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Harvard to IEEE converter

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

Paste references written in Harvard and get them back in IEEE, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–date in-text citations become numbered citations, your “Reference list” list becomes “References” 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.

Harvard 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

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)

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

Harvard

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

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

IEEE

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

In-text: [1, p. 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)

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 Harvard and IEEE

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleHarvardIEEE
Reference list headingReference listReferences
In-text citationsauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016)a 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 namesSurname and initials, joined with “and”, e.g. Suri, T. and Jack, W.Initials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. Jack
Many authorsFour or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”Seven or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateStraight after the authors, in parentheses, with no full stop: (2016)Near the end, after the volume, issue and pages, with abbreviated month
Article titlesIn single quotation marks, sentence caseIn quotation marks, sentence case
ItalicsJournal names and book titlesJournal and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name in title caseJournal name (abbreviated in IEEE journals) with vol. and no.
Page rangesFull page range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292Full range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–1292
DOIs and links“Available at:” before the DOI or URL, and “(Accessed: date)” for web pagesDOI written as “doi: 10.1126/…”
Title capitalisation(same)Sentence caseSentence case

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).

Harvard is more common in business, economics, the social sciences, while IEEE is usual in engineering, computer science, electronics. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

Harvard to IEEE: frequently asked questions

How do I convert Harvard citations to IEEE?

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 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 Harvard to IEEE?

Harvard uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri and Jack, 2016). IEEE uses a number in square brackets, e.g. [1], assigned in the order sources are first cited. For the same article and page: Harvard gives (Suri and Jack, 2016, p. 1290), IEEE gives [1, p. 1290].

What is the reference list called in IEEE?

In Harvard the list is headed “Reference list”; 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. Harvard: 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.

How are author names written in IEEE?

IEEE: Initials before the surname, e.g. T. Suri and W. Jack. 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 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.