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AMA to Turabian converter

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

Paste references written in AMA and get them back in Turabian, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: numbered in-text citations become footnotes, your “References” list becomes “Bibliography” 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 Turabian: 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)

Turabian

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

Footnote: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

Book

AMA

Achebe C. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann; 1958.

In-text: 1(p1290)

Turabian

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

Footnote: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (London: Heinemann, 1958), 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)

Turabian

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

Footnote: World Health Organization, “Malaria,” December 4, 2023, 1290, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria.

Key differences between AMA and Turabian

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleAMATurabian
Reference list headingReferencesBibliography
In-text citationssuperscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first citedsuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography
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 rest in normal order
Many authorsSeven or more authors: first three followed by “et al”List up to ten authors; for more, the first seven followed by “et al.”
DateAfter the journal name: 2016;354(6317):1288-1292Near the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for books
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesPlain text, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
Journal namesAbbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), in italicsFull journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issue
Page rangesFull page range with a hyphen, e.g. 1288-1292Shortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92
DOIs and linksDOI written as “doi:10.1126/…”DOI as a link: https://doi.org/…
Italics(same)Journal and book titlesJournal and book titles

When to use Turabian

Turabian is Chicago adapted for students’ papers, theses and dissertations, and is common in history and theology programmes. It is published by the University of Chicago Press; CiteSwap follows the 9th edition (2018).

AMA is more common in medicine, health sciences, pharmacy, while Turabian is usual in history, theology, the humanities. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

AMA to Turabian: frequently asked questions

How do I convert AMA citations to Turabian?

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 Turabian, 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 Turabian?

AMA uses superscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first cited. Turabian uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes, as in Chicago notes and bibliography. A first footnote for the Suri and Jack article reads: Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (December 2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

What is the reference list called in Turabian?

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

Does the order of my references change in Turabian?

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

Do titles need different capitalisation in Turabian?

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

Is the AMA to Turabian 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.