To convert between citation styles, you keep the same source details and change how they are ordered, punctuated and displayed. The facts about each source stay the same; only the format changes.
This guide shows exactly what shifts between the major styles, gives one source in five formats, and sets out a method for converting a full paper, including in-text citations, which are the part most people forget.
What Changes When You Convert a Citation
Converting changes five things: the in-text system (author-date, author-page, notes or numbers), the order of elements in the reference entry, author name format, title capitalization and punctuation, and the order of the reference list itself.
Convert the reference list and every in-text citation together. A paper with a new reference list but old in-text citations still reads as wrong.
Why You Might Need to Convert
- You are reusing material from an earlier course that used a different style.
- A journal you are submitting to uses a different style from your thesis.
- Your instructor changed the requirement after you started writing.
- You are on a joint degree, with modules that require different styles.
- A source list from a database export arrived in the wrong format.
In each case, the source details you collected are still valid. You are reformatting, not starting again.
What Actually Changes Between Styles
| Element | APA 7 | MLA 9 | Chicago (notes) | IEEE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-text | (Kariuki & Osei, 2021) | (Kariuki and Osei 214) | Footnote number | [1] |
| Author names in list | Kariuki, N. | Kariuki, Njeri | Kariuki, Njeri | N. Kariuki |
| Article title | Sentence case, plain | Title case, in quotation marks | Title case, in quotation marks | Sentence case, in quotation marks |
| Date position | After author | Near end | After issue number | Near end |
| List order | Alphabetical | Alphabetical | Alphabetical | Numbered by first citation |
| List title | References | Works Cited | Bibliography | References |
One Source in Five Styles
Here is the same journal article converted across five styles. Compare the order of elements and the punctuation, not just the words.
APA 7: Kariuki, N., & Osei, D. (2021). Urban heat and public health. Environmental Research, 195(4), 210–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.110841
MLA 9: Kariuki, Njeri, and Daniel Osei. "Urban Heat and Public Health." Environmental Research, vol. 195, no. 4, 2021, pp. 210–25, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.110841.
Chicago bibliography: Kariuki, Njeri, and Daniel Osei. "Urban Heat and Public Health." Environmental Research 195, no. 4 (2021): 210–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.110841.
Harvard (a common university version): Kariuki, N. and Osei, D. (2021) 'Urban heat and public health', Environmental Research, 195(4), pp. 210–225. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.110841.
IEEE: [1] N. Kariuki and D. Osei, "Urban heat and public health," Environmental Research, vol. 195, no. 4, pp. 210–225, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.110841.
Harvard varies between universities, so check your own institution's guide for its punctuation. IEEE normally abbreviates journal names using standard abbreviations; use the abbreviation your department expects.
Converting in-Text Citations
In-text citations change more than reference entries, because the whole system can switch. Plan for these common conversions.
| From | To | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| APA (Lee, 2020, p. 5) | MLA | Remove the year and the "p.": (Lee 5) |
| MLA (Lee 5) | APA | Add the year; keep the page only for quotations: (Lee, 2020, p. 5) |
| APA or MLA | Chicago notes | Replace each bracketed citation with a footnote number and write a full note, then short notes for repeats |
| Any author-date style | IEEE | Number sources in order of first appearance; reuse the same number each time a source is cited again |
| IEEE | APA | Replace numbers with author and year; reorder the list alphabetically |
Narrative Citations
Sentences that name the author need care. "Lee (2020) found..." works in APA. In MLA it becomes "Lee found..." with the page at the end if you quote. In IEEE, you can keep the name but must add the number: "Lee [3] found...".
A Paragraph Converted from APA to Chicago
Seeing a whole paragraph change makes the process clearer. Here a short passage moves from APA author-date to Chicago notes-bibliography.
APA 7: Urban heat increases emergency admissions among older adults (Kariuki & Osei, 2021). Kariuki and Osei (2021) argued that "tree cover is a public health measure" (p. 214), a view echoed in later policy work (Hassan, 2019).
