Turabian Style: A Complete Guide

Turabian style is the citation and formatting system set out in Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, published by the University of Chicago Press. It is the citation style most widely required for graduate theses and dissertations in the United States, particularly in history, theology, religious studies, philosophy, and the humanities. If your graduate school, department, or supervisor has told you to use Turabian, this guide explains what that means, how Turabian relates to Chicago style, and how to apply it correctly to your work.

The first thing to know is that Turabian is not a separate citation style from Chicago in the way that MLA is separate from APA. Turabian is a simplified, student-focused version of the Chicago Manual of Style, developed specifically for people writing research papers, theses, and dissertations rather than manuscripts destined for professional publication. The two systems agree on almost every rule that matters for a citation, disagree on a small number of student-specific formatting details, and are treated as interchangeable in some contexts and as strictly distinct in others depending on the institution.

This guide is the central reference point for Turabian style at Editor World. It explains what Turabian covers, how it differs from Chicago, which of the two citation systems (notes-bibliography or author-date) applies to your work, what the common Turabian mistakes are, and how to identify whether your institution expects Turabian or full Chicago.

What Turabian Style Is

Turabian style is the citation and formatting framework set out in A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, a book first published in 1937 as a booklet by Kate Larimore Turabian and now in its 9th edition (2018), with the 10th edition scheduled for November 2026. Kate Turabian served as dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1958. Her original 1937 booklet distilled the rules from the Chicago Manual of Style into a form graduate students could actually apply to their theses and dissertations. Nearly ninety years later, the book she started remains the authoritative reference for student research writing in the Chicago tradition.

Turabian is published by the University of Chicago Press and is designed to be used alongside the Chicago Manual of Style. The two books share a publisher, share a citation system, and are revised in coordination. Turabian 9th (2018) aligns with Chicago 17th (2017). Turabian 10th (November 2026) will align with Chicago 18th (September 2024). The relationship between the two editions is close but not perfectly synchronized: Turabian editions typically follow Chicago editions by one to two years to allow the student-focused simplifications to be worked out after the professional manual has been revised.

For an overview of how Turabian relates to the other major citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago), see Editor World's overview of citation styles. For the parent style Turabian derives from, see the Chicago style complete guide.

Who Uses Turabian

Turabian is used primarily by graduate students writing theses and dissertations, particularly in disciplines that use Chicago style at the professional level. The fields where Turabian is most commonly required include the following.

• History and art history, at both master's and doctoral levels. Most US graduate programs in history require Turabian for the thesis or dissertation, even when journal articles in the field are published in full Chicago.
• Religious studies, theology, and biblical studies, where Turabian is the near-universal standard at seminaries and divinity schools. Many undergraduate religious studies programs also require Turabian.
• Philosophy and philosophy of religion, particularly at graduate level and particularly for dissertations.
• Music and musicology, at both undergraduate and graduate levels in many programs.
• Some literature and comparative literature programs, particularly at the doctoral level and particularly where the department's tradition is Chicago-oriented rather than MLA-oriented.
• Some social science programs that use Chicago author-date rather than APA, in which case the student version is Turabian author-date.
• Undergraduate courses across the humanities at institutions where instructors have chosen Turabian as the classroom standard because it is more approachable than full Chicago for students at that level.

If your program is in one of the fields above and you are working on a research paper, thesis, or dissertation, Turabian is likely the assumed default. Journal submissions in these same fields typically use full Chicago rather than Turabian, so the citation style may shift as the same writer moves from student work to publication.

How Turabian Differs from Chicago

The most important thing to understand about Turabian is what it shares with Chicago and what it doesn't. Getting this distinction right is the difference between confidently applying Turabian and constantly second-guessing whether a rule you have in mind is Turabian or Chicago.

What Turabian and Chicago share

Turabian and Chicago share both citation systems (notes-bibliography and author-date), the same source-type templates, essentially all of the punctuation and capitalization rules, the same treatment of shortened notes, and the same approach to bibliographies and reference lists. If you know how to cite a book in notes-bibliography Chicago, you know how to cite a book in Turabian. If you know Chicago author-date reference list format, you know Turabian author-date reference list format. The 9th edition of Turabian tracks Chicago 17th, and the forthcoming 10th edition will track Chicago 18th.

