Best examples of Turabian Style Case Study Citation Examples

Examples of Turabian Style Case Study Citation Examples (Quick Tour)

Before we talk theory, let’s look at the kinds of examples of Turabian style case study citation examples you’re most likely to need. In real research papers, case studies often show up in one of these forms:

• A stand‑alone published business case (for example, a Harvard Business School case)
• A case study chapter inside an edited book
• A case study article in a peer‑reviewed journal
• An online PDF case hosted by a university or organization
• An unpublished teaching case your professor distributes in class
• A case study in a government or nonprofit report

Each format uses the same Turabian logic—author, title, publication facts—but the order and details shift a bit. The best examples below are written in Turabian’s Notes-Bibliography style (the format used in most history, theology, and many social science programs).

All examples follow the 9th edition of Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, aligned with the Chicago Manual of Style.

Classic Example of a Published Business Case (Print or PDF)

Business schools love cases, and so do instructors in management, marketing, and strategy. Here’s an example of a standard business case you might download from Harvard Business Publishing or a similar provider.

Scenario: A Harvard Business School case by a named author, with a publication year and case number.

Footnote (first reference):

1. Michael E. Porter, The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, Harvard Business School Case 708‑410 (Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 2008).

Bibliography entry:

Porter, Michael E. The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business School Case 708‑410. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 2008.

Why this works:

• Treat the case like a book with a special series/number.
• Include the case number after the title.
• Publisher and place work just like a monograph.

If you accessed this as a PDF online, you can add a URL or DOI if your instructor requires it, though Turabian generally prefers stable publication details over long tracking URLs.

Examples of Turabian Style Case Study Citation Examples for Cases in Edited Books

Many social science and education case studies appear as chapters inside an edited collection. In Turabian, that means you cite the chapter as a chapter, not as a stand‑alone book.

Scenario: A case study chapter in an edited volume on education policy.

Footnote (first reference):

2. Linda Darling‑Hammond, “Case Study: Transforming Teacher Preparation at Scale,” in Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: Case Studies in Teacher Education Reform, ed. John Smith and Maria Lopez (New York: Teachers College Press, 2024), 115–132.

Bibliography entry:

Darling‑Hammond, Linda. “Case Study: Transforming Teacher Preparation at Scale.” In Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: Case Studies in Teacher Education Reform, edited by John Smith and Maria Lopez, 115–132. New York: Teachers College Press, 2024.

Here, examples include:

• Quotation marks around the case study title
• The book title in italics
• Editors listed with “edited by” in the bibliography
• Page range at the end

This is one of the best examples of Turabian style case study citation examples for students in education, sociology, and public policy programs, where case-based chapters are common.

Journal-Based Case Study: Article Format

Sometimes a case study is published as a regular journal article, especially in medicine, nursing, and psychology. In that situation, you cite it as a journal article, even if the word “case” appears in the title.

Scenario: A medical case report in a peer‑reviewed journal.

Footnote (first reference):

3. Sarah J. Thompson and David L. Chen, “Case Study: Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in a Young Adult Following SARS‑CoV‑2 Infection,” Journal of Clinical Case Reports 18, no. 2 (2024): 45–52, https://doi.org/10.1234/jccr.2024.0182.

Bibliography entry:

Thompson, Sarah J., and David L. Chen. “Case Study: Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in a Young Adult Following SARS‑CoV‑2 Infection.” Journal of Clinical Case Reports 18, no. 2 (2024): 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1234/jccr.2024.0182.

Key pattern:

• Author(s)
• Article title in quotation marks
• Journal title in italics
• Volume, issue, year, page range
• DOI or stable URL

For real‑world medical case reports, you can browse examples at the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed database: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Online PDF Case from a University or Nonprofit

In 2024–2025, a lot of case studies live as downloadable PDFs on university or nonprofit sites. Turabian treats these like reports or gray literature.

Scenario: A public health case study PDF on a university website.

Footnote (first reference):

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Case Study: Community‑Based Strategies to Increase COVID‑19 Vaccination Coverage,” last modified March 15, 2024, PDF, 18, accessed July 10, 2025, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/casestudies/community‑coverage.pdf.

Bibliography entry:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Case Study: Community‑Based Strategies to Increase COVID‑19 Vaccination Coverage.” PDF. Last modified March 15, 2024. Accessed July 10, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/casestudies/community‑coverage.pdf.

Here, examples of Turabian style case study citation examples show a few online‑specific details:

• Corporate author (CDC)
• Medium labeled as PDF when relevant
• Last modified date if given
• Access date and URL

For actual public health case materials, the CDC’s main site is a reliable starting point: https://www.cdc.gov.

Case Study in a Government or NGO Report

Policy, economics, and international relations courses frequently assign case studies embedded in longer reports by agencies or NGOs. You usually cite the report as a whole, then specify the case in your prose.

Scenario: A case study inside a World Bank report on climate adaptation.

Footnote (first reference):

5. World Bank, Climate Adaptation in Practice: Case Studies from Coastal Cities (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023), 37–44, https://doi.org/10.1596/978‑1‑4648‑XXXX‑X.

Bibliography entry:

World Bank. Climate Adaptation in Practice: Case Studies from Coastal Cities. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1596/978‑1‑4648‑XXXX‑X.

In your text, you might write:

In the World Bank’s case study of Miami’s flood mitigation strategy (World Bank 2023, 37–44), planners emphasized zoning reforms over hard infrastructure.

This pattern gives you another set of real examples of Turabian style case study citation examples that work well for policy and international development writing.

Unpublished or In‑Class Teaching Case

Sometimes your professor hands out a case packet that isn’t formally published. Turabian treats this as unpublished material, similar to a manuscript or course handout.

