Not all periodical citations are citations to articles written by professors and published in consecutively paginated law journals. 

Here's a cheat sheet for the Bluepages and Whitepages rules for citations to different periodicals:

• Nonconsecutively paginated journals and magazines: B9.1.2, R16.5

• Student-written work: B9.1.3, R16.7.1

• Newspaper articles: B9.1.4, R16.6

Have no fear!

Use T10 (Geographical Terms) and T13 to create a Bluebook abbreviation.

For example, the fictional "Philadelphia Journal of Law and Order" would be abbreviated:

Philadelphia → Phila. (T10.1 U.S. states, cities and territories)

Journal → J.

of → (omitted, see explanation at beginning of T13 on p. 510)

Law → L.

and → &

Order → Ord.

(Spacing follows R6.1. No space between L. and J.)

Giving you...

Phila. J.L. & Ord.

The periodical citation rules, the rules for journals, magazines, and newspaper articles, are in R16 starting on page 159 of your Bluebook. 

The first thing to watch out for is typeface.  Periodical citations include no fewer than three typefaces in a single citation.  The two quirky ones are article title (italics) and journal title (small caps ).  It may help to think of them in alphabetical order: Article title comes before Journal title, Italics comes before Small caps . 

First, let's assume that you are citing a law journal article.  Most law journals are what the Bluebook calls "consecutively paginated journals."  Hence, you will follow R16.4 to create a full citation to an article in such a journal.

Example: Nuno Garoupa & Chris William Sanchirico, Decoupling as Transactions Tax, 39 J. Legal Stud. 469, 470 (2010).

created from this:

39 JLEGST 469 

Journal of Legal Studies
June, 2010
 DECOUPLING AS TRANSACTIONS TAX
Nuno Garoupa, Chris William Sanchirico

A full citation to a consecutively paginated journal has seven elements:

1. author(s) - R16.2
   
   1. Bluebook rule tells you to follow R15.1 (rule for books and other non-periodic materials), but use ordinary type instead of the small caps used in book citation
      
   2. List authors' names in the order in which they appear, separated by an ampersand ("&")
      
2. title of work - R16.3
   
   1. cite the full title as it appears on the title page
   2. capitalize according to R8: generally, capitalize all words except articles, conjunctions, or prepositions when they are four or fewer letters
   3. italicize
      
3. volume number
4. abbreviated periodical name 
   
   1. See T13 for abbreviations of most publications
   2. Can create an abbreviation using T13 and T10, see sidebar on this page
   3. use small caps
      
5. first page of article
6. pincite
7. year of publication

When can you use a short form?  Once you've given a full citation to a work from a periodical, you can use a short form in subsequent citations.

Two basic short forms for periodicals:

1. Id. : used to refer to periodical material already cited in the same footnote or as the only authority cited in the immediately preceding footnote
2. Supra. : see R16.2(b)
   1. used as a short form when Id. is not appropriate
   2. contains:
      1. author's last name or a hereinafter form already established
      2. "Supra"
      3. the number of the footnote in which the full citation appears (unless you are citing something already contained in your current footnote)
      4. a new pincite, if necessary
   3. ex. Garoupa & Sanchirico, supra note 1, at 470.

Supra usually works nicely, but there are times when it would make for a really clunky or confusing short form.  Considering that the whole point of a short form is to make things easier for the author and reader, "hereinafter" saves the day by letting you create your own short form. 

After the first full citation to the authority, place the word "hereinafter" and your chosen short form in brackets.  Keep the same typeface for your hereinafter form as you would for the full citation form (italics for article titles, small caps for book titles, etc.).

One common situation is where your piece cites two works by the same author.  Your full citation form would be:

²Larry E. Ribstein, The Death of Big Law, 2010 Wis. L. Rev. 749, 760 (2010) [hereinafter Ribstein, Big Law]; Larry Ribstein, An Analysis of the Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, 3 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 35, 51 (2008) [hereinafter Ribstein, Analysis of RULLCA].

Later, your short form would read:

See Ribstein, Big Law, supra note 2, at 761.