What Turabian trims from Chicago

Turabian trims material from Chicago that does not apply to student research work. The full Chicago Manual of Style runs more than 1,100 pages because it covers a lot more than citation. Chicago includes detailed guidance on preparing manuscripts for publication, working with publishers, handling copyright, managing editing workflow, indexing, and typesetting. Turabian removes all of that and keeps only what a student writing a research paper, thesis, or dissertation needs to know. The result is a much shorter book (roughly 460 pages in the 9th edition) that is easier to work through end to end.

What Turabian adds that Chicago doesn't have

Turabian also adds material that isn't in Chicago, focused specifically on the student research process. This includes guidance on formulating a research question, structuring an argument, drafting and revising a thesis or dissertation, and managing the practical work of a long research project. Turabian is as much a research and writing manual as a citation guide, which is one reason many graduate programs require it even when the citation rules would work equally well in either book.

Formatting differences

Turabian and Chicago diverge most visibly on document formatting for student work. Turabian specifies the title page format for a thesis or dissertation, the arrangement of front matter (title page, dedication, epigraph, table of contents, list of illustrations, preface, acknowledgments), the pagination conventions for a dissertation with Roman-numeral front matter and Arabic-numeral body pages, and the format for chapter openings and subheadings within a long document. Chicago does not cover most of this because those decisions are made by the publisher for a Chicago-formatted book. For a dissertation, the writer is the one making those decisions, and Turabian tells the writer how to make them.

The Two Turabian Citation Systems

Turabian offers two citation systems, matching Chicago's two systems. The writer chooses one based on discipline and applies it consistently throughout the document.

Notes-bibliography

The notes-bibliography system uses superscript numbers in the body of the paper, full bibliographic information in numbered footnotes (or endnotes), and a complete bibliography at the end of the document. This is the system used in history, art history, religious studies, theology, and most humanities dissertations. The bibliography includes every source consulted in preparation of the paper, including sources read for background research that were not directly cited.

The first time a source is cited, the footnote contains the full bibliographic information: author's first and last name, title, publication information in parentheses, and page number. Subsequent citations to the same source use a shortened note containing the author's last name, a shortened form of the title, and the page number. Turabian 9th (aligned with Chicago 17th) still permits the use of "ibid." for repeated citations of the immediately preceding source, though the shortened note is generally preferred. Turabian 10th, aligning with Chicago 18th, will follow Chicago's move away from ibid. entirely in favor of shortened notes.

Author-date

The author-date system uses parenthetical citations in the text, with the author's last name and the publication year, and a reference list at the end of the document. This is the system used in the social sciences and some natural sciences when they use the Chicago family of styles rather than APA. The reference list, unlike a bibliography, includes only the sources actually cited in the paper.

The choice between notes-bibliography and author-date is determined by discipline, not by writer preference. If you are writing a history dissertation, you use notes-bibliography. If you are writing a Chicago-family social science dissertation, you use author-date. Mixing the two systems in one document is a fast way to have a thesis returned by the graduate school for revision before it reaches the committee.

Turabian Document Formatting

Turabian's most distinctive contribution to student research writing is its detailed guidance on how to format the document itself. These conventions apply specifically to research papers, theses, and dissertations, and they differ from professional-manuscript Chicago in ways that matter to graduate schools.

Font and spacing

Turabian recommends a readable serif font at 10 to 12 points; Times New Roman 12 is the safest default. The body of the document is double-spaced. Block quotations, footnotes, endnotes, bibliography entries, and captions are single-spaced within the entry, with a blank line between entries in the bibliography or reference list. Margins are one inch on all sides for the main text, with the left margin sometimes wider to accommodate binding for a print-bound dissertation.

