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Chicago A-D to AMA converter

Paste Chicago A-D references, get AMA. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in Chicago A-D and get them back in AMA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–date in-text citations become numbered citations, titles switch to sentence case and the list is numbered in the order of first citation. 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.

Chicago A-D vs AMA: the same sources side by side

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

Journal article

Chicago A-D

Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. 2016. “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.” Science 354 (6317): 1288–92. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

In-text: (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290)

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)

Book

Chicago A-D

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

In-text: (Achebe 1958, 1290)

AMA

Achebe C. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann; 1958.

In-text: 1(p1290)

Web page

Chicago A-D

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

In-text: (World Health Organization 2023, 1290)

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)

Key differences between Chicago A-D and AMA

10 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleChicago A-DAMA
In-text citationsauthor and year in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290)superscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first cited
List orderAlphabetical by first author’s surnameNumbered in the order of first citation
Author namesFirst author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William JackSurname and initials without full stops or spaces, e.g. Suri T, Jack W
Many authorsList up to six authors; for seven or more, the first three followed by “et al.”Seven or more authors: first three followed by “et al”
DateAfter the authors, followed by a full stop: 2016.After the journal name: 2016;354(6317):1288-1292
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title casePlain text, sentence case
Journal namesFull journal name, volume and issue without labels: 354 (6317)Abbreviated journal name (NLM abbreviations), in italics
Page rangesShortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92Full page range with a hyphen, e.g. 1288-1292
DOIs and linksDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…DOI written as “doi:10.1126/…”
Reference list heading(same)ReferencesReferences
Italics(same)Journal and book titlesJournal and book titles

When to use AMA

AMA is used by medical journals such as JAMA and by many medicine, pharmacy and public-health programmes. It is published by the American Medical Association; CiteSwap follows the 11th edition (2020).

Chicago A-D is more common in the natural sciences, the social sciences, geography, while AMA is usual in medicine, health sciences, pharmacy. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Chicago A-D to AMA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Chicago A-D citations to AMA?

Paste your Chicago A-D reference list into the box above (one reference per line, numbered, or separated by blank lines), check that “From” says Chicago A-D or Auto-detect and “To” says AMA, 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 Chicago A-D to AMA?

Chicago A-D uses author and year in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290). AMA uses superscript numbers, e.g. ¹, in the order sources are first cited. For the same article and page: Chicago A-D gives (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290), AMA gives 1(p1290).

Does the order of my references change in AMA?

Yes. Chicago A-D: alphabetical by first author’s surname. AMA: numbered in the order of first citation. CiteSwap keeps the order you pasted, so paste them in the order you first cite them.

Do titles need different capitalisation in AMA?

Yes. AMA uses sentence case, capitalising only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns. CiteSwap keeps titles as the publisher’s record has them, so check that capitals on ordinary words are lowered, because catalogues often store titles in title case.

How are author names written in AMA?

AMA: Surname and initials without full stops or spaces, e.g. Suri T, Jack W. Chicago A-D: First author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. When a reference is matched in Crossref, CiteSwap uses full first names from the publisher’s record, so it can produce either form.

Is the Chicago A-D to AMA 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.