Chicago notes: Urban heat increases emergency admissions among older adults.1 Kariuki and Osei argued that "tree cover is a public health measure,"2 a view echoed in later policy work.3
1. Njeri Kariuki and Daniel Osei, "Urban Heat and Public Health," Environmental Research 195, no. 4 (2021): 210–25.
2. Kariuki and Osei, "Urban Heat," 214.
3. Amira Hassan, Cities of Water (London: Verso, 2019).
Three changes do most of the work. Brackets disappear from the sentences, the year leaves the narrative citation, and the second reference to the same article becomes a short note with a specific page. The comma moves inside the closing quotation mark, as Chicago's American punctuation requires.
A Method for Converting a Whole Paper
- Save a copy. Keep the original version so you can check details later.
- Check each source's details. Make sure you have every element the new style needs. MLA needs full first names; APA needs only initials. Moving from APA to MLA means looking up first names.
- Convert the reference list. Reformat each entry, then reorder the list if the new style requires it.
- Convert in-text citations. Work from the start of the paper to the end, so numbering in IEEE or footnotes in Chicago stay in order.
- Cross-check. Every citation must match an entry, and every entry must be cited.
- Update the layout. Title page, headers and list title often change with the style too.
Details That Are Easy to Miss
- Missing information: MLA and Chicago want full first names, and Chicago notes want specific pages. Find these before you convert.
- Et al. rules: APA uses et al. for three or more authors from the first citation; MLA uses it for three or more authors; IEEE lists up to six authors in the reference and uses et al. after the first author for seven or more.
- Capitalization: converting from APA to MLA or Chicago means recapitalising every title in title case, and the reverse means changing to sentence case.
- Quotation marks and italics: APA puts article titles in plain text; MLA, Chicago and IEEE use quotation marks.
- URLs: MLA allows you to drop "https://"; APA, Chicago and IEEE keep it.
Using Tools to Convert
Reference managers and the free Bibloq citation generator can output the same source in several styles, which saves retyping. Tools work from the data you give them, so check names, capitalization and missing elements after conversion.
Tools also do not convert the in-text citations already written in your paper. That step needs a careful manual pass or a citation specialist.
Common Conversion Mistakes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Converting only the reference list | Convert every in-text citation too |
| Leaving the list alphabetical in IEEE | Renumber in order of first citation |
| Initials left in MLA entries | Look up and add full first names |
| Old capitalization kept | Recapitalise all titles for the new style |
| Mixing two styles after a partial conversion | Finish the conversion and run a full cross-check |
How Bibloq Helps with Converting Citation Styles
Send your paper, the style it is in now and the style you need, plus access to your sources if any details are missing. A citation specialist converts every in-text citation, note or number and rebuilds the reference list in the new style.
You get a tracked-changes file and a list of any entries that needed details only you can confirm. Free revisions within the scope of your original request are included.
Want Your Whole Paper Converted to a New Style?
Send the paper, the current style and the target style. You get every in-text citation and reference converted and checked.
Order Citation ConversionFree revisions · Full refund if late · Written from scratch for your order
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The author, title, date and publication details stay the same. Only their order, punctuation and formatting change. Some styles need extra details, such as full first names in MLA.
Moving into or out of a notes or numeric system, such as APA to Chicago footnotes or APA to IEEE, because every in-text citation changes form and order.
Reference managers and citation generators can reformat reference entries. You still need to convert the in-text citations in your paper and check the results.
Change in-text citations to author and page without the year, look up full first names, recapitalise titles in title case, put article titles in quotation marks and retitle the list Works Cited.
Number sources in the order they are first cited, replace author-date citations with bracketed numbers and reorder the reference list numerically.
Often, yes. APA uses a separate title page, MLA uses a heading on the first page, and Chicago student papers usually have a title page.
It depends on the number of sources and how different the styles are. A short list in a similar style is quick; a long list moving to footnotes or numbers takes much longer.
After the content is final, so you do not convert citations that you later cut. Then proofread the citations as a last step.