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Harvard to APSA converter

Paste Harvard references, get APSA. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in Harvard and get them back in APSA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: your “Reference list” list becomes “References”, titles switch to title case and author names are written as in APSA (first author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order). 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.

Harvard vs APSA: the same sources side by side

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

Journal article

Harvard

Suri, T. and Jack, W. (2016) ‘The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money’, Science, 354(6317), pp. 1288–1292. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

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

APSA

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

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

Book

Harvard

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

In-text: (Achebe, 1958, p. 1290)

APSA

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

In-text: (Achebe 1958, 1290)

Web page

Harvard

World Health Organization (2023) Malaria. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria (Accessed: 1 October 2026).

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

APSA

World Health Organization. 2023. “Malaria.” https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria (October 1, 2026).

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

Key differences between Harvard and APSA

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleHarvardAPSA
Reference list headingReference listReferences
In-text citationsauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016)author and year, with a page number after a comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290)
Author namesSurname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W.First author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order
Many authorsFour or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”Long author lists are shortened following Chicago’s rules
DateStraight after the authors, in parentheses, with no full stop: (2016)After the authors, followed by a full stop: 2016.
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesIn single quotation marks, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
ItalicsJournal names and book titlesJournal and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name in title caseFull journal name, volume and issue: 354(6317)
Page rangesFull page range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292Shortened range after a colon and space, e.g. 354(6317): 1288–92
DOIs and links“Available at:” before the DOI or URL, and “(Accessed: date)” for web pagesDOI written as “doi:10.1126/…”
List order(same)Alphabetical by first author’s surnameAlphabetical by first author’s surname

When to use APSA

APSA is used in political science and international relations, closely following Chicago author-date. It is published by the American Political Science Association; CiteSwap follows the APSA Style Manual (2018).

Harvard is more common in business, economics, the social sciences, while APSA is usual in political science, international relations, public policy. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Harvard to APSA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Harvard citations to APSA?

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

Harvard uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016). APSA uses author and year, with a page number after a comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290). For the same article and page: Harvard gives (Suri and Jack, 2016, p. 1290), APSA gives (Suri and Jack 2016, 1290).

What is the reference list called in APSA?

In Harvard the list is headed “Reference list”; in APSA it is “References”. Change the heading when you paste the converted list into your document.

Do titles need different capitalisation in APSA?

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

How are author names written in APSA?

APSA: First author inverted with full names, the rest in normal order. Harvard: Surname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W. 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 Harvard to APSA 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.