Page numbering

Turabian's page numbering rules are the source of many student errors. Front matter (title page, table of contents, list of illustrations, acknowledgments) uses lowercase Roman numerals, with the title page counted but not numbered. The main text begins on a new page with Arabic numeral 1 and continues consecutively through the end of the document, including bibliography or reference list.

Title page

Turabian specifies a title page format for research papers, theses, and dissertations that includes the title (centered, typically in title case), the writer's name, the course or degree information, and the date. For dissertations, the title page also includes the institution name, the degree the dissertation is submitted for, the department or program, and the date of submission. Individual graduate schools often add institutional requirements on top of Turabian's baseline, which is why the graduate school's own thesis and dissertation guide takes precedence over Turabian itself for formatting details.

Headings and subheadings

Turabian permits up to five levels of headings within a long document. Each level uses a specific format (level 1 centered and bold, level 2 centered in regular type, level 3 flush-left and bold, and so on), with the levels applied consistently throughout. A dissertation chapter opens with the chapter number and title on its own opening page, formatted in the chapter-opening style specified in Turabian.

Which Guide Wins When Rules Conflict

A student writing a Turabian dissertation is usually subject to three sources of formatting rules at once: Turabian itself, the graduate school's thesis and dissertation guide, and (implicitly) Chicago. When these conflict, the hierarchy is straightforward. Use this sequence in order.

Step 1: The graduate school's thesis and dissertation guide takes precedence

Most graduate schools publish a formal thesis and dissertation formatting guide with institution-specific requirements: acceptable fonts, margin widths, spacing conventions, front matter requirements, signature page formats, embedded figure conventions, and pagination rules. When the graduate school's guide specifies a rule that differs from Turabian, the graduate school's guide is the authority. The dissertation will be reviewed by the graduate school for compliance before it reaches the committee, and the graduate school reviews against its own guide, not against Turabian.

Step 2: Turabian for citation and formatting details the graduate school does not specify

When the graduate school's guide does not address a specific point (footnote format, bibliography formatting, source-type templates, shortened note conventions), Turabian is the authority. Most graduate schools specify document-level formatting rules and delegate citation-format questions to Turabian by reference.

Step 3: Chicago for questions Turabian does not answer

Turabian is a shorter book than Chicago and does not cover every source type Chicago covers. For source types Turabian does not treat (obscure archival sources, unusual audiovisual formats, some digital sources introduced between editions), The Chicago Manual of Style is the fallback. Turabian and Chicago agree on the underlying rules, so applying Chicago's specific-source guidance to a Turabian document produces the right result.

Most Common Turabian Mistakes

The same five issues appear in nearly every Turabian document that comes back marked up for citation and formatting errors. Each one is correctable in a single editing pass once you know to look for it.

Mistake 1: Following Turabian's rules when the graduate school's guide says otherwise

The single most-flagged Turabian error at the dissertation stage is applying Turabian's default when the graduate school has specified a different rule. Turabian recommends one-inch margins, but many graduate schools require 1.5 inches on the left for binding. Turabian permits several font choices, but many graduate schools require Times New Roman 12. Read the graduate school's guide first, then apply Turabian on top. This is often the difference between a dissertation that passes format review the first time and one that comes back for revision.

Mistake 2: Mixing notes-bibliography and author-date in one document

Turabian offers two citation systems, but a single document uses only one. Papers that use footnotes in some chapters and parenthetical citations in others, or that include both a bibliography and a reference list, are a fast tell that the writer has not chosen a system and stuck with it. Pick one system based on discipline and apply it consistently from the first citation to the last.

Mistake 3: Wrong pagination in front matter

Before: Title page numbered as page 1. Table of contents numbered as page 2. Chapter 1 begins on page 5.

After (Turabian): Title page counted but unnumbered. Table of contents numbered iii in lowercase Roman. List of illustrations numbered iv. Chapter 1 begins on a new page numbered 1 in Arabic.

Turabian pagination is one of the most-missed rules because most word processors default to consecutive Arabic pagination from the first page. Setting up the two-track pagination (Roman for front matter, Arabic for body) requires a section break in the document, and forgetting to insert it is why so many dissertations arrive at format review with the wrong page numbers.

