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Chicago N-B to IEEE converter

Paste Chicago N-B references, get IEEE. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in Chicago N-B and get them back in IEEE, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: footnotes in-text citations become numbered citations, your “Bibliography” list becomes “References” and titles switch to sentence 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.

Chicago N-B vs IEEE: the same sources side by side

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

Journal article

Chicago N-B

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

IEEE

T. Suri and W. Jack, “The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money,” Science, vol. 354, no. 6317, pp. 1288–1292, Dec. 2016, doi: 10.1126/science.aah5309.

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

Book

Chicago N-B

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

Footnote: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Heinemann, 1958), 1290.

IEEE

C. Achebe, Things fall apart. London: Heinemann, 1958.

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

Web page

Chicago N-B

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.

IEEE

World Health Organization, “Malaria.” Accessed: Oct. 01, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: [1, p. 1290]

Key differences between Chicago N-B and IEEE

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleChicago N-BIEEE
Reference list headingBibliographyReferences
In-text citationssuperscript note numbers linked to footnotes or endnotes that give the sourcea number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned 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 JackInitials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. Jack
Many authorsList up to six authors; for seven or more, the first three followed by “et al.”Seven or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateNear the end: in parentheses after the issue for journals, after the publisher for booksNear the end, after the volume, issue and pages, with abbreviated month
Title capitalisationTitle caseSentence case
Article titlesIn quotation marks, title caseIn quotation marks, sentence case
Journal namesFull journal name, volume, then “no.” for the issueJournal name (abbreviated in IEEE journals) with vol. and no.
Page rangesShortened range after a colon, e.g. 1288–92Full range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292
DOIs and linksDOI as a link: https://doi.org/…DOI written as “doi: 10.1126/…”
Italics(same)Journal and book titlesJournal and book titles

When to use IEEE

IEEE is standard in electrical and electronic engineering, computer science and IT, including most engineering final-year projects and conference papers. It is published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; CiteSwap follows the IEEE Reference Guide (2023).

Chicago N-B is more common in history, the arts, philosophy, while IEEE is usual in engineering, computer science, electronics. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Chicago N-B to IEEE: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Chicago N-B citations to IEEE?

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

Chicago N-B uses superscript note numbers linked to footnotes or endnotes that give the source. IEEE uses a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited. For the same article and page: Chicago N-B gives Tavneet Suri and William Jack, “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money,” Science 354, no. 6317 (2016): 1290, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309., IEEE gives [1, p. 1290].

What is the reference list called in IEEE?

In Chicago N-B the list is headed “Bibliography”; in IEEE it is “References”. Change the heading when you paste the converted list into your document.

Does the order of my references change in IEEE?

Yes. Chicago N-B: alphabetical by first author’s surname. IEEE: 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 IEEE?

Yes. IEEE 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.

Is the Chicago N-B to IEEE 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.