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AMA to MLA converter

Paste AMA references, get MLA. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in AMA and get them back in MLA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: numbered in-text citations become author–page citations, your “References” list becomes “Works Cited” and titles switch to title case. CiteSwap looks each reference up in the open Crossref catalogue, so authors, years and page numbers come from the publisher’s record rather than being rewritten by hand.

AMA vs MLA: the same sources side by side

Each example below was formatted by CiteSwap’s engine, exactly as the converter outputs it.

Journal article

AMA

Suri T, Jack W. The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science. 2016;354(6317):1288-1292. doi:10.1126/science.aah5309

In-text: 1(p1290)

MLA

Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.” Science, vol. 354, no. 6317, Dec. 2016, pp. 1288–92, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

In-text: (Suri and Jack 1290)

Book

AMA

Achebe C. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann; 1958.

In-text: 1(p1290)

MLA

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann, 1958.

In-text: (Achebe 1290)

Web page

AMA

World Health Organization. Malaria. December 4, 2023. Accessed October 1, 2026. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: 1(p1290)

MLA

World Health Organization. Malaria. 4 Dec. 2023, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria.

In-text: (World Health Organization 1290)

Key differences between AMA and MLA

12 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleAMAMLA
Reference list headingReferencesWorks Cited
In-text citationssuperscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first citedauthor and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290)
List orderNumbered in the order of first citationAlphabetical by first author’s surname
Author namesSurname and initials without full stops or spaces, e.g. Suri T, Jack WFirst author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack
Many authorsSeven or more authors: first three followed by “et al”Three or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateAfter the journal name: 2016;354(6317):1288-1292Near the end, after the journal or publisher details
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesPlain text, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
ItalicsJournal and book titlesContainers: journal, website and book titles
Journal namesAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), in italicsFull journal name in title case, followed by vol. and no.
Page rangesFull page range with a hyphen, e.g. 1288-1292Shortened range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–92
DOIs and linksDOI written as “doi:10.1126/…”DOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also accepted

When to use MLA

MLA is the usual choice for English literature, modern languages and other humanities subjects, where quoting and pinpointing pages matters more than dates. It is published by the Modern Language Association; CiteSwap follows the 9th edition (2021).

AMA is more common in medicine, health sciences, pharmacy, while MLA is usual in literature, languages, cultural studies. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

AMA to MLA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert AMA citations to MLA?

Paste your AMA reference list into the box above (one reference per line, numbered, or separated by blank lines), check that “From” says AMA or Auto-detect and “To” says MLA, then press Convert. You can also paste DOIs, BibTeX or RIS. Copy the result or download it for Word.

How do in-text citations change from AMA to MLA?

AMA uses superscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first cited. MLA uses author and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290). For the same article and page: AMA gives 1(p1290), MLA gives (Suri and Jack 1290).

What is the reference list called in MLA?

In AMA the list is headed “References”; in MLA it is “Works Cited”. Change the heading when you paste the converted list into your document.

Does the order of my references change in MLA?

Yes. AMA: numbered in the order of first citation. MLA: alphabetical by first author’s surname. CiteSwap sorts the converted list for you.

Do titles need different capitalisation in MLA?

Yes. MLA uses title case for article and book titles, so words like “Poverty” and “Gender” are capitalised. CiteSwap applies this automatically.

Is the AMA to MLA converter accurate?

Each reference is matched against the Crossref catalogue (over 150 million records) and only accepted automatically when the title, year and first author agree. Anything uncertain is marked “Needs review” so you can pick the right match, and references that aren’t in the catalogue, like websites or local journals, are parsed from your text and marked so you can check them.