Referencing Styles

A guide to the reference styles used at the University of St Andrews

Important:

The pages of this guide related to the guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style - 18th edition, published in 2024.  This edition of the style is gradually being adopted by the Schools who recommend or require this style for coursework submissions.

During academic year 2024-25 students using the Chicago style are advised to use the following version of the Chicago style:

  • Art History - use the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style for this academic year, the 18th edition will be adopted in academic year 2025-26
  • Divinity - use either the 17th edition or the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style for this academic year, applying either version consistently (i.e. do no use a combination of both)
  • Other Schools, consult the Student Handbook for your School, or ask in your School for advice.

What you need to include:

The Chicago Manual of Style recommends that you approach webpages in the same way as you would any print resources.  For online books and journal articles, see the Referencing a Book or Referencing a Journal Article pages.

The general principle of providing the information someone would need to find the resource should be applied.  This would include author, title of the specific page, a description if the title is vague, and the URL. 

Include a date published, or updated.  If this can't be found add a date accessed to the bibliography.

The full footnote or endnote format is:

Note number. "Title or description of the specific webpage", Title or description of the website as a whole if relevant, Name of organisation or person responsible for site, Date published, updated or revised if available, or accessed date, URL.

The shortened footnote or endnote format is:

Note number. "Short title or desciption of the specific webpage", Name of organisation or person responsible for the site.

The entry in a bibliography format is:

Name of person Organisation responsible for the site. "Title or description of the specific page", Title or description of the website as a whole if relevant. Date updated or amended or published, or date accessed in the format Month, Day, Year. URL

Full Footnote / endnote format:

"World Population," Wikimedia Foundation, updated 13 December 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population.

Shortened footnote / endnote format:

"World population," Wikimedia Foundation

Bibliography format:

Wikimedia Foundation. "World Population." Updated 13 December 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population.

As webpages don't follow a standardised structure you may wish to consult the Chicago Manual of Style to find a model which best fits for the webpage you wish to cite.  See sections 14:104-14:106 where a range of examples are given.