How to Cite the Same Source Multiple Times in Turabian

The rule is short. The first time you cite a source, use a full note. Every time after that, use a shortened note with the page number for that exact reference. That single pattern is what Turabian citing the same source multiple times comes down to: one full note, then short notes for the rest of the paper. If you would rather not format either version by hand, the free Turabian footnote generator builds both from the same details.

This follows Turabian 9th edition (based on Chicago 17th). Below is a numbered walkthrough you can pattern-match against your own footnotes, plus the tricky parts: different page numbers, two works by one author, and what happens when a new chapter starts.

Turabian citing the same source multiple times: the one rule

Give the reader everything the first time. The full note carries the author, title, publication facts, and the page you used.

Full note

1. Eleanor Hart, The Reforming Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 52.

After that, the reader has already seen the details, so you trim the note down to the author’s last name, a short form of the title, and the page. There’s no limit on how many shortened notes a source can have; a book you lean on throughout the paper might have one full note and a dozen short ones.

Shortened note

2. Hart, Reforming Century, 61.

The mechanics of trimming a note live in a separate guide, so I won’t repeat them all here. See how to write a Turabian shortened footnote for the full breakdown of what to keep and what to drop.

Try it: build a Turabian footnote automatically instead of formatting it by hand. Enter the source once and copy either the full or shortened version.

A real sequence: notes 1–4

Here is how it looks in a live paper. Source A is Hart’s book. Source B is a journal article by Blackwood that shows up in between. Watch how A stays full only on its first appearance.

Note 1, first citation of Source A (full note):

1. Eleanor Hart, The Reforming Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 52.

Note 2, Source A again on a different page (shortened note):

2. Hart, Reforming Century, 61.

Note 3, a different source (Source B) appears (full note for B):

3. Susan Blackwood, “Reading the Margins,” Journal of Medieval History 42, no. 3 (2016): 210.

Note 4, back to Source A (shortened note again):

4. Hart, Reforming Century, 78.

Source B doesn’t reset Source A. Once Hart has had one full note, Hart is shortened for the rest of the paper no matter how many other sources sit between the references. Blackwood, meanwhile, follows the exact same two-step pattern on its own timeline. Its first note is full; its next is short.

Blackwood, first citation (full note):

3. Susan Blackwood, “Reading the Margins,” Journal of Medieval History 42, no. 3 (2016): 210.

Blackwood, later citation (shortened note):

6. Blackwood, “Reading the Margins,” 213.

Every source in your paper runs this same one-full-then-short cycle independently. There’s no shared counter that decides when to shorten; each source shortens after its own first note.

Here is the same idea as a table.

Note	Source	Type	Line
1	A (Hart)	Full	1. Eleanor Hart, The Reforming Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 52.
2	A (Hart)	Shortened	2. Hart, Reforming Century, 61.
3	B (Blackwood)	Full	3. Susan Blackwood, “Reading the Margins,” Journal of Medieval History 42, no. 3 (2016): 210.
4	A (Hart)	Shortened	4. Hart, Reforming Century, 78.

The page number changes every time

A shortened note is not a copy-paste of the last one. The page number belongs to this reference, so it moves as you quote or paraphrase different parts of the book.

In the sequence above, note 2 points to page 61 and note 4 points to page 78, because those are the pages being used at each spot. If your next Hart reference draws on page 90, the note reads:

5. Hart, Reforming Century, 90.

Only leave the page off when the source has no page numbers to give. Many web pages fall in that group. If you cite a website more than once, the first note is full and every later note shortens with no page attached, like this:

Shortened note (website, repeat citation):

8. Torres, “Preserving Colonial Archives.”

For a book, though, a shortened note almost always ends with a page, because the page is how the reader finds the passage you used.

If notes 2 and 3 had both cited Hart back to back, from the same page, you’d also have the option of Ibid. instead of repeating the short note. Turabian 9th discourages it in favor of the shortened form, but some instructors still accept it. The ibid. rules for Turabian cover when it applies and when it quietly breaks your footnotes.

