Turabian author-date style cites sources in the text as (Author Year, page) and lists them alphabetically in a reference list. It is the version of Turabian used in the sciences, engineering and social sciences.
Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations adapts Chicago style for students. This page follows the ninth edition, which matches the 17th edition of Chicago. Names and titles in the examples are illustrative.
How Turabian Author-Date Citations Work
In the text, give the author's surname and year with no comma between them, then a comma and the page if needed: (Okafor 2023, 41). In the reference list, the year comes straight after the author's name.
Do not mix author-date citations with footnote citations. Choose the system your course asks for and use it throughout.
Which Turabian System Should You Use?
| Feature | Author-date | Notes-bibliography |
|---|---|---|
| Common in | Sciences, engineering, social sciences | History, arts, humanities |
| In-text form | (Okafor 2023, 41) | Superscript note number |
| List at the end | References | Bibliography |
| Year position in list | Straight after the author | Near the end of the entry |
If a science or engineering brief just says "Turabian", it almost always means author-date. When in doubt, check your department's sample papers or ask.
In-Text Citations
Grain-boundary scattering reduced conductivity by about a third (Okafor 2023, 41).
Okafor (2023) attributes the drop to grain-boundary scattering.
Two authors: (Lin and Moss 2019)
Three authors: (Lin, Moss, and Park 2020)
Four or more authors: (Park et al. 2024)
Several sources: (Lin and Moss 2019; Park et al. 2024)
Same author, same year: (Okafor 2023a, 2023b)
Page numbers appear without "p." or "pp.". Give them for quotations and for specific facts or figures; leave them out when you refer to a whole work.
The ninth edition uses "et al." in the text for four or more authors. If your department has moved to the newer 18th edition of Chicago, check its author rules, as some thresholds changed.
Journal Articles
Format: Surname, First Name. Year. “Article Title.” Journal Name volume (issue): pages. DOI.
Okafor, Lena. 2023. “Grain-Boundary Scattering in Thin Copper Films.” Journal of Example Materials 18 (2): 33–49. https://doi.org/10.1000/xyz123.
Lin, Sara, and Hana Moss. 2019. “Thermal Drift in MEMS Gyroscopes.” Example Sensors Journal 7 (4): 210–22.
Only the first author's name is inverted. Article titles take headline-style capitals inside quotation marks, and journal names are italicized. Add a DOI when the article has one.
For works with more than ten authors, list the first seven in the reference list followed by "et al.". For ten or fewer, list them all.
Books and Chapters
Book: Patel, Ravi. 2021. Introduction to Control Systems. 3rd ed. New York: Example Press.
Chapter in an edited book: Moss, Hana. 2020. “Sensor Fusion.” In Robotics Handbook, edited by Tomas Lin, 101–28. London: Example Books.
Give the edition only if it is not the first. Page ranges follow Chicago's shortened style, so 101–128 becomes 101–28.
Reports, Datasets, Theses and Websites
Report: Example Energy Agency. 2024. Grid Storage Outlook 2024. Report EEA-24-3. Paris: Example Energy Agency.
Dataset: Example Climate Lab. 2023. “Regional Temperature Dataset, 1950–2020.” Version 2. https://data.example.org/temp.
Thesis: Mensah, Kofi A. 2021. “Fatigue Behavior of Additively Manufactured Titanium Lattices.” PhD diss., University of Leeds.
Web page: Example Space Agency. 2025. “Mission Overview.” Last modified June 3, 2025. https://example.org/mission.
When a web page shows no publication or modification date, use "n.d." in place of the year and add an access date. Include version numbers for datasets and software so readers can find exactly what you used.
Formatting the Reference List and Paper
- Title the list "References" and order it alphabetically by the first author's surname.
- Use a hanging indent; Turabian single-spaces each entry with a blank line between entries, unless your instructor says otherwise.
- List several works by one author by year, oldest first, adding letters for works from the same year.
- Number figures and tables, and give sources in captions or source lines.
- Use SI units and your discipline's conventions for numbers and equations.
When Notes Are Still Useful
Author-date papers can still use occasional footnotes for brief comments that would interrupt the text, such as a note on calibration or a short aside. These are content notes, not citations.
If a note mentions a source, cite it inside the note in author-date form, such as (Okafor 2023, 41).
Common Turabian Author-Date Mistakes
| Mistake | Correct form |
|---|---|
| (Okafor, 2023) with a comma, as in APA | (Okafor 2023) |
| (Okafor 2023, p. 41) | (Okafor 2023, 41) |
| Year at the end of the reference entry | Year straight after the author's name |
| Both authors' names inverted | Invert only the first author |
| Mixing footnote citations with author-date | Use one system throughout |
| Missing DOI | Add the DOI where the article has one |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Turabian is a student version of Chicago style. The ninth edition follows the 17th edition of Chicago, with extra guidance for papers, theses and dissertations.
No. Write (Okafor 2023). A comma goes only before a page number: (Okafor 2023, 41).
In author-date style it is called References. In notes-bibliography style it is called Bibliography.
In the ninth edition, give the first author's surname followed by "et al.": (Park et al. 2024).
Only for quotations and specific facts or data. When you refer to a work as a whole, the author and year are enough.
Yes, for short explanatory comments, but not as the main way to cite sources.