How to Cite Books in Turabian NB Style

In our guide, you will find two examples for citing a source according to Turabian rules: one for a footnote and another one is for a bibliography entry.
General format for citing a book:

Bibliography:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Footnote:
1. First Name Last Name, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

In our citation examples, we use the following color coding:

  • Red – Author
  • Blue – Title of book/article/charter/webpage
  • Pink – Date
  • Orange – Website/Publisher
  • Turquoise – Place of publication
  • Violet – Editor/Translator
  • Black – Volume/Issue
  • Sienna – Pages
  • Gold – Book, a part/chapter of which is being cited
  • Peach – Additional information about the source (i.e. its type, specific features etc.)
  • Light Magenta – Dictionary entry

Single author

Example:

Paley, John. Concept Analysis in Nursing: A New Approach. New York: Routledge,

2021.

Footnote citation:

1. John Paley, Concept Analysis in Nursing: A New Approach (New York:Routledge,

2021), 54.

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Two or three authors

Example:

Butts, Janie B., and Karen L. Rich. Nursing Ethics: Across the Curriculum and into Practice.

New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2022.

Footnote citation:

1. Janie B. Butts and Karen L. Rich, Nursing Ethics: Across the Curriculum and into

Practice (New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2022), 81-88.

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Four or more authors

Example:

Bratton, John, Jeff Gold, Andrew Bratton, and Laura Steele Human Resource Management.

London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Footnote citation:

1. John Bratton et al., Human Resource Management (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021), 14.

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No author

Sources without authors or editors are cited by their title.

Example:

Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Footnote citation:

1. Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

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Multiple works by the same author

Add a 3-em dash in all entries after the first one when citing multiple works written by the same author.

Example:

Perloff, Marjorie. Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020.

—. Rhyme and Meaning in the Poetry of Yeats. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2021.

Footnote citation:

1. Marjorie Perloff, Infrathin: An Experiment in Micropoetics (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 2020), 34.

2. Marjorie Perloff, Rhyme and Meaning in the Poetry of Yeats (Berlin: Walter de

Gruyter, 2021), 68-70.

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Different editions

Example:

Tappen, Ruth M. Advanced Nursing Research: From Theory to Practice. 3rd ed. New York:

Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2022.

Footnote citation:

1. Ruth M. Tappen, Advanced Nursing Research: From Theory to Practice, 3th ed.

(New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2022), 23-45.

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Editor or translator instead of author

Use “trans.” instead of “ed.” when a translator of the work is mentioned.

Example:

Smith, Jane, ed. The Stanford Handbook of Business and the American Press. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2022.

Footnote citation:

1. Jane Smith, ed., The Stanford Handbook of Business and the American Press (New

York: Oxford University Press, 2022), 202.

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Authors plus editors or translators

Use phrases like edited by (ed.), compiled by (comp.) or translated by (trans.) when it is necessary.

Example:

Churchill, Winston. Churchill: The Power of Words. Edited by Martin Gilbert. New York:

Hachette Books, 2024.

Footnote citation:

1. Winston Churchill, Churchill: The Power of Words, ed. Martin Gilbert (New York:

Hachette Books, 2024), 12.

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Encyclopedia or dictionary

If there is a need to cite the encyclopedia multiple times on the same page, use s.vv. instead of s.v., and cite all the words after.

Example:

The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed. s.vv. “Astronomy,” “Chemistry,” “Tradition,”

“Philosophy.”

Footnote citation:

1. The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed., s.v. “Tradition.”

2. The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed., s.vv. “Astronomy,” “Chemistry,”

“Tradition,” “Philosophy.”

This color is used to refer to various categories of encyclopedia.

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Chapter in an edited book

Example:

Rooke, Nickey, and Mark Morson. “Chapter Three: Leading Change and Working with

Others.” In Quality Improvement in Nursing, edited by Gillian Janes and Catherine

Delves-Yates, 67-94. London: SAGE, 2022.

Footnote citation:

1. Nickey Rooke and Mark Morson, “Chapter Three: Leading Change and Working

with Others,” in Quality Improvement in Nursing, ed. Gillian Janes and Catherine Delves-

Yates (London: SAGE, 2022), 67-68.

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Corporate author

Example:

World Health Organization. Global Report on Hypertension: The Race against a Silent Killer. Geneva: World Health Organization Press, 2023.

Footnote citation:

1. World Health Organization, Global Report on Hypertension: The Race against a

Silent Killer (Geneva: World Health Organization Press, 2023), 21-23.

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E-book

Mention the format of the book you used for consulting and citing in your paper: PDF, Kindle, Microsoft Reader, Dejavu, or others.

Example:

Carr, Michelle, and Matthias Beck. Healthcare Management Control: A Research Overview.

London: Routledge, 2022. EPUB.

Footnote citation:

1. Michelle Carr and Matthias Beck, Healthcare Management Control: A Research

Overview (London: Routledge, 2022), chap. 2, EPUB.

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Preface, foreword, afterword, or introduction

If the book has several publishers, don’t make your life difficult — include only the first one.

Example:

Lucio, Miguel Martinez. Preface to International Human Resource Management: The

Transformation of Work in a Global Context, edited by Miguel Martinez Lucio and

Robert MacKenzie, xiv-xv. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2022.

Footnote citation:

1. Miguel Martinez Lucio, preface to International Human Resource Management:

The Transformation of Work in a Global Context, ed. Miguel Martinez Lucio and Robert

MacKenzie (Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2022), xiv.

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