Two works by the same author

If you cite two different books by the same author, the author’s last name alone is not enough. Hart, 61. would leave the reader guessing which Hart book you mean. The short title is what tells them apart, so it becomes required, not optional.

Say Hart wrote both The Reforming Century and a second book, Faith and the Republic. The shortened notes have to name the title:

Shortened note (first Hart book):

6. Hart, Reforming Century, 61.

Shortened note (second Hart book):

7. Hart, Faith and the Republic, 24.

Keep each short title distinct enough that no two of the author’s works collapse into the same phrase. That’s the one case where you cannot drop the title from a shortened note.

The bibliography still lists the source once

No matter how many footnotes point to Hart, the source appears in your bibliography exactly one time. Repeat citations change your notes, not your reference list.

Bibliography

Hart, Eleanor. The Reforming Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.

The bibliography entry gives the full page range for an article or the whole book for a book, so it never carries the single page from any one note. Cite Hart four times or forty; the bibliography line stays the same.

What happens across chapters

Footnote numbers restart at 1 in each new chapter. So the second chapter of your paper opens with note 1 again, even for a source you cited heavily in chapter one.

That raises a fair question: is the first mention in a new chapter full again, or shortened? Turabian generally lets you use a shortened note if the source already appeared in full somewhere earlier in the paper. In practice, though, many instructors and departments want a full note at the first mention in each chapter so a reader who jumps straight to that chapter isn’t lost.

Picture chapter two opening with Hart. Under the lenient reading, note 1 of the new chapter can be Hart, *Reforming Century*, 44. Under the stricter, per-chapter reading, note 1 goes back to the full form: Eleanor Hart, *The Reforming Century* (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015), 44.

Because the rule varies, follow your instructor or department style sheet. If they don’t say, giving a full note at the first mention in every chapter is the safer choice. It’s never wrong to be complete; it can be wrong to be too short.

Repeat-citation slip-ups to avoid

Using a full note every time. Repeating all the publication facts on the second, third, and fourth reference isn’t more correct, it’s just cluttered. After the first note, shorten it.

Using a shortened note with no page number. A short note for a book still needs the page you used. Hart, *Reforming Century*. with no page hides where your quote or paraphrase came from.

Ambiguous short titles for same-author works. If two of your sources shorten to the same phrase, or you drop the title entirely when an author has multiple works, the reader can’t tell them apart. Trim the title, but keep the key noun that makes each work unique.

Assuming a new chapter can’t restart the count. It does. Numbering resets per chapter even though the sources don’t.

For the underlying formatting of every short note in these examples, the shortened footnote guide has the element-by-element rules, and the official Turabian notes citation quick guide shows the same full-then-short pattern from the source.

Repeat citation questions, answered

Do I use a full note the second time I cite a source? No. Full note the first time only. Every later reference to that source is a shortened note with its own page number.

How do I cite the same source twice in a row? Use a shortened note again, with the page for that spot. If the page is identical and the note directly follows, you may use Ibid., though Turabian 9th prefers the shortened note.

Does a shortened note need a page number? Yes, whenever the source has pages. A repeat citation of a book should end with the exact page you used. Leave the page off only for sources without page numbers.

How do I tell apart two books by the same author? Include a short title in the shortened note, like Hart, *Reforming Century*, 61. versus Hart, *Faith and the Republic*, 24. The last name alone won’t do it.

Do footnote numbers keep counting through the whole paper? No. They restart at 1 in each chapter. Whether the first mention in a new chapter is full or shortened depends on your instructor, so ask.

The habit behind repeat citations

One full note, then shortened notes with the right page, is the whole habit behind repeat citation in Turabian. Get the first note right and the rest are quick. When you’d rather skip the punctuation-checking entirely, the Turabian citation generator formats the full note and the matching shortened note for you, so citing the same source multiple times stays consistent from note 1 to your last page.