bibliography, where a superscript number points to a footnote, and author-date, where the citation appears in parentheses. Humanities courses almost always use notes-bibliography; the sciences and social sciences use author-date. Ask which one your department expects before you start.

1. Jane Smith, Rivers and Empire (Boston: Meridian, 2024), 42.

How to cite a website in Turabian

Citing a website in Turabian needs the author, the page title in quotation marks, the site name, the publication or modification date, and the URL. Add an access date only when the page carries no date of its own.

3. National Archives, "Records of the Colonial Office," last modified March 4, 2024, https://www.archives.gov/example.

Paste a link and cite a website automatically

Common Turabian mistakes

  • Footnotes and bibliography entries are punctuated differently: notes use commas and parentheses, bibliography entries use full stops.
  • The first note gives the full citation; later notes are shortened to author surname, short title and page.
  • Bibliography entries invert only the first author's name.
  • Turabian 9th edition follows Chicago 17th, so a Chicago guide will usually answer questions Turabian does not cover.
  • Page numbers appear in notes but not in bibliography entries for whole books.

Turabian citation generator FAQ

What is the difference between Turabian and Chicago style?+

Turabian is Chicago rewritten for students. The reference formats are essentially the same, but Turabian drops the publishing-industry material and adds guidance on papers, theses and dissertations.

Should I use notes-bibliography or author-date?+

History, literature and theology courses use notes-bibliography. Sciences and most social sciences use author-date. Your department handbook is the authority.

Does this Turabian citation generator produce footnotes?+

It produces both the full note and the bibliography entry, so you can paste the note into your footnote and the entry into your bibliography.

How do I shorten a note after the first citation?+

Use the author surname, a shortened form of the title and the page number. Ibid. was discouraged in Chicago 17 and Turabian 9 in favour of shortened notes.

Other citation styles