Bug in Chicago Style?

cptnstormfield · 2025-08-01T22:56:40+00:00

I'm using the citation style "Chicago Manual of Style 18th edition (notes and bibliography, with classic variants)".

I noticed that when I cite a journal item without a date, the style adds "(forthcoming)" at the end of the citation, rather than omitting the date altogether or inserting something like "n.d." or "n/d." When I switch back to the corresponding 17th edition style, the citation ends with (n/d) as expected.

Is this the intended behavior for the style? If so, how may I avoid it? The work I'm citing is not forthcoming; rather, the publication date is unknown.

dunning · 2025-08-02T07:47:49+00:00

This is intentional, as I had assumed that any journal article without a date must be forthcoming, following examples in the official manual. In what situation would one have a published journal article without a known date?

This behaviour only applies to journal articles, so one solution is to switch the item type to magazine.

bwiernik · 2025-08-02T08:55:07+00:00

Hmm, I would assume that a forthcoming status would be explicitly indicated by `status` rather than assuming an undated article is in press.

dunning · 2025-08-02T17:36:26+00:00

To be more precise, the styles for the 18th edition use the CSL 'forthcoming' term if a journal article has a volume/issue/supplement number and no issue date, page range, or article number. If anyone can think of situations in which one would want n.d. instead in such cases, I'm all ears.

cptnstormfield · 2025-08-02T18:01:20+00:00

Thanks for the quick response.

I am citing some old (1930s) hobby publications where the date of publication isn't well documented but is a journal. I've found that I can put n/d in the date field as a workaround, though I am not sure I would agree with assuming that undated journals are forthcoming. I suppose Magazine would work also.

bwiernik · 2025-08-02T19:45:49+00:00

I would enter that as an approximate date by putting this in Extra:

issued: 1930?

dunning · 2025-08-02T20:06:50+00:00

Adding an approximate date is definitely be the way to go. The only problem is that I assumed that journals could not have an uncertain date and left out the processing for this. I will be submitting a fix momentarily!

Otherwise, 'forthcoming' will not appear if there is a page range for the article.

If you don't have a page range (e.g. if you are working from clippings?), those sound like trade magazines rather than journal articles to me, and you won't receive 'forthcoming' with that item type.

cptnstormfield · 2025-08-03T00:01:54+00:00

Thanks, adding the approximate date is an excellent suggestion. It is definitely an edge case: I have a set of old journals. They are numbered consecutively, but the date when many of them were published is uncertain.