Mistake 4: Confusing a bibliography with a reference list

A bibliography (used in Turabian notes-bibliography) includes every source consulted in preparation of the paper, including sources read for background research that were not directly cited. A reference list (used in Turabian author-date) includes only the sources actually cited. The two are not interchangeable, and applying the reference list rule to a bibliography (or vice versa) is a common error at the dissertation stage.

Mistake 5: Applying full Chicago rules where Turabian differs

Writers who have published in Chicago-style journals and are now writing a Turabian dissertation sometimes carry professional-manuscript Chicago conventions into student work where Turabian has trimmed them. Chicago's detailed guidance on manuscript preparation, running heads for printed publication, and copyright statements is not applicable to a dissertation. Following Turabian rather than Chicago on these points is not a downgrade; it is the correct choice for the document type.

When Turabian Is Not the Right Style

If you are writing a research paper, thesis, or dissertation in history, religious studies, theology, philosophy, or the humanities, and your program has told you to use Turabian, then Turabian is the right style. Some situations call for a different choice.

If you are submitting a journal article rather than a student research paper, you are almost certainly using full Chicago rather than Turabian, even in fields where student work uses Turabian. Check the journal's author guidelines to confirm. If you are writing in psychology, education, nursing, or the social sciences, APA is the likely default. If you are writing in English, comparative literature, or languages, MLA is the likely default. If you are writing at a UK, Australian, or Commonwealth institution, Harvard referencing may be the default; see Editor World's Harvard referencing complete guide.

For the parent Chicago style that Turabian derives from, see the Chicago style complete guide. For the deep-dive on Chicago bibliography format (which applies almost identically to Turabian notes-bibliography), see how to do a Chicago style bibliography.

The Editors Who Handle Turabian Editing at Editor World

Editor World's editors include credentialed academic professionals with strong backgrounds in Turabian editing across dissertations, theses, and graduate research papers. Clients browse editor profiles, review credentials and verified client ratings, and choose the editor whose background matches the document. Below are several editors with credentials directly relevant to Turabian editing.

• BookDoc. MFA in Writing (New York University), Senior Copy Editor at NYU, certified editor with the International Association of Professional Writers and Editors. 4.92/5 client rating. Long-form manuscript editing background is directly applicable to dissertations and theses using Turabian. View profile.
• TypeRighter. BA and MA in Philosophy, Certified Teacher with the Cambridge Institute of Education. 4.98/5 client rating across 1,300+ ratings. Philosophy and humanities background aligns with the disciplines where Turabian is most commonly required. View profile.
• WriteAid. BA in English Literature (Binghamton University), MS in Psychology, PhD candidate at Walden University. Over 20 years of editing, teaching, and writing experience. 4.92/5 client rating. Doctoral-level writing background applicable to Turabian dissertation work. View profile.

A full list of currently available editors is at editorworld.com/editors. Clients select their editor before submitting a document and can request a free sample edit of the first 300 words to verify fit before committing.

Get Your Turabian Dissertation Reviewed Before Submitting

Turabian compliance is the kind of work that takes attention to detail across every page of a long document, and even careful writers miss things after months of revision. Editor World's academic editing services include Turabian review at the citation, footnote, bibliography, and document-formatting level. The dissertation editing, thesis proofreading, and research paper editing services apply the same standard to documents at each level.

Use the instant price calculator to see your cost before committing, or browse available editors to find someone with a background in your specific field.

Frequently Asked Questions About Turabian Style

Published by Editor World. Editor World, founded in 2010 by Patti Fisher, PhD, graduate of The Ohio State University, provides professional editing and proofreading services for academic researchers, graduate students, businesses, and authors worldwide. BBB A+ accredited since 2010, 5.0/5 Google Reviews, 5.0/5 Facebook Reviews, and a multiple Gold and Bronze Stevie Award winner. More than 140 million words edited for 8,000+ clients in 65+ countries. Recommended by the Boston University Economics Department, University of San Diego, University of Michigan, UCLA, University of Missouri, and more. No AI tools are used at any stage.