Citation Style Converter
Paste a reference list written in any citation style and get it back in another — APA to MLA, Vancouver to APA, MLA to Chicago. Each reference is matched to its Crossref record, you confirm the match, and the list is re-formatted from that record with the same formatter the citation generators use. References that cannot be matched are flagged so you can enter them by hand. Free, no sign-up.
Up to 25 references per run. Each is searched on Crossref, one per second, from your browser.
Finding matches sends each reference's text (without list numbers and links) to Crossref, straight from your browser. Converting sends only the DOIs you confirmed to CitationEasy's server, which fetches each record from Crossref and formats it. Your list itself is not stored.
Paste a reference list and press Find matches.
How to Use the Citation Style Converter
- 1. Paste your reference list and pick the target style. The list can be in any style — APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver — with one reference per line or blank lines between references. Up to 25 references per run.
- 2. Press Find matches. Each reference is searched on Crossref in turn, about one a second. A reference that already carries a DOI skips the search and uses that DOI.
- 3. Confirm the matches. Confident matches are ticked for you; possible matches are shown but left unticked. Compare each Crossref record with your reference and untick anything that is not the same work.
- 4. Press Convert. The confirmed records are fetched and formatted in the style you chose. Copy the list or download it as a text file, then deal with any reference flagged for manual entry.
Why a Reference Has to Go Back to Its Record
A formatted reference has already lost things its next style may need. APA keeps initials where MLA and Chicago print given names; APA does not print the month that MLA does; plain text has no italics to say which title is the book or the journal. Rewriting punctuation cannot put that information back, and guessing at it produces references that look right and are wrong.
So the converter works from the source instead. It finds the publisher’s own record for each reference on Crossref, shows you the match so you can check it, and formats the record from scratch. Here is one reference — Hirsch’s 2005 article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — as the tool returns it in four styles:
| Style | Result |
|---|---|
| APA 7 | Hirsch, J. E. (2005). An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(46), 16569–16572. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102 |
| MLA 9 | Hirsch, J. E. “An Index to Quantify an Individual’s Scientific Research Output.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 102, no. 46, Nov. 2005, pp. 16569–72. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102. |
| Chicago 18, author-date | Hirsch, J. E. 2005. “An Index to Quantify an Individual’s Scientific Research Output.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (46): 16569–72. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0507655102. |
| IEEE | [1] J. E. Hirsch, “An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., vol. 102, no. 46, pp. 16569–16572, Nov. 2005, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0507655102. |
Plain text, as the tool copies it: titles that a word processor would italicise are not marked. The month and the IEEE journal abbreviation come from the Crossref record, not from the reference it was matched to.
What Converts and What Does Not
Only references that can be matched to a Crossref record are converted. That covers most journal articles and many book chapters, conference papers, reports and datasets, because Crossref is where those publishers register DOIs. It does not cover:
- Books without a DOI, web pages, newspaper and magazine articles, theses, legal cases and personal communications. They have no Crossref record to match, so they are flagged Needs manual entry with a link to the generator that suits the shape of the reference — for example the Book Citation Generator.
- In-text citations. The tool restyles the reference list, not the “(Smith, 2020)” markers in your paper. A change from author-date to numbered style means rewriting those by hand.
- Footnotes. Choosing Chicago notes and bibliography gives you the bibliography entries, not the footnotes.
- Order. Author-date styles are sorted alphabetically by author unless you untick the option. Numbered styles — IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, Nature — keep the order you pasted and are numbered from 1.
Limits to Know Before You Copy the Result
- The output follows the record, not your original wording. Publishers deposit their own metadata, and it is sometimes wrong: a title in capitals, a missing issue number, a surname spelled differently. Check names, page ranges and capitalisation against the source before you submit.
- A confident match is not a guarantee. It means the title words, first author and year all agree. A reprint, a reply or a translation can share most of them, which is why the Crossref record is shown beside your reference for you to check.
- Harvard has no single manual. The Harvard option uses one common author-date definition; check it against your institution’s guide.
- Privacy. Finding matches sends each reference’s text, without list numbers and links, to Crossref straight from your browser. Converting sends only the DOIs you confirmed to CitationEasy’s server, which fetches each record from Crossref and formats it. Your list itself is not stored.
Which Tool Do You Need?
- A reference list in the wrong style: this page.
- A BibTeX, RIS or other reference-manager file in another file format: the BibTeX to RIS and RIS to BibTeX converters, or the other /convert pairs. This page does not read or write those files.
- The same style, with missing DOIs added: the DOI Finder.
- A list whose style you do not know: the Citation Style Identifier.
- A list that should already be in one style: the APA citation checker and its MLA, Chicago and Harvard relatives.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I convert a reference list from APA to MLA?
- Paste the APA list, choose MLA 9 under Convert to, press Find matches, tick the records that are the same works as your references, and press Convert. Each reference is rebuilt from its Crossref record in MLA form, with given names written out and the volume and issue labelled “vol.” and “no.”, then sorted alphabetically by author.
- Why does the converter need to look up each reference?
- Because a formatted reference no longer holds everything the next style needs. Initials cannot become full names, and the month or issue number a style requires may not be in your original. Fetching the record restores them, so the new reference is built from the data and not from the old punctuation.
- What happens to a reference that cannot be matched?
- It is left out of the converted list and flagged Needs manual entry, with a link to the generator that fits it best — journal article, book, book chapter, website or the general citation generator. The tool does not guess at a reference it cannot find a record for.
- Can I convert my in-text citations as well?
- No. The tool restyles the reference list only. In-text markers such as “(Smith, 2020)” or “[3]” are part of your paper’s text, and switching between author-date and numbered styles means changing them yourself.
- Is it safe to paste my reference list here?
- Finding matches sends each reference’s text, without list numbers and links, to Crossref’s public search from your browser. Converting sends only the DOIs you confirmed to CitationEasy’s server, which fetches each record from Crossref and formats it. The list is not stored or tied to an account.
- Can it convert BibTeX or RIS files between citation styles?
- Not here. This page converts a pasted reference list into another style. To move a .bib or .ris file between those two formats, use the BibTeX to RIS or RIS to BibTeX converter.
- Which citation styles can I convert to?
- APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 in author-date or notes and bibliography form, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, ASA and Nature. For any of the other styles among the 10,834 the site supports, build the reference with the citation generator and choose the style there.