How to Cite a Conference Paper in Chicago 17th Edition (Author-Date)

This guide explains how to format a conference paper citation in Chicago 17th Edition (Author-Date). Follow the format template below, refer to the real example, and use the step-by-step instructions to build your citation correctly.

Format Template

The general pattern for citing a conference paper in Chicago 17th Edition (Author-Date):

Template

Author Last, First M. Year. "Title of Paper." Paper presented at Conference Name, Location, Month Day--Day, Year.

In-Text Citation Example

How the citation appears within the body of your paper:

In-text citation

(Lee and Park 2022)

Reference List Entry Example

The full citation as it appears in your reference list:

Reference list entry

Lee, Jiyeon, and Hyunwoo Park. 2022. "Transformer Architectures for Low-Resource Languages." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Dublin, Ireland, August 7--10, 2022.

Step-by-Step Guide

1
Format the author name(s)
List the first author as Last Name, First Name. Subsequent authors use First Name Last Name. Separate with "and."
2
Add the year
Place the year immediately after the author(s), followed by a period.
3
Write the paper title
Place the paper title in quotation marks with headline-style capitalization.
4
Add conference details
Write "Paper presented at" followed by the conference name, location (city, state/country), and date range.
5
Include DOI or URL if available
If the paper is available online, include the DOI or URL at the end of the entry.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using footnote format instead of parenthetical in-text citations.
Placing the year at the end of the reference instead of after the author.
Not placing the paper title in quotation marks.
Omitting the conference location (city and country).
Confusing published proceedings (cite as book chapter) with unpublished presentations.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite published conference proceedings in Chicago Author-Date?

If the paper was published in a proceedings volume, cite it as a chapter in an edited book: Author. Year. "Paper Title." In Title of Proceedings, edited by Editor, page range. Place: Publisher.

Do unpublished conference papers appear in the reference list?

Yes. In Chicago Author-Date, all cited sources should appear in the reference list so they can be matched to the parenthetical in-text citations. This differs from Notes-Bibliography, where unpublished papers may only appear in notes.

How do I format the conference date range?

Use an en dash for date ranges: August 7--10, 2022. If the conference spans two months: August 30--September 2, 2022.

Information You Will Need

Before creating your citation, gather the following information from your conference paper:

Author(s)
Year of presentation
Title of paper
Conference name
Location
Date(s) of conference
Publisher of proceedings (if published)
Page range (if in proceedings)
DOI or URL

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Step-by-Step Guide

Format the author name(s)

List the first author as Last Name, First Name. Subsequent authors use First Name Last Name. Separate with "and."

Add the year

Place the year immediately after the author(s), followed by a period.

Write the paper title

Place the paper title in quotation marks with headline-style capitalization.

Add conference details

Write "Paper presented at" followed by the conference name, location (city, state/country), and date range.

Include DOI or URL if available

If the paper is available online, include the DOI or URL at the end of the entry.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Using footnote format instead of parenthetical in-text citations.

Placing the year at the end of the reference instead of after the author.

Not placing the paper title in quotation marks.

Omitting the conference location (city and country).

Confusing published proceedings (cite as book chapter) with unpublished presentations.