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Introduction to "The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation": Short Form for Periodicals

Quick References

Periodical Short Form
Short Forms.............................R16.9
Id. Rules, Generally...................R4.1

Supra and Hereinafter.................R4.2

Typeface Conventions

Footnotes: short form name in regular typeface if referring to author, or italics if referring to title

Textual Sentence: article title in italics, but author name in regular typeface

Notice


This guide is currently being updated to reflect the recent changes made in The Bluebook (20th edition). Please be aware that pages containing this notice may contain out-of-date information.

General Rules for Short Form for Periodicals

A short form citation may be used to identify a periodical source that has previously been cited in full. "Id.," if appropriate, or "supra" may be used to refer to the work later on.

"Supra" Short Form - Use the author's last name (or article title if no author) along with supra, indicating the original footnote the work was fully cited in and the page(s) on which the cited material appears.

Bruce Ackerman, Robert Bork's Grand Inquisition, 99 YALE L.J. 1419 (1990) (book review).

Ackerman, supra note 5, at 1425.

For works that would be difficult to cite using the "supra" form, or for which the short form would be confusing, a shortened form using "hereinafter" can be indicated in brackets at the end of the original citation. (See Rule 4.2).

Abbreviations for Periodicals Short Form

Author - Words in Table 6 and Rule 10.2.1(c), geographic regions in Table 10, and common acronyms in Rule 6.1(b)

Article Title - Nothing

Publication Title - Words in Table 13 and Table 10

Tips

Do not use infra to refer to works cited subsequently. Include a full citation to the nonperiodic source the first time it is referred to.