From ahr-skills
Formats citations and notes for American Historical Review manuscripts following Chicago Manual of Style notes system. Converts bibliography drafts to footnote/endnote apparatus with no in-text citations.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/ahr-skills:ahr-citation-and-styleThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
The AHR uses **Chicago Manual of Style notes**: every citation lives in a **footnote or endnote**,
The AHR uses Chicago Manual of Style notes: every citation lives in a footnote or endnote, there is no separate bibliography / works-cited list, and there are no in-text parenthetical citations. The note apparatus is substantial — a guideline of roughly 2:1 text-to-notes at initial submission. This skill gets the notes right (verify the current CMOS edition and any AHR house departures on the live guides).
(Author year) in the text.(Author year) parenthetical citationsThe American Historical Association's flagship uses Chicago notes for every source type, but the exact form varies by what you are citing. This table routes the common cases; for anything not listed, follow the current edition of the Chicago Manual of Style and confirm any AHR house departure against the journal's current submission guidelines.
| Source type | First-note shape (full) | Later notes (short) |
|---|---|---|
| Monograph | Author, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), page | Author, Short Title, page |
| Journal article | Author, "Title," Journal vol, no. (Year): page | Author, "Short Title," page |
| Edited-volume chapter | Author, "Chapter," in Title, ed. Name (Place: Publisher, Year), page | Author, "Short Chapter," page |
| Manuscript / archival | Document, date, Collection, box/folder, Repository, City | Document, Collection, box/folder |
| Digitized primary source | Original citation; Database (URL), accessed date | Original short form, Database |
| Foreign-language work | Original title; supply a translation where the wording carries the argument | short title in the original |
A draft note reads: "National Archives, war records." A reviewer for the AHR — who expects another scholar to be able to retrieve the document — will flag it. The repaired first note specifies the document, its date, the named collection, the box and folder, the repository, and the city: "Quartermaster's return, 14 March 1863, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, RG 92, box 41, folder 3, National Archives, Washington, DC." A later citation of the same series shortens to "Quartermaster's return, RG 92, box 41." No bibliography entry is created; the note carries the full apparatus, and a related qualification about the return's incompleteness rides in the same footnote rather than interrupting the prose.
| Comment you will see | The venue-specific fix |
|---|---|
| "Add a works-cited list / bibliography" (rare, but from non-history readers) | Reaffirm AHR house form: all references live in notes; there is no bibliography |
| "Archival citations are unretrievable" | Supply collection, series, box/folder, repository, and city for each |
| "Shortened forms are inconsistent" | Standardize author + short title + page; align ibid. usage to the current CMOS rule |
| "Notes are doing the article's arguing" | Move load-bearing argument into the text; keep the note for evidence and qualification |
【Style】Chicago notes — no bibliography, no in-text parenthetical? [Y/N]
【First vs. short】full first citation, shortened thereafter? [Y/N]
【Archival form】collection + box/folder + archive specified? [Y/N]
【Digitized】original + database/URL + date consulted? [Y/N]
【Note density】~2:1 text-to-notes at submission?
【Next】ahr-review-process
../../resources/external_tools.md — Zotero/BibLaTeX Chicago styles and the Chicago Manual of Style../../resources/official-source-map.md — AHR Chicago-notes citation, note ratio, style guidesnpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin ahr-skillsFormats citations and references for Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR) submissions. Converts footnote citations to in-text author-date and builds alphabetized year-keyed reference lists.
Runs the final pre-submission preflight for The American Historical Review via ScholarOne: masked-author preparation, 8,000-word target, Chicago notes, manuscript formatting, image alt-text/permissions, and exclusivity declaration.
Polishes prose and formats citations for Art Bulletin articles to Chicago Manual of Style (endnotes, captions, CAA-style).