Introduction to Music Research

The Chicago Manual of Style is the premier citation style used in the humanities, especially for music. A simplified version, Turabian style, is geared toward students. While one can simply plug in a URL to a citation machine nowadays, this method does not always result in an accurate citation. It is important, therefore, to understand the basic building blocks and terminology of citations, and to always proofread your citations before you submit your work.

Please see our citation style guide for Chicago/Turabian for detailed examples.

Key terminology:

• Author-Date system -- Sources are cited within the text in parentheses with the last name of the author and publication date.
• Notes and Bibliography (NB) system -- Sources are cited as sequentially-numbered footnotes, with a corresponding superscript number in the text.
• In-text citations -- Parenthetical references to the source within the main text body.
• Footnotes -- Numbered citations below the main body of text.
• Reference list -- This is the list, in alphabetical order, at the end of your paper of all of the sources to which have made specific references. This is titled "Bibliography" in the NB system, and "References" in the Author-Date system.

Zotero -- "Zotero is a free, open-source research tool that helps you collect, organize, and analyze research and share it in a variety of ways"

Purdue Owl -- This is a wonderful reference guide for using the Chicago Manual of Style