How to Cite a Journal Article in Chicago
Updated September 2026
Citing a journal article in Chicago comes down to one template and a handful of rules. Below: the exact 18th edition format, a real example produced by our citation engine, and the in-text form — or paste your source into the generator on this page and copy the finished citation.
The Chicago format
Author Last, First. “Title of Article.” Journal Name Volume, no. Issue (Year): pages. DOI or URL.
Chicago (18th edition) formats a journal article reference as shown above. A real example, generated by our citation engine:
Rasch, Björn, and Jan Born. "About Sleep's Role in Memory." Physiological Reviews 93, no. 2 (2013): 681–766. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012.
In-text(Rasch and Born 2013)
Cite a journal article in Chicago — free
Set up for this page. Paste and go.
A DOI finds the article's details.
Citation style
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (2024), notes and bibliography. The 18th dropped the place of publication that the 17th required.
Finding the pieces
Or skip the hunt: Paste the article's DOI into the generator. It works out what the source is, fills every field from the source's own record, and is already set to Chicago.
- DOI — first page of the PDF or the article's landing page; it fills everything else automatically
- Volume and issue — the year's bound set and its installment: 93(2)
- Page range — the article's full span in the journal, not the pages you quoted
- Journal name — italicized in every style
Chicago's formatting rules at work
- First author inverted, additional authors in natural order
- Titles use Title Case; articles in quotes, containers in italics
- Reads like prose: the year sits in parentheses before the page range for articles
- Pairs with footnotes — the same data in sentence form with commas
Journal Article-specific pitfalls
- The article title is never italicized — the journal name always is
- Online-only articles without page ranges use the article number instead
- Cite the version of record (the published version), not the preprint, when both exist
In-text citations in Chicago
Chicago's notes-bibliography system cites with footnotes: a superscript number in the text pointing to a note with the source details and page. The bibliography entry shown here contains everything the footnote needs — un-invert the author's name and swap most periods for commas to form the note.
No author? The note and bibliography entry begin with the title; alphabetize by it (ignoring A/An/The).
Building the Bibliography
Every in-text citation pairs with a full entry on the Bibliography page, alphabetized by author. Add each citation to your bibliography as you generate it, and the Bibliography Builder assembles and exports the finished page to Word with the title, ordering, and indentation Chicago requires.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the basic Chicago format for a journal article?
- Author Last, First. “Title of Article.” Journal Name Volume, no. Issue (Year): pages. DOI or URL. — see the worked example above, generated by the same engine that powers the free citation tool.
- Do I mention the database (JSTOR, EBSCO) I used?
- Generally no in current styles — the DOI suffices. MLA permits the database as a second container for items only available there.
- How do I cite a journal article in Chicago in-text?
- With a footnote: a superscript number pointing to a note with the source details and the specific page.
- Can I get this citation in other styles too?
- Yes — every result in the generator renders APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE simultaneously. Generate once, switch styles with one click.