Chicago Style Guides for Nontraditional Sources
Citation style guides, citation managers, and citation generators are built for peer reviewed sources and sources that are published (journal articles and books).
Nontraditional sources are often referred in academia as grey literature.
This guide will give you formats for citing these sources using Chicago Style.
What is Grey Literature?
Grey literature refers to a wide range of records and materials that were not published or distributed in traditional and commercial ways. Examples include reports, statistics, policies, newsletters, speeches, design or marketing standards, and other types of information that is produced at the organization level. Typically, grey literature is current and locally relevant. The records and materials in the UW-Stout Archives typically fall under the definition of grey literature.
This guide will give you formats and information on citing these types of sources.
Citing Grey Literature with Chicago Style
Chicago style is split into two different systems: Notes and Bibliography and Author-Date. Refer to The Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide for more information on the two systems. Below are examples and descriptions of Notes and Bibliography format in The Chicago Style for archival materials and other grey literature.
We are here to help! If you have any questions about specific collections or need help with the Author-Date format, please reach out to archives@uwstout.edu.
Notes Basic Format
1. Title or description of item, date (day, month, year), Collection number or identifier, box number, folder number, Collection Name, Name of Repository, Location of Repository. URL if applicable.
Shortened Notes Basic Format
If a collection or document is cited multiple times within footnotes, the first use of the citation must use the format above. Subsequent citations may be shortened. The shortened form is added in brackets at the end of the first citation.
Bibliography Basic Format
Last Name, First Name of author. Name of Collection. Name of Repository, Location of Repository.