How to cite an unpublished manuscript or thesis

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B16 / R17.2 · Books, periodicals & other secondary

Example

Jennifer Arlen, Public Versus Private Enforcement of Securities Fraud 12–19 (June 22, 2007) (unpublished manuscript) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

More examples

Each of these is checked against the rules on every change to the tool.

• Barbara G. Ryder, Incremental Data Flow Analysis Based on a Unified Model of Elimination Algorithms (Aug. 15, 1982) (Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University) (on file with author).

What the citation needs

Required

• Author — The author’s full name as it appears on the publication (R15.1; R16.2).
• Title — The title as it appears on the source. R8(a): capitalize every word except articles, conjunctions and prepositions of four or fewer letters, unless they begin the title or follow a colon.
• Date — The date the rule for this source calls for, with the month abbreviated per T12 (“Nov. 24, 1978”).

When they apply

• Kind — Which form of this source you are citing. The fields that matter change with it.
• Pincite — The exact page (or section, or paragraph) your point is on — not the first page. R1.2(f): pincites are required except after “see generally”.
• Degree and institution — R17.2.2: required for a dissertation or thesis.
• Nature of the work — What the work is: “unpublished manuscript”, or a thesis’s degree and institution (R17).
• Where it can be found — Where the source can be found.
• Database citation — A commercial-database citation, where the source is cited to one — “2010 WL 12345”.
• URL — The web address, where you cite the source online (R18.2).

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

Jennifer Arlen, Public Versus Private Enforcement of Securities Fraud 12–19 (June 22, 2007) (unpublished manuscript) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

Jennifer Arlen, Public Versus Private Enforcement of Securities Fraud 12–19 (June 22, 2007) (unpublished manuscript) (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

For this source the two are set the same way.

Common mistakes

Each of these is a citation the checker refuses, with what it says is wrong and the corrected form.

Governing rules

B16 / R17.2

• 17 — unpublished & forthcoming sources (ordinary roman type).
• 17.2 — unpublished materials.
• 17.2.1 — manuscripts.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Books, periodicals & other secondary:

• Book
• Work in a collection
• Foreword, preface or introduction
• Frequently cited named work
• Law review / journal article
• Magazine article
• Newspaper article
• Forthcoming article
• Working paper
• Letter, memo, e-mail or press release
• Interview
• Speech or address
• Microform