Scenario: An unpublished case used only in your course.

Footnote (first reference):

6. Rachel K. Adams, “Case Study: Supply Chain Disruption at MidWest Foods” (unpublished teaching case, Department of Business Administration, State University, 2025), 3.

Bibliography entry:

Adams, Rachel K. “Case Study: Supply Chain Disruption at MidWest Foods.” Unpublished teaching case, Department of Business Administration, State University, 2025.

You can adjust the description—"course handout,” “internal case study,” or “unpublished manuscript"—depending on how your instructor labels it. This is one of the most overlooked examples of Turabian style case study citation examples, but it matters when your only source is that in‑class document.

Online Case Study Page without Clear Publication Data

Marketing and business courses increasingly use case studies straight from company websites. These often look more like web pages than formal publications.

Scenario: A corporate sustainability case study page.

Footnote (first reference):

7. Patagonia, “Case Study: Regenerative Organic Cotton in Our Supply Chain,” Patagonia Stories, accessed August 5, 2025, https://www.patagonia.com/stories/regenerative‑organic‑cotton‑case‑study.

Bibliography entry:

Patagonia. “Case Study: Regenerative Organic Cotton in Our Supply Chain.” Patagonia Stories. Accessed August 5, 2025. https://www.patagonia.com/stories/regenerative‑organic‑cotton‑case‑study.

For web‑only case studies, examples include:

• Corporate author as the “author”
• Section or site title (here, Patagonia Stories) in italics
• Access date and URL

This pattern adapts Turabian’s web page format to produce another set of real examples of Turabian style case study citation examples that reflect how case materials are actually assigned now.

Citing a Case Study You Found in a Textbook

Textbooks often embed small case vignettes. If the case has its own title and author, treat it like a chapter in an edited book. If not, you usually just cite the textbook as a whole and clarify the case in your prose.

Scenario A: Named case with its own author.

Footnote:

8. James R. Evans, “Case Study: Lean Implementation at Delta Manufacturing,” in Operations Management Today, 5th ed., ed. Carla Nguyen (Boston: Cengage, 2022), 289–294.

Bibliography:

Evans, James R. “Case Study: Lean Implementation at Delta Manufacturing.” In Operations Management Today. 5th ed. Edited by Carla Nguyen, 289–294. Boston: Cengage, 2022.

Scenario B: Short, untitled case inside a chapter.

Footnote:

9. Carla Nguyen, Operations Management Today, 5th ed. (Boston: Cengage, 2022), 291.

In your text, you might say:

In the textbook’s Delta Manufacturing case (Nguyen 2022, 291), managers discovered that…

Together, these give you two more examples of Turabian style case study citation examples that cover how textbooks actually package case material.

2024–2025 Trends That Affect Case Study Citations

The format rules in Turabian haven’t radically changed, but how case studies are delivered definitely has. A few trends are shaping how you apply the style:

• Open educational resources (OER): More instructors are using open case collections from universities and nonprofits. These often look like online reports or web pages. The examples above for online PDFs and web pages will cover most of them.
• Data‑rich case supplements: Business and policy cases now frequently come with online data sets. When you use those data directly, you may need a separate citation to the data set, following Turabian’s guidelines for data and software.
• Hybrid formats: Some cases are published both as a PDF and as an interactive online module. In Turabian, you typically cite the most stable, citable version—the PDF or print version—unless your instructor specifies otherwise.

If you want to check your interpretation against a style authority, Turabian is built to align with the Chicago Manual of Style. Many university libraries, such as the University of Chicago Library, publish Chicago/Turabian quick guides online: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu.

FAQ: Short Answers and More Examples

How do I know whether to treat a case study as a book, chapter, or article?

Look at how it’s published. If it has its own title page, publisher, and sometimes a case number (like many Harvard cases), the best examples treat it like a book. If it’s clearly one chapter in a larger edited volume, follow the chapter format. If it appears in a peer‑reviewed journal, use the article format.

Can you give another example of a Turabian citation for a medical teaching case?

Sure. Here’s another example of a medical teaching case as a journal article:

Footnote:

10. Amanda L. Brooks et al., “Case Study: Managing Type 2 Diabetes in a Rural Primary Care Clinic,” Family Medicine Case Reports 7, no. 1 (2025): 12–19, https://doi.org/10.5678/fmcr.2025.70102.

Bibliography:

Brooks, Amanda L., Mark T. Riley, Hannah S. Ortiz, and Priya Desai. “Case Study: Managing Type 2 Diabetes in a Rural Primary Care Clinic.” Family Medicine Case Reports 7, no. 1 (2025): 12–19. https://doi.org/10.5678/fmcr.2025.70102.

For background on diabetes treatment that might be discussed in such a case, you can consult Mayo Clinic’s overview: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes.

Do I always need an access date for online case studies?

Turabian recommends access dates for online sources that are likely to change (web pages, some PDFs). For stable items with DOIs, like journal case reports, the DOI alone is usually fine. When in doubt, adding an access date won’t hurt you.

Where can I see more real examples of Turabian style case study citation examples?

Your best bet is to combine the patterns in this guide with institutional style guides. Many writing centers post examples of notes and bibliography entries for reports, web pages, and chapters that you can adapt to case studies. Harvard’s Writing Center, for instance, offers helpful citation guidance at https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu.

What if my professor’s instructions conflict with Turabian’s rules?

Follow your professor. Turabian is a style guide, not a law. If your instructor wants shortened URLs, no access dates, or in‑text author‑date citations instead of notes, you can still use the examples of Turabian style case study citation examples here as a structural model and then tweak the details to match their rules.