Turabian vs Chicago: What Differs and Which One Your Paper Needs

Mostly yes. CMOS Shop Talk, the blog of the University of Chicago Press, calls Turabian the "student version" of The Chicago Manual of Style and says the two are compatible and, for the most part, use the same citation styles. Rogers State University's library guide says they "use the same guidelines," and SUNY Geneseo's guide describes Turabian as a simplified version of the Chicago manual.

So the answer to "is Turabian the same as Chicago" is yes for most citations, and a note formatted for one will usually pass the other. The differences come from three places: the audience each book serves, the edition of Chicago each one follows, and the extra paper-formatting advice Turabian adds. The sections below take them in turn. If you only need a quick answer for a syllabus, skip to the table.

Where to see the rules in action

Paste a source into the citation tool above to see a Turabian note and bibliography entry together. For a longer list, use the Turabian Citation Machine. Our guides to Turabian format, Turabian footnotes and the Turabian bibliography cover the paper itself.

Kate L. Turabian (1893–1987) grew up on Chicago's South Side and worked at the University of Chicago for decades. According to the University of Chicago Press's history of the manual, she served as the university's dissertation secretary from 1930 to 1958, a post through which every accepted doctoral thesis passed. She also edited the university's official publications.

From a pamphlet to a manual

In 1937 she wrote a small pamphlet describing the university's required style for dissertations, and the Press began distributing it in 1947. The Press first published the work as a book in 1955, titled A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. She died in 1987, months after the fifth edition appeared; later editions were revised by others.

Why her name stays on the cover

Later editions kept the name of Kate L. Turabian because the book still rests on her approach: plain rules for student writers. The 7th edition added a section on the research and writing process by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams, and the 9th was revised by Joseph Bizup and William T. FitzGerald. The Press says the book has sold more than nine million copies.

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is the book people mean when they say "Turabian." It is published by the University of Chicago Press, and the official Turabian site subtitles itself "Chicago Style for Students and Researchers."

What is inside

The manual covers more than citations. It walks writers through the research process, from choosing a topic to drafting, and it gives formatting rules for papers, theses and dissertations. Its citation chapters present the notes-bibliography and author-date systems, with the examples in its notes-bibliography quick guide and author-date quick guide.

The 9th edition and the 10th

The current edition of A Manual for Writers is the 9th, published in 2018, and the quick guide describes it as the ninth edition. A 10th edition is due in late 2026 on the Press's catalog page. It is revised by Joseph Bizup, William T. FitzGerald and Juli Parrish, is updated to match the latest Chicago Manual of Style and The Craft of Research, and adds guidance on generative AI. Until your school adopts it, expect the 9th.

The first two rows of the table below come from the books' purposes. The rest come from the edition gap: Turabian 9 follows the 17th edition of Chicago, and Chicago's 18th edition (2024) changed several rules.

What the Turabian vs Chicago table means in practice

Most of these differences touch a handful of entries in a paper. The city is the most visible one, because it appears in every book entry. If your instructor accepts either edition, pick one and apply it to every entry; don't mix a city in one entry with none in the next.

Where the sources agree

The University of Portland's and Widener University's summaries of Chicago 18 list the place, et al., 3-em dash and chapter changes. The Turabian side comes from the official quick guides, whose examples keep the city, and from Memorial University's and Northwest Missouri State University's Turabian 9 guides. Liberty University's guide notes that the 9th edition recommends against ibid.

Both manuals offer the same two systems, so the Chicago Turabian citation format you learn for one carries over to the other.

Notes and bibliography

A superscript number in the sentence points to a footnote or endnote with the source details and page. A bibliography at the end lists every source. Humanities courses such as history, religion and theology use it most. Our Chicago book citation guide covers the Chicago 18 version, and our Turabian book citation guide covers Turabian 9.

Author-date

A parenthetical citation holds the author, year and page, such as (Kitamura 2017, 25), and a reference list replaces the bibliography. See Chicago in-text citation for how the parentheses work. Don't mix the two systems in one paper.

Chicago Turabian bibliography and endnotes

A "Chicago Turabian bibliography" and "Chicago Turabian endnotes" are not separate styles. They mean the Turabian bibliography page and a Notes page after the text. Some schools, including Liberty University, don't allow endnotes at all, so check the school's rule.

The biggest practical difference is not in the citations. CMOS Shop Talk explains that Turabian adds paper formatting rules and detailed guidance on the research and writing process, while The Chicago Manual of Style omits that advice and focuses on publication. So a student needs Turabian to format a class paper.

What Turabian 9 settles

Our Turabian format guide covers these settings in detail:

• Margins of at least 1 inch on all sides.
• A readable font, preferably 12 point.
• A double-spaced body, with single-spaced block quotations, notes and bibliography entries.
• Page numbers at the top right or bottom center, with none on the title page.
• Up to five heading levels, though class papers rarely need more than two.

Schools add rules

Liberty University's Turabian guide, for example, requires ibid. for consecutive notes to the same source even though the manual discourages it. A school guide outranks both books.

Where you are matters as much as what you are writing. Rogers State University's guide says Turabian is most commonly used in social science courses such as history, while Chicago appears across many disciplines, and literature, history and the arts in particular may choose it for the clean look of notes.

History, religion and theology

These courses lean on notes-bibliography citations in either manual. Many Christian universities and seminaries name Turabian outright, often with house rules for ibid. and endnotes. Our Turabian book citation guide also covers how to cite the Bible in those papers.

Art, music and literature

These fields more often cite Chicago directly, sometimes in the 18th edition. If a professor writes Chicago 18, drop the city and follow the newer rules in the table above. Our Chicago in-text citation guide shows both systems with examples.

Turabian vs Chicago is settled by your instructor or school, not by the manuals. When the assignment says only "Chicago" or "Chicago/Turabian," ask, because the name can point to either manual.

Use Turabian for student work

If you are writing a class paper, thesis or dissertation, the manual by Kate L. Turabian is the book written for you. Shop Talk suggests Turabian for student papers, theses and dissertations and The Chicago Manual of Style for professional publishing. SUNY Geneseo's guide goes further: if an instructor doesn't specify a guide, it recommends Turabian.

Use Chicago for publication

If you are preparing an article or book, or your department names the 18th edition, follow The Chicago Manual of Style. Many libraries give students free online access to it, which Shop Talk suggests checking with a librarian.

When the syllabus says Chicago/Turabian

A slash usually means the instructor accepts either book, since the citation systems are the same. On a syllabus, that is the practical answer to whether Turabian is the same as Chicago: the systems match, but the editions may not. The safe move is to ask three things: which edition, notes-bibliography or author-date, and whether the city of publication is required. Then format every entry the same way.

Most Turabian vs Chicago problems come from mixing the two sets of rules in one paper. Check yours against this list.

A final check

Whichever manual you follow, every source in your notes should appear once in your bibliography. The Turabian Title Page Generator sets up the first page, and every guide is on our student writing guides page. When you're ready to cite, the free Turabian citation generator formats each note and entry, and our Chicago citation generator does the same for Chicago 18.