Q. Sorry I’m so confused, but what is the difference between a bibliography and a reference list?
A. Generally speaking, a bibliography and a reference list are the same thing: a list of sources that appears at the end of an article or a book or at the end of a chapter or other component in a book or other work.
But we reserve the term reference list for sources that have been cited using Chicago’s author-date style; each source in a reference list corresponds to at least one parenthetical reference in the text.
Text (parenthetical citation plus page number):
The study concluded that the example was nonliteral, or “for illustration only” (Smith 2024, 33).
Reference list entry (note the position of the date):
Smith, Emily. 2024. A Mock Guide to Invented Prose. City, ST: Big Name University Press.
Sources listed in a bibliography are like the sources in a reference list, but they’re in notes-bibliography style, not author-date.
Bibliography entry (again, note the position of the date):
Smith, Emily. A Mock Guide to Invented Prose. City, ST: Big Name University Press, 2024.
The text will typically cite that same source in a footnote or endnote (or in the text itself). If the citation is in shortened form, readers can consult the alphabetically arranged bibliography for the full form of the citation.
Text and note:
The study concluded that the example was nonliteral, or “for illustration purposes only.”1
1. Smith, A Mock Guide, 33.
Another difference is that bibliographies may list sources that haven’t been directly cited in the text; conversely, sources cited in the text don’t always need to be included in a bibliography. For more details on this subject, see chapters 14 and 15, starting with paragraph 14.2.