Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition: What’s New

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Here is a list of the biggest changes in the 17th edition of CMoS:

Titles for Websites

In a departure from the 16th edition, the formatting for titles of websites can now be treated in various ways. What dictates the treatment is whether the website also has a print counterpart, such as newspaper websites. If the site has one, the title is in italics. If it does not, then it is not stylized.

Title examples:

  • The New York Times
  • Wikipedia
  • Forbes
  • Buzzfeed

Use of “ibid.” 

In previous versions of CMoS, the abbreviation “ibid” was used in footnotes to show the reader that the previous cited source is being cited immediately after. The 17th edition, however, discourages the use of “ibid” in favor of shortened citations. The footnote can instead start with the author’s last name, and include the page number.

Here are some example congruent footnote citations without “ibid.”:

  1. Steven T. Brown, Tokyo Cyberpunk: Posthumanism in Japanese Visual Culture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 124.
  2. Brown, 11.
  3. Brown, 17.

 Repeating the Year in Certain Author-date Citations

Chicago Manual of Style has two main sub-styles: “author-date” and “footnote-bibliography.” In an author-date reference list entry, the year may now be repeated for sources that are also identified by month and day, such as journals or websites. This, however, is optional.

Examples:

Germano, William. 2017. “Futurist Shock.” Lingua Franca (blog). Chronicle of Higher Education, February 15, 2017. https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2017/02/15/futurist-shock/.

New York Times. 2002. “In Texas, Ad Heats Up Race for Governor.” July 30, 2002.

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