Bluebook Guide: Periodical Author, Title & Name

As noted previously in the section on Typeface, law review articles will use three typefaces for periodical materials.  The author’s name is in ordinary type, the article title is italicized, and the periodical name is in large and small caps.  

The Bluebook provides more examples of basic citation forms for various periodicals for academic legal writing at R16.1, pp. 157-58, and for court documents at B16, pp. 23-25.  Also, there are some examples on The Bluebook's Quick Style Guide.

The Whitepages instruct to follow R15.1, pp. 148-49, "[f]or signed materials appearing in periodicals (including student-written materials."  However, the typeface for an author will be ordinary type.  In the following example for a law review article, three typefaces are used:  ordinary type for the author’s full name, italics for the article title, and large and small caps for the name of the law journal.  See R16.2, p. 159. In addition to the following example, The Bluebook provides numerous examples on this point.

Michael Seng & F. Willis Caruso, Forty Years of Fair Housing:  Where Do We Go from Here, 18 J. Affordable Hous. & Cmty. Dev. L. 235 (2009).

The full periodical title will be cited as it appears on its title page.  The title will be capitalized in accordance with R8(a), p. 91, and it will be in italics.  However, if the title is not in English, follow R20.2.2(b), p. 189.  Importantly, do not abbreviate or omit words in the title.  In addition to the following example, The Bluebook provides noteworthy examples on this point.

Edward B. Arnolds & Michael P. Seng, Picketing and Privacy:  Can I Patrol on the Street Where You Live?, 7 S. Ill. U. L.J. 463 (1982).

Note that if the title contains material that would be ordinarily italicized in the main text according to R2.2(a), that material should appear in ordinary type.  The Bluebook provides the following examples for clarification.

• Nathaniel A. Vitan, Book Note, Grounded Paratroopers: On Collins and Skover’s The Death of Discourse, 13 J.L. & Pol. 207, 210 (1997).
• Seth F. Kreimer, Does Pro-Choice Mean Pro-Kevorkian? An Essay on Roe, Casey, and the Right to Die, 44 Am. U. L. Rev. 803, 812 (1995).

• The Table “Institutional Names in Periodical Titles” (T13, pp. 320–22) provides some insight into how to approach the citation of periodical names.  
• The title of the periodical appearing on the title page of the cited issue will always be used, even if the title of the periodical has changed over time.
• The Bluebook instructs to abbreviate periodical titles (in English-language publications) following T13, T6, and T10 (in that specific order).
• Many individual journals differ as to a preferred abbreviation convention from those listed in The Bluebook’s tables.
• The abbreviation conventions listed in The Bluebook are geared towards a national audience to clearly indicate the cited source.
• For more detail on periodical names, refer to R16.1, p. 158.